I broke my Diacompe Tech 77 lever on my new school bike. After buying and promptly breaking a Diatech Goldfinger (for the life of me I couldn't get good one finger braking and broke the lever trying to flatten out the bend a little - I know, duh), I was without brakes for the weekend, as the only decent BMX shop is pretty far away from me. So I dug around in my parts box and got out an old school Diacompe MX lever I had (MX124 I think), popped out the rivet holding the lever onto the hinge, and then screwed it onto the Tech 77 hinge. Now I've got a lever that I like that has some old school mojo (white lever on black hinge with a good new-style barrel adjuster), and if I crash and break the lever, I can just get a cheapo Odyssey 1999 lever or whatever and do the same modification.

Why not just buy a new Tech 77 lever, you can still get them with locking bolts if need be.

Because me and $15 bucks are not easily parted. And, there's the right way of doing things, and then there's my way. No, seriously; there's a lowrider shop by me that has a box full of crappy old levers for cheap, so if I mess up a lever trying to bend it, or if I wreck and break it, I can replace it without buying a whole new Tech 77.

Let me have my little victory here. This is the best thing to happen to me bike maintenance-wise in a long time!