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Vintage Look brake levers?

4K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  rismtb 
#1 ·
Hey everyone,

I am in the final stages of turning a busted up old kona into a nice cruiser for my girlfriend but I need a little help. Right now the bike has black avid FR-5's with black LX canti brakes borrowed from another bike. The bike has some other black bits on it like the rims and the bash but I just don't think the FR-5's look right.

Anyway, the other bike needs it's brakes back so I need to find some replacements on the cheap. Everything else in the cockpit is polished silver so I'd like to follow suit. Anyone have any ideas for some canti brake levers with a nice clean look in polished silver? Basically I'm looking for a cheap rip-off of Paul's levers. Looking to spend around $30.

Here's a lousy photo of the bike for reference. I'll try to take some good shots and do a little write up when it's done!

Thanks! Bicycle tire Tire Wheel Bicycle wheel Bicycle wheel rim
Tire Bicycle tire Bicycle wheel Bicycle frame Wheel
 
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#2 ·
That's not that vintage! :p
Those FR5's don't feel quite right being a long pull lever with canti brakes, no?

You could probably scare up some oldschool Avid canti levers (ie 1.9, 2.0, 3.0's) or BMX levers that are all silver. Most shimano, suntour, tektro, dia-compe, etc are going to be a black body with silver levers. The kooka, grafton, magura, etc are gonna be lot more than $30, though magura's moto levers would be truly retro.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the suggestions! A 20year old frame is vintage in my mind but I'm 23myself! The guy I got it from was going to get rid of the frame b/c the paint was too far gone so I stripped it down to metal and repainted it honda pearl white and put some custom reproduction stickers on it. It didn't have any original parts with it so I built it into a 3speed cruiser.

Yeah I don't know too much about canti's as I started mountain biking as discs became the norm on cheap bikes. I like the idea of BMX levers. The smaller/simpler the design the better in my mind. Any specific suggestions if I choose to go that route?
 
#4 ·
The paint came out nice, from what I can see!

I'm not really familiar with BMX levers, but seems like you can get some new tektro's with black body's & silver levers for your price point & since you've already got some other black 'n silver bits, it'll look fine. Basically, if you're using cantilever brakes, you need levers for canti's/U-brakes, not v/linear/long pull brake levers. Check fleabay, danscomp, jensonusa, etc.
 
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