http://tinyurl.com/6khbl2

The part on the bottom of the image in that auction is almost exactly the one I'm referring to. The only difference is mine is silver in color and just slightly different in shape (enough that I couldnt just buy that one and replace mine). I dropped it while pushing it somewhere in the parking lot, and it broke about 3/8" inward from the ball-shaped end.
It's made out of some metal (or mystery compound) that I can't determine. It feels like about the same weight as aluminum. The small piece can mate up with the rest of the handle perfectly because it didnt deform at all when it broke, so its very brittle. The exposed surface from the break is almost completely flat grey in color with metallic twinkles scattered throughout, and its pretty rough and sort of porous almost. My friends bike has levers of the same material, and the same piece got broken off on his clutch lever. I tried attaching it with JB weld, but it came off pretty easily.
What about screwing it back into place? If I drilled from the broken surface through to the ball-shaped end, then I might be able to clamp it up against the rest of the lever in its original position (as close as i can get it), drill through the same hole, now from the ball end, with the previous hole and the mated surfaces as a guide, get a hole started in the lever part, take off the ball-shaped piece and finish the hole carefully, and then run a self-tapping screw through the hole from the ball end, all the way to the lever.
That seems like quite a bit of work. Anyone have any better ideas, or improvements on the drilling thing? I'm ok with a screw head or something showing on the end, as long as its not a huge eye sore, and it doesn't get in the way of using the brake.

As always, any ideas or brainstorming is welcome
thanks
-Jon

I think it's an aluminum alloy. My cousin dropped my Honda 3-wheeler and broke the brake level at the pivot. :o Like you said, it doesn't deform at all, so its got something that makes it harder, possibly magnesium.

Cant say what is the best way to put it back together. My brake lever is still broke. Thankfully it operated the same wheels as the foot lever. :D

New levers will cost you like 15 bucks from a dealer, there meant to be brittle so you dont damage your perch when you crash. Broken levers happen all the time. Just go into you dealer and they should have a wide assortment of levers.

New levers will cost you like 15 bucks from a dealer, there meant to be brittle so you dont damage your perch when you crash. Broken levers happen all the time. Just go into you dealer and they should have a wide assortment of levers.

this.

I usually just loosen the screws to the point where it won't move on its own, but if I dump it, it'll swivel on the handlebars instead of breaking...

Just replace it. It's not worth wrecking if your repair job fails at a critical moment.

t.i.g. weld it

Replace. Anything else is flat out retarded.

Sorry jonogt, but I stopped reading your post half way through - your break lever is a pretty important part of your seafety, as I assume you know, and as parts like that are cast Al alloys 99.9% of the time, it's hard to weld, and brittle as fuck.
Do yourself and your loved ones a favor, and just go buy a new brake lever, the time involved in fixing it, and the risk you run if it fails, isn't worth it.

Thanks for the replies which possibly are what kept me from trying to mess with it. I hadn't even considered the worst case (and physically most likely) scenario of what happens if/when the repair fails. Its not gonna break off while cruising on an open road with no traffic, because I'm not going to be putting pressure on it then. It's gonna break when I squeeze the shit out of it because there's a 3 car pileup in front of me on the highway in rush hour, and since it's such a comfortable spot to put all the leverage into, when it breaks I'll probably lose my grip and release the front brake entirely when I need to go 65 to 0 in 100 feet.

I'm going to buy a new lever soon, but until I have time to locate one (no honda cycle dealership in town) and mess with installing it, I've just slid the lever pivot assembly as close to the end of the handlebar as it can go. the piece that broke off is maybe 10% of the original length, so this allows me to use it with no compromise in braking ability at all. I have to squeeze harder because of the reduced leverage, but like for an emergency stop with the full intact lever I used 20-25 % of my max grip strength, and with the end broken off I use maybe 35%.

again, my bad. thanks for contesting the idea to repair it.

Woah there. Don't be grabbing a handful of brake in an emergency. You probably know that, just sounded like you didn't :)

yaa i suppose it sounded kinda like that. I know its a smooth squeeze cause you have to let the bikes weight progressively shift to the front tire so it can keep building traction and in turn keep building stopping power otherwise the front wheel locks up tire skids low side crash 1.4 seconds till you hit the ground. I took one of those state endorsed rider training courses, and I really did learn something in em, even if I sometimes sound like a total fool in posts (which I know I do lol). I've been riding a total of 8 or 9 months, 6 of which has been almost daily (the rest of the time I was learning on my friends bike cause I didnt have one of my own yet) and I havn't wrecked or anything yet, so I think that means I'm sorta out of the "high risk" window of time. Heh I guess only time will tell.

Anywho point being, the crudely repaired part would be at the highest risk of breaking again in a hard stopping situation, then I'd rear-end an old pickup truck and the wreck wouldn't be nearly as humorous as in movies where the rider goes flying over w/e vehicle he hits and lands in a conveniently placed pile of hay dirt etc. lol