Brake Cable Ends - Barrel and Pear Nipples I can easily find images of these different nipples on Google, and as far as I can tell pear nipples are used on road bikes (in general) and barrel nipples are used on MTBs (in general). !Barrel Nipple Barrel Nipple !Pear Nipple Pear Nipple I'd like to understand more about them. Why have two designs evolved? Does one (for a given type of bike (or brake?)) offer advantages over the other? Or, is it all just "marketing"? Lastly, are there any other designs in common use? Thanks.

Original MTB brake lever designs did not include a rotating barrel inside the lever to account for the change in angle as you apply the brake, so the wire end needed to be round to accommodate this.

Road bike brakes have had the interior rotating barrel for a very long time.

If the wire end does not rotate, the brake wire will be flexed in a "coat hanger" way and break in a relatively short time.

They are two different solutions to the same engineering problem.