One hand set up?



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In article <[email protected]>, Pete Biggs
<pLime{remove_fruit}@biggs.tc> wrote:
> > If the brakes are correctly balanced they will be perfectly safe.

> Not true. Won't be safe in an emergency stop or under hard braking when the rear could easily lock
> up (especially on a road bike), no matter how the brakes are "balanced". When braking hard, all or
> nearly all weight is transfered to the front.

How many bikes have you converted for disabled use?

--
A T (Sandy) Morton on the Bicycle Island In the Global Village http://www.sandymillport.fsnet.co.uk
 
Sandy Morton wrote:

>>> If the brakes are correctly balanced they will be perfectly safe.
>
>> Not true. Won't be safe in an emergency stop or under hard braking when the rear could easily
>> lock up (especially on a road bike), no matter how the brakes are "balanced". When braking hard,
>> all or nearly all weight is transfered to the front.
>
> How many bikes have you converted for disabled use?

How many have you converted for racers and are you 100% sure that there is no serious danger?

I'm influenced by Sheldon Brown's comments on the matter (who advises that both brakes should never
be used from one lever) and by my own experience of how little force is required for an ordinary
rear brake to lock-up on a road bike.

~PB
 
Yesterday I took a look at a mountain bike (parked in the basement at my work) set up with one-handed controls.

Clearly, some of this will be irrelevant if you're considering a bike with dropped bars, but here goes anyway.

Aside from a short (5cm?) length of "piggyback" handlebar, held on with two improvised clamps, all the parts were original to the bike.

All controls were on the L/H bar, with the rear shifter mounted (upside-down) on the piggyback handlebar bit. The front shifter was in its normal position.

What would usually be the rear brake lever was attached to the front V-brake (US-style) and the other lever (to the rear V) was mounted adjacently on the bar giving a lever position below and slightly inboard of the front brake. The two levers were close enough to operate with a single hand, but there was enough of the front brake lever exposed to use that by itself quite easily.

The rear brake appeared to be adjusted less tightly than the front (ie, requiring more cable pull), this I would imagine was to help "balance" the two when both levers are grabbed together.

Although tricky, I can't see that it would be awfully hard to get used to such an arrangement, and it has the added benefit of requiring very little in the way of custom or exotic parts.

Mat
 
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