Tektro TL720 Triathlon Bar End Brake Brake Lever, Black, MH1807

You have internal thread cables going through your handlebars!

Before I go into the review lets address the elephant in the room first, this set of levers comes in OEM packaging, so no fancy box, no cute internal display packaging, no cables, no housing, no stickers, and no instructions. I believe the description states this but in case you missed it ... there it is. Each lever comes in the form fitting blue plastic bag the manufacturer uses to keep the levers from getting scratched. That's it. These levers are really similar to the campy reverse brake levers except there is not a quick release function in the lever body. As far as I can tell Campy had TRP (Tektro) produce the TT brakes and levers for them, so the similarity is no surprise. I have tried these brake levers with the campy skeleton super record and chorus dual pivot brake calipers as well as the Tri-Rig Omega and Omega-1 brake calipers and all of them performed really well. I have used them in a two different Profile carbon base bars and they fit well. The levers are meant for internal cable housing so be ready for that and be sure your base bars have the proper cable access holes if you opt in for this style. The pivot in the lever is solid and very nice for a lever at this price point. They have a little rubber plug to cover the access hole needed to the thread the brake cable into the lever. All levers of this type (internal brake routing/internal expander) need to be tightened prior to threading the brake cable in and need to have the housing snugly seated in the center of the expander wedge. This can be frustrating but is the nature of this type of setup. The reward is the cleanest cable routing possible for a base-bar/brake lever setup. The part of the brake lever you actually pull on with your fingers is asymmetric and are quite comfortable but just make sure to get them on the bike on the correct side. The levers are slightly more aero (sharper leading edge) than the campy style … I am sure someone has done an assessment of the wattage saved by the shape difference. (search the TT forums at your own risk, you may discover you need all new gear - :-) If you are looking for a reverse TT lever for a base bar with internal brake routing I feel like there is not a better option. Of course if you want a matching brand set of gear or need integrated electronic shift buttons on the brake levers, the other major manufacturers have solutions albeit at a much higher cost. This would be a nice clean option for a Fixie with brakes too … with a Base bar set up for internal routing of course.

Missing a sleeve and plug on one lever. Bought on a marked down price. Probably returned previously. Looks like they've already been installed once but did not mention any missing parts in the information. Locking i only run a rear brake so I'll be able to make it work. One of the screws were swapped out so it would be impossible to run the brake cable internally or at all.

Second set I've done the same with. Wouldn't do that if they weren't worth it.