Strengths: Light weight, super smooth, great power, good looks.
Weaknesses: None so far.
Bottom Line:
I love these brakes. I got them on a used bike and had never heard of them. I was kind of worried that they might suck because they were pretty wobbly when I got them. I happened to have a shim kit from some Shimano V-brakes lying around so I slapped them on these levers and have been super happy ever since. Super smooth, awesome power, and ultralight. Hard to complain. I've ridden them on all sorts of rough terrain with nary a problem. Beautiful simplicity in the looks department as well...
Do they still make these? I'd love to get a set for my other bike...
Bike Setup: Rockhopper Comp FS, INDY SL, pretty stock really
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Merlin
a Racer
from Scarborough, Ontario
Date Reviewed: September 23, 1999
Strengths: Light, good action, green
Weaknesses: Dirt gets under the bushing, so you gotta clean that out with oil, every so often
Bottom Line:
Great lever, soooo strong. I got a deal on them, so they cost me very little. I know when I bought them they were near the top for the lightest lever, but aren't now.
Strengths: Light Nice black finish, goes well with my all black bike VERY Powerful
Weaknesses: cable won't stay in short cable pull aka less powerful hole in the lever.
Bottom Line:
These levers are worth the $25 entry fee that I paid to win them in a race. They are even worth the $80 retail. they are light, cool looking, really powerful (they lock the brakes after half the lever travel how they are set up, but you can pull them back to the grip after that!) , but there is no way that I can see to keep the cable in the less powerful, less cable pull slot in the lever. That is the only bad thing about them. 4
Strengths: feel really good, i didn't know they were worth $80 !!! they came on my used $400 bike
Weaknesses: none
Bottom Line:
these are cool levers!! they feel great! i don't think i would pay $80 for em, i got em on my bike (used $400, read the comps^)wish i could have got colored ones mine are just polished. i put the back one on my bmx bike fro races and it really rases the performance so i guess i would think about payin the $80 for them
Submitted by
Jake Petre
a cross-country rider
from LaSalle, IL
Date Reviewed: January 23, 1998
Bottom Line:
These levers are great-looking. At 127g they are very light, too. They feel real good. Pauls are smoother and I would get them if given the chance. But Real levers are great anyway and I'm pleased with them. I ride all conditions and they heve proven themselves to me. Four chilis!
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Mark Shackelford
a cross-country rider
from Fort Worth, TX
Date Reviewed: January 6, 1998
Bottom Line:
I bought these levers because the shop was out of Shimano v-brake levers. They're not nearly as powerful as my buddy's XTR's, but they have held up well for over a year through lots of descent braking. The only problem is that the long pull spacer fell out. I used a cut up presta valve cap to remedy it. Only four stars for not being 'as good as' or better than Shimanos. Otherwise they give originality to my bike.
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
VINCE
a weekend warrior
from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Date Reviewed: July 19, 1997
Bottom Line:
OK, to all of you guys having slop problem with your lever, here's your fix. This technique is developed by the parts department manager at the shop I work at(http://www.westerncycle.com). His name is Darin, if you guys want to give him a shout about any other weird question, he will be happy to help...Anyways, these levers have too much play right from the box, so this is what he helped me do today. We cracked opened a bag of XT v-brake shim kit(a few bucks) and we removed the c-clip that's holding the pin, which is holding your lever on. Now, remove the allen screw and put it in a safe place. Slide the pin out and take out the lever. Now, put a few(depending how much play you got) shims between the lever and the holder. Reinstall the whole thing, scerw the allen screw back in. If you used too many shims, you will not be able to put the c-clip back on. If you have too little, it will still have play after you put everything back together. Now, you still want a bit of play so that it won't wear out the bushings in there too quickly, but you can remove a lot of play this way.We have done this on a few other levers, as long as you keep doing this, it's a pretty sweet lever. Light and have a pretty good feel. But this play thing is a real problem. A normal bolt and nut assembly like the ones on Diacompe would have been much better.The one thing that really bugs me about Real products is their tolerancing. I got their BB last year during a special and it have play in it that you can't take out. The axle/bearing have too much room between each other, so no matter how tighter you turn the bearings, the axle is not fully contacting the inner race of bearings, creating play. No, I don't get no warranty because the Canadian distributor didn't have anything for me. Same goes for my friend who got the ti version. Same deal, no help. these levers are no better. I work as an engineer in a manufacturing firm and we routinely tap metal for screws/nuts. Now, if the thread is really hard to engage or rough, we will re-work it or throw the piece away. Not these guys, the barrel adjust threading in the lever(not the adjuster itself) is really rough and I had to work it a lot to actually get my left threads to engage properly. At the end, I just cleaned it up with my own tap set. But man, that's bad news for a set of high price lever.Other than their play problem and crappy tolerances, they are pretty good lever.4 stars for weight, appearance and design intent, -1 for play, -1 for bad tolerancing.
When I first bought these brake levers they were very smooth but after a year and a half of racing the rear brake lever created alot of slop but the front brake lever has remained smooth. Other than that these brake levers are descent levers for their money.
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
jerry
a cross-country rider
from Corvallis, Oregon
Date Reviewed: January 24, 1997
Bottom Line:
I've matched these with SRPs the Brake and have had no problems with either. The Real levers are very smooth, have a nice No Slop feel and feel very good to my hands. I ride hard and often but at 47 years old may not subject my stuff to conditions that a more on the edge person might, however, again, the Real levers perform very well from fast logging road descents to my favorite 2700 vertical foot, 4 mile long descent through gorgeous Doug fir old growth forests with loose rock sections, soft fir needle trails, root filled turns and drops, I wish you were all here cause its so much fun!!!
These real levers work pretty good with my xtr v brakes and stop my klein real fast. In the long pull setting I can get a lot of control out of the brakes from slow braking to both wheels locked up on wet cement. Thats right I can make my front wheel skid on wet cement with these and my xtr v brakes. Its pretty cool, but you have to get back a little. One problem I didn't get mine for 2 months because the freakin southern bastards at performance ran out. I hate southern inbreeds.
THEY WORK INCREDIBLY WITH CANTIS AND I GOT THEM VERY CHEAP - FREE. GREAT LEVER GREAT LOOKS. THE BOLT COMES LOOSE TOO OFTEN THOUGH. IF YOU WANT SOME GOOD LEVERS GET THEM.
Overall Rating:
Submitted by
Jay Dellis
a weekend warrior
from Minneapolis, MN
Date Reviewed: November 30, 1996
Bottom Line:
Affordable, light, look nice and have a nice feel when you reach for them. However, with v-brakes they have very little touch, they're on or off with very little feathering in between. Don't have as much cable pull as what Shimano specs. for their levers. Can buy a World Class V-dapter at $30 a crack but that defeats the purpose of an affordable lever.
I ran the Real lever on my BMX bike for about 3 months. It was light and pretty trick looking, but it got sloppy Real fast. This wouldn't have been so bad except that you can't adjust the slop out of it and they will not warranty this problem. I also had to clean it out after every race because it returned sort of slowly if it got dirty. A return spring would be a nice improvement. Overall a fairly mediocore lever.
