I found an easy solution, which is also inexpensive and temporary. I was looking for the Croakies XL bands at an outdoor sporting goods store. I found a pair. But then I saw one of those floating keychains (Chums). It’s made out of a flexible 1/4″ plastic tube, with neoprene sleeves placed around the tube at regular intervals. Those neoprene sleeves looked to be the perfect diameter for a brake lever.
I brought the Croakies XL and the CHUMS keychain over to a hybrid bike to see if they would fit on a brake lever. The Croakies XL looked to be far too small to fit. But the neoprene sleeves looked OK. So I bought the CHUMS keychain instead of the Croakies.
At home, I cut the plastic tube and removed the neoprene sleeves. Simple enough. Then I squeezed two of the sleeves over each brake lever, with one sleeve left over. Each sleeve is about 1.5″ in length. The first sleeve was difficult to put on because I didn’t want to take the Bar Mitts off. But after I figured out how to put it on, the process went pretty smoothly.
The two sleeves per brake lever don’t cover the entire length of the lever, but it’s close enough. I adjusted one sleeve so that it partially covers the semi-knob on the end of the lever. The sleeves are long enough to cover most of the area that I would be gripping with my fingers. The neoprene seems thick enough to offer enough protection from the cold metal. But I’m not going to test it out tonight. I’ll have to test my new invention later this week. I’ll probably ride tomorrow but the temperatures will be in the low to mid 40s. Friday might be a good test of the sleeves.
If this works, then my problem is solved. And it only cost $6.
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