tigat

This morning, at age 63 and sporting one arm, I went trail riding on a mountain bike for the first time. Although the trail had some vertical (1000 ft. over 15 miles), it was improved. The surface was gravel and hard-packed dirt - no roots. rocks or gnarlies. I had a great time.


I was riding on a borrowed bike that had not been adapted to one-handed use. On the arm side, I had the rear brake and rear derailleur. I left the triple crank in the middle ring.


If this is going to become a habit, I will get a bike with a 1 x 12 - so shifting problem solved. The brakes are a tougher question. My two road bikes with hydraulic brakes both have splitters, so front and back engage off of one lever. The only time that is a concern is braking while turning on gravel, where the front wheel has the potential to slide out. In my opinion, if I'm braking while turning on gravel on the road, that is my bad. On balance, having both brakes is a positive.


On the ride this morning, with a little bit of planning, I managed to descend and slow down enough to handle the switchbacks, although the rear locked up a slight bit. What I can't gauge is whether having the front engage as well would be a plus or minus. I am hoping that some of you, who know how to handle these beasts, could enlighten me on the trade-offs.


Thanks.


BTW: For those of you who are tempted to respond by questioning my sanity in going here at all, know that my wife beat you to it.

VegasTriker

There is a subforum for'

Adaptive Cycling: Handcycles, Amputee Adaptation, Visual Impairment, and Other Needs

just below General Discussion There is likely to be someone there who has encountered the same problem.

big john

It would be hard for me to ride with only one brake on the dirt (either one) because they each have their own use. I ride technical (somewhat) trails and lot of slippery stuff. Obviously the front brake provides most of the power but when things are sketchy I rely on the rear brake more and on long descents I use a lot of rear brake to avoid sudden loss of traction on the front. It's much easier to recover a rear wheel skid than a front one.
One thing which helps with traction is I have 2.8 tires and I run 15psi in the front. Setting up the suspension soft will also help with traction.

If I was going to set it up with a splitter I wouldn't know how to bias the brakes front to rear.
If you just want to do dirt roads you could set up a gravel type bike similar to your road bike, I would assume.
If you could handle a single speed you could run a coaster brake rear and whatever you want on the front.
I guess there are multi speed hubs with coaster brakes, too.

canklecat

Ditto, coaster brakes. Check out the old school Clunker challenge downhill bikes. Joe Breeze and friends called those challenges "Repack" because the coaster brakes had to be repacked after every downhill run.

There are still some good internal gear hubs made with options for coaster braking. That'll take care of the rear, so the conventional front brake/lever is still available.

Best wishes and hope you find a fun bike.

BlazingPedals

This ought'a do it for you:

https://hostelshoppe.com/collections...-parking-brake

BobbyG

My initial thought is some type of dual lever brake actuator where the 1st two fingers can modulate the rear brake. While the next two fingers can modulate the front brake on the outer lever. Perhaps by pulling the near lever down it would eventually actuate the far/front actuator as well.

alo

This would work, but you would need to regularly check that it is adjusted correctly.

alo

You could easily do this yourself by using two brake levers. You could grab, one, or the other or both, as appropriate.

alo

I don't know about your situation like you do, but my first thought was, wouldn't you be better off with a recumbent bike, or a style of bike that makes it easier for you?

John E

"I don't need easy; I just need possible." -- Bethany Hamilton

wsteve464

I would rather have a front brake than a rear one on an mtb as it does most of the braking. I don't know how much you want to spend but I'd use hydro brakes with the front on the handlebar and see if I could make $$ a rear brake lever either for your knees on the top tube or your butt as you move back off the seat on the decents.
there are hydraulic cylinders for RC applications that are small and reasonably priced and that maybe adaptable to mounting to seatpost top tube with a lever you push with your knees or butt.

For shifting Di2 can control a 2x system with one manual shifter once programed or you maybe able to adapt a remote climbing switch for the front DR to work on the same side as the shifter for the rear DR.

Good luck.

big john

He rides road bikes with no problems, he wants to do some dirt. I don't see how a recumbent would solve the braking problem. Besides, recumbent mountain bike? Maybe trike Maybe he'll come back to the thread someday.

BlazingPedals

I'm not advocating this, but ...recumbent?

big john

Need a wider trail for that.

alo

I would have a lot of fun on one of those.

big john

I could imagine sliding around on a frozen lake with it.

tigat

Sorry--I've been experiencing the shelter in place doldrums. You know the drill, bike rides, yard work, garage and basement cleaning and endless conference calls pretending like I'm working.


I'm back.


Bobby G. - great picture, thanks for the effort. Thanks to all for the tech advice as well.


I have hydraulic brakes (rim on the Emonda, disc on the Domane) on two road bikes, both with splitters so both front and rear fire simultaneously. When Trek was engineering the Domane, we tried a device called an Outbraker that works kind of like an abs system and splitter all in one. It didn't fit well in the down tube of the Domane, but would fit nicely on a mountain bike brake lever.


The double lever solution would also be great, except the fingers on my remaining hand from the middle on over don't bend .


What I was most looking for was the technical part of driving a mountain bike and whether having the front fire automatically (even when modulated with the Outbraker) would be worse than not having a front at all. For what its worth, before I went with a splitter, I rode a road bike with just a front brake for years.


I'm now 4 mountain bike rides in, and I'm thinking about going out with a kid who is a wizard. For a six pack, I'm guessing he'd do the whole thing one handed, to show me what the limits are, so I don't need to learn by experimenting