After a short waiting here we are with the prototype, beautiful and functional as always! 🙂
Assembled right away and checked that all the functionalities work as planned, we are happy to announce that soon these beautiful, light and innovative lever will be available for everybody!
And so, also the Brake Lever gets the V2 declination… As for the Shifter lever, also the brake lever was (is) working well (still on my bike) but for the same reasons (see the post about the Shifter lever) we went for CNC…
Prototype purchased, aluminium 6061, black glossy anodized, can’t wait to see how it will be!
As usual these are something completely new and unseen:
All parts are CNC machined;
No welding: all the parts can be replaced singularly;
The brake lever can be adjusted in height (about ±15mm), something that cannot be done with the OEM lever; and can also be adjusted in length (about ±10mm); our unique and unseen (if you see others with the same system you can be sure it is a copy …) allows a quick adjustment to make it suite your needs.
For time being enjoy the CAD, soon we will show you the real one!
The levers have been used now for more or less 1500 km, mostly on the road, but have seen also some (light) off and they work well also when standing.
The shifter lever has an adjustable (and of course foldable) tip, it can be moved ±10mm back and forward.
The brake lever has an adjustable part, the one where the tip (OEM or another compatible) is attached to, that can be moved ±10mm back and forward as well. And the whole lever can be adjusted in height (at the tip) of about ±15mm.
The grey parts in the pictures are in stainless steel, 3D printed, it looks like they don’t rust, so no need to paint them (they have also seen some salty water).
The levers (in black) are in carbon steel, they have been painted (powder coated) but we have a spare one, and does not show rust, even if it has been over two months in my (not isolated) garage, subject to humidity. Anyway we think it is a good idea to paint it.
We have received some requests for different colors, but we can only paint in black, for a simple reason: it is the only color I have/use with my hobby powder coating equipment. By the way, the quality of the paint is good, but do not expect professional paint quality. If you want to paint them in another color you will have to do that yourself.
No welding: all the parts can be replaced singularly.
The lever tips are adjustable, about ±10mm back and forward, from a position “more or less” equal to the OEM one; the shifter lever tip is also angled few degrees, so that it should “close” more easily in a drop; the brake lever can be adjusted also in height, about ±15mm, again from a position “more or less” equal to the OEM one.
There is a last ting to mention. The levers use a bushing different from the one in the OEM levers, same ID and length, but different OD. So we needed new O-rings. When we got them we noticed that, together with the tolerances we get on the parts, they play a huge role in the play the levers got on the pivot bolt and the friction when the levers are moving. They can actually, if too big, lock the lever, or make it hard to move. So we played a bit with o-ring dimensions, and we came to the conclusions that you can actually play with the o-rings and get the best combo play/friction according to your taste.
We used two thinner o-rings (which will be part of the kit), which made the levers very light to move but gave more play (movement) around the pivot bolt, and we have also used a thinner o-ring, at the interface with the washer, and a OEM one at the interface with the head of the pivot bolt, this giving less play but more friction.
In both cases the levers work totally fine.
See the two videos we posted on youtube, showing the play in these to cases (for the shifter lever, same happens on the brake lever):
