You only need one finger..

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Comments

  • Will Snow
    Will Snow Posts: 1,154
    cbr6fs

    not meaning to be rude, but whats with that set up? It looks amazing! Is that both shifters on one side as well??
    i ride a hardtail
  • D-Cyph3r
    D-Cyph3r Posts: 847
    For normal riding on easy terrain i'll use 1 finger, on more sketchy stuff I sub-consciously switch to 2... no idea why. :?
    My Hectik Custom Build Log
  • cbr6fs
    cbr6fs Posts: 14
    Will Snow wrote:
    cbr6fs

    not meaning to be rude, but whats with that set up? It looks amazing! Is that both shifters on one side as well??

    :D
    No worries.

    Me left arm is paralysed so i've had to move everything other to the right.
    Yep right spot on, both shifters are on the right as well.

    The small black lever is for the seat post.

    Still faffing about with various positions and setups but so far that's working well thumb-up.gif
    1994 Diamond Back Axis TT (Fully Rigid)
    Trek Fuel EX 7
  • Will Snow
    Will Snow Posts: 1,154
    thats an amazing set up then. Did you have to modify any of it, or did it all just slide on? And do you have any balance problems with all the weight on the one side? I think if I had that id just end up pulling both brakes at once and going flying over the handlebars :shock: well impressive though
    i ride a hardtail
  • cbr6fs
    cbr6fs Posts: 14
    Will Snow wrote:
    thats an amazing set up then. Did you have to modify any of it, or did it all just slide on? And do you have any balance problems with all the weight on the one side? I think if I had that id just end up pulling both brakes at once and going flying over the handlebars :shock: well impressive though

    Tried loads of different variations.
    I used 2 straight bar ends, one coming off the handlebar at 90° and the other attached to that bar end so it's parallel with the handlebar.
    I made various adaptors and clamps to mount everything together.

    Tried making it so 1 brake lever controlled both brakes, but that was a disaster as sometimes you need more rear brake than front, other t'other way round.

    In the end though that system you see pictured seems to be the best compromise.

    Balance is proving to be difficult, but it's coming slowly but surely.

    Biggest problems right now are:
    1/ I can't maintain a wheely so drops off's and jumping is out :(
    I can pop the front wheel up over obstacles but can't seem to keep it up (ohhhh errrr Mrs)

    2/ Heavy braking on steep downhills are proving to be tough as well, as all my weight is shifting to 1 side of the bars.
    If i drop my seat though i find i can use my knee on the top tube to take some of the weight, alternatively i can use my stomach on the rear of the saddle to take some weight.

    Both of these options only work on smooth ground though.

    I hope that once i've built up my fitness, lost some weight and got some muscle memory these couple of problems will sort themselves out.




    Cheers
    Mark
    1994 Diamond Back Axis TT (Fully Rigid)
    Trek Fuel EX 7
  • Will Snow
    Will Snow Posts: 1,154
    serious props for getting it all to work! I think your best bet is going to be fitness, once youve got that built up more then it should get easier. This may sound daft, but have you considered heavier tyres? They could help with balancing, with more gyroscopic effect etc. Definitely keep at it, i think its brilliant! There may even be a market for it.
    i ride a hardtail
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Incredible stuff. Very inspiring.
    So, is your left arm completely paralysed, or do you still have some movement? I'm imagining how hard it would be to ride off road with only one hand on the bars at all times.
  • Skonk
    Skonk Posts: 364
    1 finger here for me (index finger).

    I also like to have my gear shifters set as such that they don't intrude on the grip area (so they are set in a cm or 2 away from the grips; SRAM shifters).

    The other thing I like is for my lever reach to be quite close in (so I don't need to reach far with my finger to get it over the lever) so I also have the levers set quite far into the bars so my fingers are on the end of the lever when I pull; this way when the lever is pulled it doesn't touch my other fingers (quite hard to explain actually).

    I run all 3 of my bikes like this.
    Canyon Spectral AL 9.0 EX
    Planet X RT90 Ultegra Di2
  • cbr6fs
    cbr6fs Posts: 14
    Will Snow wrote:
    serious props for getting it all to work! I think your best bet is going to be fitness, once youve got that built up more then it should get easier. This may sound daft, but have you considered heavier tyres? They could help with balancing, with more gyroscopic effect etc. Definitely keep at it, i think its brilliant! There may even be a market for it.

