2 fingers braking

jeannot18

Anyone else uses 2 fingers to brake? I can't do it with 1 finger, feels very uncomfortable to me. Or should I try to persevere and get used to the 1 finger braking?
JC

*AL*

There's no set rules, do whichever feels best to you.

I use 1 finger braking myself but I have a 203mm rotor on the front, 2 fingered braking = no teeth

Chunkers1980

Depends on the shape of the lever I find. On my Avid Elix I tend to use 2 more, with my formulas I use 1 all the time, apart from perhaps emergency stopping.

The lip on the end of the formula lever seems to hug perfectly to 1 finger thus allowing 3 on the bar all the time.

cooldad

I use my middle finger for braking . 1 for shifting and 2 on the bars.

delcol

brakes are for pussies....

only joking, i use 1 finger, some levers are better than others for this.. also find it helps if you have them set up on the bars right.. i used to run mine inbord of the shifter as the bike came from the shop making 1 finger braking impossiable.
i run mine out board now so the end of the lever is level with my pussy i mean index finger.....

cooldad is this another of your pee pee takes.. surely you cant brake with your middle finger.....

you know i gonna try now on tomorrows ride....

jeannot18

thanks guys, I have been planning to change my stem and bars and will review the setup of my brake levers. Right now they tend to pinch my other fingers when I brake thus my setup is not right.

JC

cooldad

delcol wrote:

cooldad is this another of your pee pee takes.. surely you cant brake with your middle finger.....

Nope, not taking the p1ss, I actually do - only person I know who does though. I keep my index finger free to shift.
Used to ride and race motorcycles when I was younger and used to brake the same way, just seemed natural when I finally got discs on a bike.
I have fairly small hands and that's my longest finger so it allowed me to feather the brakes with the throttle open.

thegiantbiker

I use one finger front & back on my formulas, but using the weak brakes on the commuter bike I need two. I guess it depends how strong your brakes are.

thorlz

cooldad wrote:

delcol wrote:

cooldad is this another of your pee pee takes.. surely you cant brake with your middle finger.....

Nope, not taking the p1ss, I actually do - only person I know who does though. I keep my index finger free to shift.
Used to ride and race motorcycles when I was younger and used to brake the same way, just seemed natural when I finally got discs on a bike.
I have fairly small hands and that's my longest finger so it allowed me to feather the brakes with the throttle open.

I do exactly the same and like wise I come from a motorbike background.

Use my middle finger for braking, with my ring finger there just incase a little more pressure is required.

robertpb

Another middle finger user here.

delcol

is this a typycal motorcross thing then middle finger braking.... i guess it makes sense cooldad so you can still control the throttle....

all my mtbs run sram shifters so are thumb operated leaving my index finger to brake.

DodgeT

1 finger here, but switch between 1st and middle. Tend to use first mostly, but on real technical/rough stuff i find using middle gives me a better grip on the bars, as if my hand feels more balanced by having outer fingers gripping the bars.
I am weird though

dhobiwallah

Remember reading about a demo of 1 vs 2 finger braking on bike control.

Find a broomhandle/chunky highlighter or something to simulate holding on to your bars.
Grip it relatively tightly.
Now point with your 1st finger - and make a 'come here' type motion (just move the finger)
Now do the same with 1st and 2nd finger simultaneously

Was a revelation to me! Your 1st finger has its own tendon, your 2nd and 3rd share one (as do the 3rd and 4th) so while you can move your 1st finger totally independantly of the others (and maintain a full grip on the bars) when you start moving number 2, number 3 has something to say about it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wrist_extensor_compartments_(numbered).PNG

belugabob

@jeannot18

I used to brake with 2 fingers, but found that long descents which involved a lot of braking would make my hand hurt, because the other two fingers were starining to hold the grips. This might be because i'm not a manual worker, so don't have massively strong hands, but it's a fact that I have to deal with.

When I built my 29er, I decided to put the brakes on the bars before I put the shifters on. The effect that this had, was that the tip of the brake levers were now positioned perfectly for my index finger, giving maximum leverage with the one finger, whilst allowing the other 3 fingers to grip the bars without getting squashed by the lever when it gets pulled. It worked so well, that I changed the layout on my 26er and got the same results.

