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I have a bike with an old set of second hand drop-bars, that have rear/upper bar brake levers, like this:

drop-bard brake levers with upper bar levers

I've been looking around at modern drop-bar brake levers, and it seems like no-one manufactures levers like this any more. Why is that? It seems odd, since they give you two extra bar position with brakes in reach (on the flat, and high on the curve, which is really comfortable).

naught101
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  • Because maybe they're ugly and the additional levers are hard to build in on brifters. – arne Sep 03 '13 at 07:42
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    I heard them called suicide breaks because they way they worked meant you pulled on them and they did nothing nothing nothing then try to bring the bike to a dead stop. This may have been anecdotal. – robthewolf Sep 03 '13 at 09:07
  • Heh, robthewolf that's certainly not the case with mine, they're quite smooth and very controllable. @Arne, sure, but there are still tonnes of plain brakes available without built-in shifters. – naught101 Sep 03 '13 at 10:08
  • Yeah, duplicate. Net-net is that they are sometimes nice, but are unreliable, take away from overall cable pull, put the hands positioned too high when panic braking, and they're ugly. And no "self-respecting" cyclist would have them because they're a sign of a cheap bike. And they cause warts (or so I'm told). – Daniel R Hicks Sep 03 '13 at 11:11
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    If you're interested in the modern equivalent, check out "crosstops" or "interrupter" levers. – John Doucette Sep 03 '13 at 14:52

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