measuring brifter location

[Climb01742]

there is one particular bike of mine that has the brifters in EXACTLY the right, sweet spot. what's the best, most accurate way to measure their location so i can replicate it other bikes? many thanks in advance. enjoy your weekend rides. i just snuck in a 90 minute one this afternoon. playing hookie rocks. :p

[Jäger]

there is one particular bike of mine that has the brifters in EXACTLY the right, sweet spot. what's the best, most accurate way to measure their location so i can replicate it other bikes? many thanks in advance. enjoy your weekend rides.

I take a long flat pedal wrench and hold it to the bottom flat edge portion of the bar, and move the brifter to the point were the bottom of the break lever touches the wrench as it is located on the bar. (Repeat this on the other side, and you will have duplicated the position for each). Very repeatable.

i just snuck in a 90 minute one this afternoon. playing hookie rocks. :p I did the same thing myself. :D

[Keith A]

I do something similar to what Jäger suggested, but use a level instead since it has a nice flat wide surface to work with. If your brifters are rotated up such that they don't touch the level, then you will need to place something between the top of the level and the bottom part of your levers. If there isn't too much gap, just use your finger to slide in between, as this will give you an exact feel for the amount of space between the level and the levers.

Once you have them where you think they should be, have someone hold one bike upright and put the other bike beside it so that the levers right next to each other. The handlebars on your bikes should be roughly the same height from the ground and you can eyeball it and see how close the levers are when they are placed next to each other.

Make sure you also look at how much the handlebars are rotated, as this will make the levers feel different if the amount that the bars are rotated is not the same.

[OldDog]

I would add that to get the EXACT same sweet spot on all bikes, handlebars need to be the same design. Different bars = different curvatures and reach.

[dgauthier]

Also, I would add that there's nothing wrong with taking the bike you're adjusting for a little spin around the block without bar tape to confirm correct location. You can tweak the brifters based on feel, and only tape the bars once you've nailed it.

[Keith A]

Two good points that I left out and I agree completely. Having the same bars is important for the exact feel and taking a test drive BEFORE taping will help you know if you got it right.