Women's Brakes/Shifters?

[indysteel]

One-finger braking was one of the first things we were taught at the Midwest Women's Mountain Bike Clinic. The drill wasn't just that we use one finger while braking, but that we keep that one finger resting lightly on the brakes at all times. DH laughed at me a bit on our recent three-day mountain bike tour because he said he never saw me without one finger on my brake levers during the course of about 21 hours of riding.

[OakLeaf]

The only thing about braking with less than your full hand is that you need to be VERY sure the cable is set so that that the lever will never, ever, ever come to the bar, no matter how hard you squeeze or what you land on. People have lost fingers that way.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation still insists on full-hand braking, even though you have a LOT more throttle control if you brake only with two, and even though it's really a non-issue with hydraulic brakes. But I'd be a lot more nervous about it with a cable actuated brake, and when you don't have a throttle you need to control, I don't see a lot of reason not to brake with all four.

[Loraura]

when you don't have a throttle you need to control, I don't see a lot of reason not to brake with all four.

Reason: Steering control. The more fingers you have still on the handlebar, the more control you have over the steering of that handlebar.

I can not imagine riding trails with multiple fingers hovering over my brakes while only my pinky, or 2 fingers are wrapped around the handlebar. On a long tricky decent I noticed a marked decrease in hand fatigue when I changed to 1 finger braking (from 2), allowing all of my other fingers to remain on the grips.

With a motorcycle, you are not (I guess) negatively impacted by stearing by simply pressing on the handlebars. In MTB, I find the need to finess them, pull them toward me, push them away from me, etc frequently. I can't do that if I don't have fingers on the grips.

To raise my front wheel, for example, I press hard on the pedal while pulling toward me with the bars and leaning back. Imagine taking a long stick between your hands and breaking it with your foot. I don't imagine I could do that with all my fingers hovering over the brake lever. In fact, that would likely result in a very abrupt and unplanned stop!

This might be one of those cases where motorcycle techniques don't carry over very well. I've never ridden a motorcycle though, so I could be wrong.

Also, with a MTB set up properly for 1 finger braking, even if the lever DID come all the way to the handlebar, it would not catch my other fingers becuase it would be too far to the inside.

[indysteel]

Using a full hand to brake on an MTB, especially one with disc brakes, is a good way to grab too much brake in a panic and fly over the handlebars. I agree that you have to set the brake levers up properly to allow for it though.

[Irulan]

This might be one of those cases where motorcycle techniques don't carry over very well. I've never ridden a motorcycle though, so I could be wrong.

I don't know anything about dirt bikes, but teaching one finger braking is much the standard with any professional mountain coaching/training in the US and Canada. (that I have been exposed to) What I was told is that with MTB disc brakes you don't need more than one finger for control. My suspicion is that is has to do with not overpowering your discs. You are much less likely to endo braking with one finger than with a handful.