You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
A female friend of mine is struggling to stop the secondhand road bike she's just bought. The bike is fitted with a Shimano Sora groupset.
With her thumbs hooked over the Hoods and fingers extended onto the brake levers she can't pull the levers hard enough to do a panic/fast stop. Basically her hands are too small to reach down the brake lever far enough to get good leverage.
This is spoiling her enjoyment and undermining her confidence when riding the bike.
Does anyone know if she can get a small/childs size set of Brifters/STi units to better suit her small hands?
Anyone else had this issue? How did you fix it?
I think I’ve got some spacers for Sora levers that are supposed to bring the levers back a bit to help those with smaller hands (if you’re interested I’ll have a quick rummage). Having said that, I don’t have massive man hands, and didn’t find the spacers helped that much, as the bite point was still way back in the lever travel. The best compromise I found was moving to SRAM Apex hydraulic brakes and levers, as the brakes start biting much earlier in the levers travel and it’s much easier to get some decent brake force whilst on the hoods. Unfortunately and obvs., this is a bit of costly fix. I wonder if it’d be worth her going into a larger bike shop where she could try bikes with Shimano and SRAM hydraulic levers to see if they’re any good.
I always fit cx chicken leg cross top brakes to my drop bar bikes.
Makes life alot easier especially in urban settings and not that hard to do.
Just means having to redo the bar tape, would recommend buying a fresh tape.
My Sunday bike is hydrolic so can't and I really miss them on that.
Does anyone know if she can get a small/childs size set of Brifters/STi units to better suit her small hands?
Current Sora (r3000) has built is reach adjust (as have all current Shimano road groupsets). You could get lever shims for older ones.
My Sunday bike is hydrolic so can’t and I really miss them on that.
You can if they're Shimano brakes
My wife has the same issue on her bike - definitely fit cross top levers as that made the biggest difference. Also swapped to sram as bowglie alludes to above - the pivot is different and apparently better suited to smaller hands (a lot of second hand sti levers available). The old spacers that used to modify reach were pretty rubbish on shimano brakes IME, don't know what the newer adjustments are like.
Given she never uses the drops I've suggested just fitting a flat bar with some decent hydraulic MTB brakes - she really likes the fit of the bike when riding with hands on the hoods, though, so doesn't want to change it.
Do her Sora shifters have the gear cables coming out the side (old style) or hidden under the bar tape (new style)? If it's the newer ones, pull back the rubber on the hoods and there will be a small allen bolt (2 or 3mm I think). Wind it in a bunch of times and you should see the levers move back toward the bar. If it's the old ones, then the shims are the way to go.
Just moving the levers closer to the bar using the adjusters or shims will only help if you are braking from the drops. If you only brake from the hoods having small hands means you can't reach down the levers far enough to get decent leverage, adjusting them closer to the bar may actually make the problem worse because the levers are now further behind the wrist.
Learning to brake from the drops when needed would be the simplest option, you get much more control in the drops too when speed starts to increase. Otherwise you're in flat bar, cross top lever or other more complicated modifications.
unless she's opposed to the aesthetics then a flared gravel-type bar would allow her to use the drops, such as they are (flares?) as the default position and have better position to pull the levers.
I thought this thread was about Trump. I am disappointed.
I run newer sora 9 speed(r3000 if I understand correctly and find I can shuffle my hand 1-2mm over(doesnt affect shifting) but gives better leverage on brakes and I believe the Sti shifters are made for smaller hands...