2 fingers braking

supersonic

My girlfriend prefers three fingers, or even a whole handful sometimes.

cooldad

supersonic wrote:

My girlfriend prefers three fingers, or even a whole handful sometimes.

Is she Sheep's mum?

The Rookie

supersonic wrote:

My girlfriend prefers three fingers, or even a whole handful sometimes.

Or you not big enough to be handful then?

Simon

supersonic

How rude!

dhobiwallah

Bikehawk wrote:

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 thing to learn but it's doable.....

I've very rarely had to hold on to a cello for dear life while moving my 2nd and 3rd fingers independently though :P

cycle monster

One or two depending upon speed, conditions, gradient, bravado, stupidity and/or obstacles. If you lack confidence a skills course may well help. My wife wanted one for her birthday this year. I went along for a laugh and ended up learning loads.

jeannot18

cycle monster wrote:

One or two depending upon speed, conditions, gradient, bravado, stupidity and/or obstacles. If you lack confidence a skills course may well help. My wife wanted one for her birthday this year. I went along for a laugh and ended up learning loads.

I had just a skill course last week, and the guy went through the setup of my bike and the first thing he changed was the position of the brake levers. Hence now I can use them with one finger (thus i tend to stick to 2 when going a bit faster). Such a simple thing to do but my riding has improved by having a better position.
J

Mich

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 use my middle finger as well.

mercedism

Just set mine up for one finger braking (index), still getting used to it but can also see that middle finger feels pretty good too as it gives a nice grip on the bars. Still early days to see what i will stick with, but glad i have set it up.

Northwind

I reckon it's useful to be able to do both... I used to only 1-finger brake, then on a long day out I wore out my one finger :roll: Swapping over in the middle of big descents was a bit tricky. So since then I vary it a bit so that if I need to change, I can (broke my hand in the middle of my last race, frinstance, and had to swap to index finger braking!)

mtb crazy

i break with my middle finger, just feels more natural. and im not from a motorcycle background!

bennett_346

mtb crazy wrote:

i break with my middle finger

You shouldn't be breaking anything while riding!

cooldad

bennett_346 wrote:

mtb crazy wrote:

i break with my middle finger

You shouldn't be breaking anything while riding!

Almost a week to come up with that? You're slacking.

bennett_346

cooldad wrote:

bennett_346 wrote:

mtb crazy wrote:

i break with my middle finger

You shouldn't be breaking anything while riding!

Almost a week to come up with that? You're slacking.

I don't patrol the forum everyday, and using the "View your posts" thing makes it too easy to dig up old threads

RK6

I'll add a pointless first comment - i'm pretty new to all this so haven't even tried one finger braking but i'll give it a go now. I play guitar so i can move the fingers of my left hand pretty independantly (as it's the fretting hand), but my right is useless and only the index finger moves independantly.

Rushmore

RK6 wrote:

my right is useless and only the index finger moves independantly.

learn some James Taylor then...

bails87

RK6 wrote:

I play guitar so i can move the fingers of my left hand pretty independantly (as it's the fretting hand),

Well, that explains why the 'learn the secrets of guitar mastery' adverts have just appeared at the top of the page!

cooldad

Wonder why we don't get porn pop ups in crudcatcher?
Or lime sellers.

justwan naride

Used to brake with either two or middle finger only. With two fingers lever reach was comfortable, but my grip on the bars felt rather unsecure. Middle finger wasn't comfortable, but felt more in control in the rough. Recently I started doing some really technical trails and adjusted my hand position to the very end of the bars. This both allowed for more controled steering and I was finaly able to brake with my index finger. I have since changed to wider bars and moved the controls a little more inboard. Juicy 3's, 180f/160r, plenty of power for my 68kgs.

RK6

Rushmore wrote:

RK6 wrote:

my right is useless and only the index finger moves independantly.

learn some James Taylor then...

Have tried and failed

I changed the position of my brakes to make 1 finger braking easier (the lever was crushing my other fingers).
Haven't tried it outdoors yet but feels a lot more comfortable. Only thing is, now the gear levers (SRAM X-5) are quite far away compared to the stock setup! Is this normal? I've been skipping through pics in magazines to try and see other riders setups but it's not the easiest thing to make out.

Sorry for sounding like such a noob but.... eh... i am

delcol

have you got the shifters inborad of the brake levers.

see this pic of my set up grip/shifter/brake lever..