Pad handles/levers?

On my Bianchi there are triangular shaped, plastic coated
levers/handles on the brake pads. Can anyone tell me what
they are for?

"Ken Bessler" wrote:
On my Bianchi there are triangular shaped, plastic coated
levers/handles on the brake pads. Can anyone tell me what
they are for?

Those are tire guides to expedite quick wheel changes.

Art Harris

Ken Bessler writes:

On my Bianchi there are triangular shaped, plastic coated
levers/handles on the brake pads. Can anyone tell me what they are
for?

They guide the tire in between the brake pads when changing a wheel.
In the days of yore, before Campagnolo invented these things, it was
possible to dislodge a brake pad while making a quick wheel change,
since these brake pads are held only by a modest "dovetail" so that
they can be replaced easily without tools.

Jobst Brandt

"Ken Bessler" wrote in message
...
On my Bianchi there are triangular shaped, plastic coated
levers/handles on the brake pads. Can anyone tell me what
they are for?



Hanging below the pad? That's the current version of the vestigal "wheel
guide". In team racing, that little protrusion (or its wire-bale atecedent)
guides the tire so it won't hang up on a brake pad when a wheel is thrown
hurriedly into the bike by your service crew during a race.

For us mortals it is about as useful as the silly similarly-intended conical
springs that mechanics remove from their skewers and throw away.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971