    I agree.
    Right now i'm barely holding onto the bike i'm THAT unfit, it's more a case of the bikes taking me for a ride :lol:

    So i do think once i've regained some fitness and strength it'll go a long way to giving me a lot more control.
    I've also found that my balance is coming on slowly but surely as well.

    Never thought about heavier tyres to be honest, i'm currently on stock wheels and tyres so they're pretty heavy any ways.

    For stability i'm using one of the Hopey steering dampers.
    Really does make a massive difference.

    I have been in contact with various MTB part manufacturers to see if they'd do small runs to certain designs that'd help folks with one arm, they were all very helpful but were not willing to invest time and effort into something they saw no market in.
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    Incredible stuff. Very inspiring.
    So, is your left arm completely paralysed, or do you still have some movement? I'm imagining how hard it would be to ride off road with only one hand on the bars at all times.

    I have some flex from the bicep and even smaller movement from the shoulder, but as i have no grip or tricep movement none of that is really any use on the MTB.

    I've tried velcroing my hand to the bars, but found it more a hindrance than a help, so now i just throw the arm in a sling so at least it's out the way.


    Cheers
    Mark
    1994 Diamond Back Axis TT (Fully Rigid)
    Trek Fuel EX 7
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Wow. I'm very impressed and inspired by your efforts. Amazing stuff.
  • RealMan
    RealMan Posts: 2,166
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    Wow. I'm very impressed and inspired by your efforts. Amazing stuff.

    +1

    cbr6fs if you're desperate to get back on the trails, and you want to help your balance come along, then maybe give off road unicycling a go? You don't need any arms until you progress to riding techy stuff, and then you only need one arm to hold the saddle. Its great fun, and its pretty safe, as whenever you fall off you land on your feet.

    Is it something that will get better?
  • Bikerbaboon
    Bikerbaboon Posts: 1,017
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    -Liam- wrote:
    They don't need fingers to shift gears. Also, one of those levers is the clutch innit ?
    That sentence counteracts itself - if one finger is on the clutch, then yes, you need that finger to change gears :lol:
    but yes, you're quite right, the left hand lever is the clutch, and they change gears with their foot.

    Kinda you can pop shift on some bikes with out diping the clutch you just need to drop revs pop the gear and nail it again.
    Nothing in life can not be improved with either monkeys, pirates or ninjas
    456
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    I'm not sure you'd always land on your feet whenever you came off an unicycle, realman.
  • RealMan
    RealMan Posts: 2,166
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    I'm not sure you'd always land on your feet whenever you came off an unicycle, realman.

    Pretty sure its "a unicycle".. But yeah, you do. Been riding all kinds of stuff recently. When you learn, you spend most of the time falling off. I never landed on anything other then my feet. Now I'm riding it on skate parks, off drops, down steps, and I even took it to the bmx track the other day. Still haven't landed on anything other then my feet. My mate gave it a go and managed to fall on his ass, but only because he wouldn't let go the lamp post he was holding on to to get on it lol.

    When you get on to tougher, faster, higher, drops and such, you may fall off a bit too quickly to land on your feet, but that will take quite a while before you have to worry about that.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    hmm. You sure it's not luck? I've fallen off many things, including skateboards and rollerblades, pogo sticks, and several home made contraptions, landing on my feet was never guaranteed on any of them.

    Surely if you hit something that stops the wheel dead, you're likely to just faceplant? I could well be wrong though, never tried an unicycle.
  • Will Snow
    Will Snow Posts: 1,154
    cbr6fs wrote:
    so now i just throw the arm in a sling so at least it's out the way.
    :shock:
    wow i never even thought about that! massive props for that as well! Just had a look on the hopey website, looks like an interesting device, is it just to stop the front wheel pinging off of rocks and so on? Or to reduce the effects of that, anyway.
    i ride a hardtail
  • Northwind
    Northwind Posts: 14,675
    Bit of a random diversion but have you ever tried speaking to the NABD? It's for motorbikes but a lot of the issues will be the same, they might have some useful hints. I worked on a one-arm/one-leg conversion on a motorbike for a while, loved the ingenuity of it all, always impressive to see people get round these things. Last time I tried to ride one-armed I broke a rib :lol:
    Uncompromising extremist

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