Single Finger Braking?

Im a recent convert to one finger braking.
Here is how mine are;

I have one finger in the last 'ditch' and i love it. Strangely does inspire confidence as above, you have more grab on the bar.


These are now changed to the same style as above but same model as the blue (found them too short to get good leverage);



Im never more than 2 fingers now and thats generally when my pads have less bite and need replacing.
I have smallish hand and i have set them up for one finger braking but i also position them so my hand is central on the grip.

One finger braking for the win in my opinion

Isnt the reach on a lot of avids quite far out though?

One finger braking for me.Had to move the levers well inboard to force me to do it.A year on will not be going back. Levers still well inboard.In fact when I look at new bikes in the LBS they look so wrong.

I never even thought to count how many fingers I use to brake. I will have to take note tomorrow night.

I'm generally one finger braking on my canti's and V's (never had disc)
But I don't set them inboard as it makes using the shifters harder.
I guess with my gripshift setup it became quite natural

Though I don't always use my index finger, but can be seen using my middle finger and grip with the others. More so with the RF+ setup.

I'll rotate finger usage and use 2 fingers if need depends on how tiered they are getting. But My wrists and fingers are a bit buggered at the moment and I find gripping for a length of time painful.
Left hand still some after effects of a Dalby fall a year or so ago and Right hand probably RSI as it gets worse using the computer at work and the nipple on the laptop.

As an addition I recently placed Avid SD 2.0 (retro) instructions and usage in the Archive from petitpals upload.

It has their recommended positions for 1, 2 etc finger setup http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/mai ... mId=106613

in control - 1 finger

on the edge - 1 to 2 fingers

anything else - too busy to count

Sorry for going off-topic here, peeps. I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

FluffyChicken":2y40f4wv said:

... Right hand probably RSI as it gets worse using the computer at work and the nipple on the laptop.

Click to expand...

This little thing worked miracles for me. No need to move your arm or wrist anymore. Takes a few days to adjust to it tho, but then it becomes a 2nd nature.

One finger with V's and discs, provided I can get the brake levers and gear levers into the correct position on the bars for both to work ergonomically

Having adjustable mounts on the shifters makes mounting them and the brakes both ergonomically much easier, as does having 700mm wide bars

You can just about make out my brake and shifter set up in this pic



Older non adjustable mount shifters make it trickier to achieve this as do the ones without the removable shift indicator window (generally on SLX and above)

With my Canti braked bike it's 2 finger braking, for a couple of reasons, one being aesthetics and the other power

Fluffychicken try rotating your brake levers upwards so that your wrists drop a bit, if your brake levers are in line with your arms then your set up is a little out, it's a roadie thing having the levers in line with your arms.

Rotating the levers upwards will push your wrists down a touch which will help in both control over rough terrain (your wrists won't naturally want to pop off over the top of the bars, they'll push into the bars, if you see what I mean) it will also help relive arm pump and wrist ache (or it did for me)

A little test to try if you're not sure about rotating the brake levers up.

Stand with your bike by a kerb, with your hands on the bars / brakes & push the bike into the kerb (don't lift it, just push in a straight line), the bike will give some resistance to the kerb as it rolls up it and your hands may pop off over the bars

Then rotate the levers upwards a bit

Then repeat the above kerb test. You should notice less resistance as you push the bike into the kerb and your wrists will stay put as the bike rolls up & over the kerb

It's all physics innit

Both one and two finger braking depending on how hairy the terrain is getting, I use Hope disks on one bike and Real levers mated to Brooklyn Machine Works 'Snot Rockets' on the other, the BMW brakes are absolutely awesome!