Review: dual brake throttle combo

M

mickey

Guest
My Schwinn Skyliner came with very narrow handlebars that crowd all the controls together. Since my throttle was wearing out anyway, I ordered a combination dual-brake-kill switch-throttle assembly from Birddog with the hope of relieving this congestion.

On first impression, the assembly is all metal (except for the twist throttle barrel which is plastic) with the quality I have come to expect from China. It uses hex and phillips head bolts rather than the allen bolts. The brake cable path is not slotted for easy installation. There is a locator pin in the housing that I had to grind off to get the assembly to fit on my bars. Some might prefer to drill a matching hole in their bars. That would make a very secure mounting but I didn't want to do it that way. The provided grips are comfortable and the throttle action is smooth and short throw.

The kill switch wire broke off immediately due to poor design and execution. Its soldered on with no form of strain relief to prevent it from working during any handling.

Most important, the throw of this assembly is only suitable for side-pull brakes. There is insufficient leverage for V-brakes. This should be noted on the sales site and it does not appear to be (although, you can infer it from the photo). I do not believe a bike with V-brakes will stop safely with this assembly.

The price was right @ 19.99 and though it proved unsuitable for my bike, I wouldn't rule it out for others. I cannibalized throttle cable and grips to repair my existing throttle and so I didn't lose anything with this effort.
 

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good info, they really should say that it doesnt work with v brakes. when i build my next bike, i will be using mechanical disk front brake and clamp rears if i cant fit a disc on the rear with the sprocket. Yet i must say that no matter what twist throttle you buy, the inner twist throttle barrel will always be plastic, its better than metal because it acts as a bushing to the metal, if it was metal, it would wear off any prothctive coating and rust together!

thanks,
jon
 
i have same one and using it with v braked and it seems to work fine, took A LOT of adjusting to get it right though
 
I use this setup on sidepull breaks and it seems to work great. The product really consolidates a bunch of controls into one.
 
That thing scares the heck outta me. Imagine a failure that would mean no brakes,no kill switch and wide open throttle. That would be fasinating.
 
i have same one and using it with v braked and it seems to work fine, took A LOT of adjusting to get it right though

Good luck. On my Skyliner, I adjusted up to the point of dragging the pads and still couldn't stop with the crispness that the V brake levers do, even pulled all the way to the grip. It would stop, mind you, just not quickly. If you compare the distance from the pivot to the cable, levers built for VC brakes are considerably longer that the old style side pull levers and this system definitely has the short pivot length.

YMMV
 
i thought about the whole failure thing i'm hoping i have time to choke the engine and coast to a safe stop but who knows what will happen time will tell
 
Sounds like from your experience it's a dud.I've heard conflicting reports about these combos and at first i thought they were a good idea but now i'm not so sure.They don't seem safe and from what you've said they don't work properly either(most of the time)
Taa man for your review.
 
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