How To Adjust The Reach Of Your Brake Levers – GCN's Pro Tips

Most brake levers – SRAM, Shimano and Campagnolo – are now adjustable. Here's our guide to adjusting them and working this in to your bike fit.
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As you spend more time on your bike, good bike fit becomes more important. While it's really easy and quite obvious that you can alter your saddle height, layback and reach, one of the less common areas to work on is your lever reach. All of the big three – SRAM, Shimano and Campagnolo – now make brake and gear levers that can be adjusted to varying extents.

SRAM are the most adjustable, with brake lever and gear lever position being adjusted independently, with Shimano levers you can adjust the entire lever mechanism (both gear and brake), while with Campagnolo you'll need to fit shims to adjust your lever reach.

Although this one might seem like a minor tweak, it really can change your bike handling; especially if you struggle to reach the brake levers or if you ride in a hilly area where you have lots of long descents.

Try it out and let us know how you get on down in the comments.

Watch more on GCN:
How to change your bar tape: http://gcn.eu/1kFGhny
How to adjust your brakes: http://gcn.eu/1PxwUSI

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