[Closed] Do your brake levers hit your top tube....??

Would be more concerned about a tube denting

Bad for carbon frames, bad in crashes, generally not a good thing

Levers don't, but I did somehow manage to spin the bar and get the gear shifter stuck on the wrong side of the top tube.
Much to the hilarity of all involved, had to take shifter off to spin bars back around 😳

jamesgarbett - Member

Would be more concerned about a tube denting

This, not pretty

As well as the potential for damage, it makes x-ups difficult. Its an annoying situation.

I always leave the brake and gear levers slightly under-torqued so they will move instead of snapping.

yup, on my 1998 GT alu frame they do. It's annoying because it's scratched the paint!

Yes. Well if not the brakes, then the gear shifter does.

Anyway, angle the levers up a bit and/or clamp them so they spin if they hit the top tube. Also add a bit of helitape to the top-tube.

On my singlespeed they do, but I set the hardtail and trail bike so they don't - which means bars a little higher than I might ideally want. The interference would only be a bit, so like @fifeandy they can get over it and then be difficult to get back. I guess one advantage of the modern trend for longer bikes is that it also means (if you are not a big "longer is better" fan) shorter seat tubes, so less of a problem.

Yes, and two dents in the TT to show for it.

Doesn't bother me, I'd rather the bike fit properly for the 99.99% of the time not spent crashing.

My shifters hit the top tube first. It doesn't bother me at all.

I demo'd a mondraker and couldn't get the leavers at an angle I wanted as they'd hit the TT. Apparently this is fine because were all have them at too much of an angle, which I understand but there was virtually no angle adjustment/option at all!

I'd worry about ergonomics first ....
If you don't over torque they should move on the bar in a crash anyway...

Yes, it did bother me.
And because of it I changed my brakes.

With ally bars I'd just run them loose, but I have carbon bars and am not keen on the stress risers caused by scores.
I, like most people, run the brake levers at too much of an angle (according to The Internet) - so I ran them more level to stop them hitting the TT. But this gave me horrible pains in my hands. Although obviously, it's still the right way to do it, so I must have just been doing it wrong (like how I ride with the balls of my feet on flat pedals).

If it were an XC/bimbling bike I'd probably be OK with it, but on a DH/enduro/trail bike when I quite regularly eject or dump the bike, no way.

I did. Now I don't.

I had the levers loose-ish and easily spun, but you're still scratching the paint (or ti? - is this the Travers?). So I angled the levers up a bit, which solved the problem and, as per z1ppy, is apparently is a good thing to do for Ulltimate Control on the Steepz.

Then moved the bars higher anyway for superior Uphill Thrutching Ergonomics (SS) and the problemette became a complete non-problem.

Brake levers, no. Bottom of shifter, yes but only on 1 side (on the bike with 2x10). As I found out when I scratched the lacquer on my top tube by 'seeing if it cleared' with a bit too much enthusiasm 🙄

I dented a top tube on a bike second outing. Fairly gutted at the time.

I try to run them clear now.

is the frame carbon? i'd be very worried about it hitting the frame. even a light ally frame is going to be thin walled in the middle of a tube, right where the levers would hit.. i've seen carbon road bikes written off just for falling over and the bars smashing the top tube..

It's the travers, yes... I'm sure its because the HA is 1-2deg slacker, so when the bar is turned 180 then it sits lower.

However..now i can't remember if the brakes hit on the scandal either!!!

DrP

In my BMX days, the advice was always "the only thing that should move when hit is your brake lever"

I carried that over to MTB subconsciously. If you only do it up so much it'll stay put perfectly fine but if/when you come off it'll rotate instead of puncturing your stomach (or denting your TT)

However..now i can't remember if the brakes hit on the scandal either!!!

They probably didn't, then!

no
because ive been jedi'ed 😉

I adjust mine so they just clear the top tube, but run them loose enough that they'd spin in a crash anyway. its worth noting that the end of a wide set of bars can flex up and down by a considerable amount (push down on it when its aligned with your toptube to see - I can move mine down 5mm just by leaning on it), so I reckon the bar would flex out the way a little before the levers bent/broke

Is it canyon that has something on the steerer and top tube that stops it going too far round?

Could you mod something to stop it going too far round?

End of my grip does. I've wrapped a loop of self amalgamating tape around the top tube and finished it off with electrical tape. I'd under-torque the levers so they move if they impacted.

Trek have a headset that has an inbuilt physical stop, it's a real pain when trying to package bikes up though....

I have in the past, leave the levers loose enough on the bars that they'll spin.

I've had dents in top tubes too (from the bars themselves) but at least you're in with a chance that way.

Surely it can't be that much of an issue because any bike set up with zero spacers will have something hitting the top tube when bars are at 90deg?

Has happened on all my bikes for years. Lightly torque the brakes and shifter, you'll b fine.

Surely it can't be that much of an issue because any bike set up with zero spacers will have something hitting the top tube when bars are at 90deg?

loads of swoopy or dropped top-tubed MTBs don't have this issue even with zero spacers, last time I had a bike that did this was a mid '90s hardtail (I started riding exclusively FS a long time ago due to a back problem, back when they were mostly still sh1t 😉

More of an issue with drop-barred bikes but luckily the only road frame I've trashed like this was 25 years old so I'd had my money's worth from it (especially when Evans gave me 250 quid as a trade in!)

I was thinking about starting the very same thread. My brakes would have to be horizontal to clear the TT and there's 10mm of spacers under the stem.

My XL P7 suffers from this.
>20 mm of spacers and a 20mm rise bar but the XT shifter still clobbers the top tube. Brake levers aren't a problem as they're more forward facing, just the bloomin' shifter. 😕

My only concern is in a crash leading to a bar spin

Don't do that laddio, we'd just point and laugh a bit until we saw you breath again, then we'd just laugh a bit louder like.

Stay safe, slacken off the shifter/levers 1/4 of a turn so they spin around the bars a bit.

Mine used to on my Banshee. I had to put a spacer in and get used to having my brakes pretty flat. Not ideal, but got used to it