# The Wife's Fingers are to short



## icecold0027 (Dec 23, 2009)

Hello all,

Excellent site and lots of great reviews and information. Thank you in advance.

We (my wife and I) recently purchased some bikes from BD (Make/Model listed in Sig). Problem is the Wife's fingers are not long enough to pull the brakes hard enough from the normal riding position. The Elle has four brake levers so all is not lost but again she cannot pull the brakes from the natural riding position. The brakes do suck but she cannot get them tight enough to even stop her from walking with the bike (I have absolutely no problem with this with mine). I can replace the pads but I don't know if that would do the trick. Any suggestions? 
BTW the brakes are calibrated pretty well. Any tighter and the wheel won't spin w/o resistance. 

Thanks,
~G.R. Riders.


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## snowgor (Apr 10, 2007)

Maybe loosen the brakes (more gap between brake pad and rim). This may give her more leverage to pull the lever before the pad makes contact with the rim.


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## SystemShock (Jun 14, 2008)

Is it this model?

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mercier/mercier_elle_x.htm

If so, that model has Sora brifters ('brifters' is short for brake/shift levers).

Don't know for sure, but I seem to remember that on some Sora brifters, there was this little insert you could stick in 'em that would shorten the reach to the brake levers, i.e. would bring the brake levers back, closer to the bars.

Check it out. If not, then maybe get some brifters that do have the adjustable reach feature? (and that are also compatible with the Elle's triple crankset).

Not a cheap thing to do though, though you'd get some money back selling the old brifters on Craigslist or eBay.
.


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## AWILSON (Sep 20, 2008)

You can loosen the brakes and install the spacers that should have come with the bike. Here is a link to shimano's instructions. 

http://bike.shimano.com/media/techd...001/SI_6LS0A_001_En_v1_m56577569830615004.pdf


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## PJ352 (Dec 5, 2007)

AWILSON said:


> You can loosen the brakes and install the spacers that should have come with the bike. Here is a link to shimano's instructions.
> 
> http://bike.shimano.com/media/techd...001/SI_6LS0A_001_En_v1_m56577569830615004.pdf


Yup. There are 4 and 8 degree shims that are supplied with Sora shifters. Once at the link, reference the box labeled *ST-3400 reach adjustment*.


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