>>2073442get rid of the turkey wings, the lever extensions for upright braking
>they're thin but long, so they apply so much leverage that they have been known to snap in emergencies when you gorilla grip them. unlikely, but still.> they're made so normies could buy a then-trendy drop bar bike and only use the tops and stay upright the whole time. so it marks you as a casual to all 5 people who know this. and there's nothing wrong with upright riding, but the extra hand positions are good and you should use all of them.>they were only put on entry level models for this reason, mostly department store bikes of worse quality than yours. so again, all 5 of us will judge you. not important but you should know.but safety is obviously the main reason. if they're there, you'll use them. once they become a habit, that's what you'll default to them without thinking. then a real emergency happens and they fail= bad news. you can just cut them off with a hack saw and file off the burrs. I'm also reasonably sure you can take the lever assembly apart, remove them, and reassemble.
but, if you want, you can upgrade to a more modern levers, which would give you a WAY better hood position. and furthermore, if you shell out for brifters, then you get the modern hoods AND shifting right there from the hoods and drops. it's a very common upgrade for old road bikes. I found some Microshift 2x7 brifters on Ali for around $50, possiblity bootleg since Ali but they work fine.
also, stem shifters make you hold your elbows in an awkward position and are a department store kind of thing, too, but converting those same levers into downtube clamp-on holders is cheap, a much more classic look, and you straight-arm down to the downtube from the bar and it's amore natural movement if you don't want to spring for brifters.
in the meantime, wrap any leftover cranberry tape around the brake mast to improve the hoods position if you haven't already.