Might not work for you, but it's worth tyring out.

jeannot18

belugabob wrote:

@jeannot18

I used to brake with 2 fingers, but found that long descents which involved a lot of braking would make my hand hurt, because the other two fingers were starining to hold the grips. This might be because i'm not a manual worker, so don't have massively strong hands, but it's a fact that I have to deal with.

When I built my 29er, I decided to put the brakes on the bars before I put the shifters on. The effect that this had, was that the tip of the brake levers were now positioned perfectly for my index finger, giving maximum leverage with the one finger, whilst allowing the other 3 fingers to grip the bars without getting squashed by the lever when it gets pulled. It worked so well, that I changed the layout on my 26er and got the same results.

Might not work for you, but it's worth tyring out.

Sounds like a good idea, I will take a look at that.

dhobiwallah, thanks for that tip too, worth a try.

Thanks guys

JC

nicklouse

Bob it sounds like your levers were to far out from the grips.

belugabob

nicklouse wrote:

Bob it sounds like your levers were to far out from the grips.

Not really - I moved them further away from the grips.
Or are you talking about lever reach, rather than how far along the bar the clamps were?
Couldn't really do much about that on my first bike, as the Deore brakes can't be adjusted for reach. My 29er has SLX brakes, so these can be adjusted - but I didn't need to do so.

Moving the levers inboard of the shifters has made a big difference to me.

bikaholic

Another double digit braker here,... but only on road bike STI levers.

In combination with trigger shifters, it's one finger for every type of brake that I setup myself (canti, vee, mechanical disc, hydraulic rim and hydraulic disc). It might be two fingers if someone else setup the brakes (very badly).

The best feature that Shimano added to their line up of triggers is two-way release - meaning that you didn't have to drastically change your braking technique if you were already used to SRAM triggers.

Middle finger braking is useful in combination with gripshifts and Shimano dual controls. It allows me to brake and shift at the same time - like I do with triggers.

Catfish

I sometimes have to use Three fingers, Then again i do have Juciey 3's so that may explain it....

PaulC7

I use 3 fingers... when going at reasonable speed 1 or 2 is fine but there are times when going fast and theres a unavoidable bump or sharp turn where i like to have a good strong grip on by brakes... call me a wimp if you like.

bennett_346

PaulC7 wrote:

I use 3 fingers... when going at reasonable speed 1 or 2 is fine but there are times when going fast and theres a unavoidable bump or sharp turn where i like to have a good strong grip on by brakes... call me a wimp if you like.

Trust me, it's better to have a proper grip on your bars than compensate for weak fingers by leaving just a thumb and little finger on the grip. You'll end up coming off because of that one day and it may not be pretty!

Too old for this

1 Finger braking here also.

louthepoo

I use 2 fingers generally but on long descents I use 1 and its the middle finger because it feels more comfortable.

386ka

I use 1 finger, with Formula RX + 185mm rotors. But they are further away from the grips, and thus, the shifting paddles of the Deore shifters are harder to use.

DF33

thorlz wrote:

with my ring finger there just incase a little more pressure is required.

Yeah, my missus likes that too

The Rookie

2 fingers for me (older Juicy5's with 160mm discs at both ends), I have largish hands and so have always run my brakes outside the shifters (which with SRAM shifters matches the cutout in the brake lever to the bulge anyway.....), 2 fingers on my cable disc braked commuter as well, although that has no shifter (left and front) and a grip (right and rear barke)

Simon

cooldad

I do have a rather old Spesh with a mix of canti and U brake - even using a whole hand they are rubbish.
Quite scary sometimes getting off discs and onto it. Often I forget and the first stop doesn't.

The Rookie

I updated my retro Gary Fisher to V-brakes's from Canti, not sure you can call them Canti brakes! Good U work fine, my old Raleigh would do a stoppy on them.

Simon

cooldad

U's on the back. Rubbish canti's on the front. Dire.

Bikehawk

Re. the middle finger sharing a tendon, look at most musical instruments and that finger on at least 1 hand has to move on it's own. It's a fairly slow and often very annoying :evil: thing to learn but it's doable. Personally I vary between 1 and 2 depending on circumstances, usually index for light to moderate braking and 2 for brown pants moments even when I ran juicy 3's.

playasyougo

robertpb wrote:

Another middle finger user here.