Campagnolo Record Ergopower levers tuning (part 4)

This is the 4th installment of my lever tuning project. At this point, the levers weigh 278.9g (including BTP clamps). Which is lighter than SRAM Red's claimed weight of 280g (actual weights go as far as 294g)! A milestone! ^^

This means I've saved 69.9g ~ 70.0g from the tuning effort, which is 20.0% weight reduction. Basically, in this step, I've saved a couple of bare grams from smoothing out the parts which I've dremelled/filed.

268.9g

I realized that I probably need 60~150 grit sandpaper to reach the deep parts of damage from my dremel and create a smooth finish. I'm also looking for a diamond-coated nickel drill bit for my dremel to 'optimize' those levers with holes. Anyway, I threw in another 3 hours smoothing out the aerodynamic curvature intended for my fingers to grip onto. It's quite a success, and it really looks beautiful. I can't find pictures that do it justice,

Curved grip.

On an after note, the grip shape is largely experimental. Initially it was very angular, but after the round file I more or less got it into the shape of a Bell-Mehta polynomial, which is used for wind tunnel designs (I learned it from my previous research project), and is convenient to imagine - almost stationary at 'inlet' and 'outlet'. And almost a stationary point of inflexion between the two in the x-axis interval. The actual equation is y - y0 = (y1-y0)(-10x^3 + 15x^4 - 6x^5), where y0 and y1 are the outlet and inlet values of 'y'.

I don't know why but the handles now have a sparkling, grey gunmetal look.

I probably need 2 more, but shorter, sessions of sanding to get the whole thing to have a homogeneous appearance. (It's hard to tell when it's all wet during sanding. I have to dry them out before I can re-sand them at the right spots.)

After which, I'll do some drilling. I have some ideas for the locations for drilling, and Wiedemann Nils's (pk0r) shifters gave me some idea.

You can see a chunk removed off the shifter tab, leaving a skeletal structure.

I'm not sure about removing so much material from the shifter lever - it's rather impractical. Drilling a hole there seems OK, though, but it won't look as nice as Nils's. What he didn't do, it seems, is to drill holes on the brake levers, which is a very good idea in my opinion. The levers have too much material... even my MTB's levers (Extralite) have barely half the surface area, moreover, my fingers only require a small contact area.

Well, until I get the drill bits, then.