Need special hex key for road levers.

[aBicycle]

This road lever things are a PITA. For some reason they decided to put the clamp nut inside the lever where you have to reach it with a long hex wrench and apparently a bent one when there is tape on the bar. Why couldn't they just make the levers detachable from the body? (these are tektro rl520, not shifty levers)

That would have made things so much easier.

[wschruba]

No [road type] lever is meant to be adjusted with cables attached and taped in to the bar. Just hows they is.

You can try a ball-end hex wrench, but I can't promise it will work.

[Slash5]

Never really found it a problem. And not sure why taped would make a difference. If you remove the wheel (or maybe just open the caliper release) it will give you lots of slack in the cable so you can bend it out of the way,

[aBicycle]

The tape thickens the bar. The lever cannot be squeezed any further due to the bar getting in the way of the lever. That would be why.

The cable has nothing to do with it.

[Ranger Radon]

The tape thickens the bar. The lever cannot be squeezed any further due to the bar getting in the way of the lever. That would be why.

The cable has nothing to do with it.

those fex mm of tape should not mean anything.. the tolerances arent likely to be that small...

Anyhow I dont understand how you'll move the lever without removing the tape..

[wschruba]

Minor adjustments can be made without removing the tape (like, rotational adjustments) but generally, you're right. The bars need to be unwrapped to move the levers.

For what it's worth, if I'm not used to a bike, I unwrap the bars and ride without tape for a week or so, so I can adjust the levers, then re-wrap when I find my position.