Jag1876

Hi everyone, I'm trying to find information and solutions for adapting my bike for use of my right hand only.
Currently I have my rear brake and gear shifter on the right and a homemade 'rest' for my left hand to sit in/clip into where the brake and gear shifter would be.
It all works well, as long as I don't need to stop on a hurry!
I have just purchased a new bike (trek marlin 7) with hydraulic disk brakes and would really like to get it set up properly before I use it.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated,
Vicky
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badrad

Not sure if you have hydraulic brakes or cable, but here are a couple of articles that look interesting that allows front and rear braking from one hand or a single lever. One article is based on hydraulic brakes but does require some additional components for splitting the hydraulics, and the other shows an example to putting both brake levers to the one side, but likely needs some retraining in order to manage two levers from one hand.
Hope these may be of help.
https://www.velonews.com/gear/techni...with-one-hand/
https://www.singletracks.com/mtb-gea...-lever-system/

DenBoy

I have a seriously deformed left arm and hand. The deformed arm is also about 7 inches shorter than my right. I’ve been a roadie for 40 years, am now 82 yo. Until COVID cancelled all of the century rides (2019 & 2020) in California I was riding 6 to 8 (metrics) reach year. I’m still putting in enough miles/week to resume century rides next season. Before a lady friend got me on a ten speed back in the 80’s I had ridden over a decade of production motorcycle road racing on SoCal road race tracks. One of the first things that you learn on the race track is that going fast means you’re wide open into the turns until it’s time to brake – and braking means 100%, right on the edge of lock-up. And that braking magic happens with the front wheel. If you try pressing hard on that (rear) brake pedal you go on your head.



This is 2-wheel braking on pavement I’m talking about. Descending a steep hill in soft dirt or loose gravel – mountain bike or motorcycle dirt bike – you need mostly rear brake. But on pavement it’s the front wheel that does all the work. Don’t go nuts trying to work up some Rube Goldberg contraption to get 2-wheel brakes with one lever. Even if you get it to sort-of work the brake bias will never be right for that one situation you’re worried about – stopping in a hurry.



That first 10 speed road bike I bought back in the early 80’s had cable rim brakes. The LBS was upset that I just wanted to put the front brake on the right, and they were so honestly convinced that I’d be killed if I tried to ride w/o rear wheel brakes that I let them sell me a tandem front brake lever. Tandems back then had a 2-cable lever on the right, so I hooked up both brakes (like a tandem). I quickly discovered that there was no way to get the brake bias right. I’ve never tried it again, but I always put the front brake on the right. I use a thumb shifter lever for the chainrings, leaving it on the left.



Maximum right-on-the-edge braking is not a bicycle thing. The only people who have really mastered that technique on 2 wheels are motorcycle road racers. Not people from bicycle racing, motocross, or (God bless ‘em) century rides. Before you do anything else, re-plumb your front brake so it’s on the right side (like a motorcycle). Let the shop do it, those tiny brake line fittings are tricky (and you’ll need new ferrules or olives, whatever your dealer calls them). If the dealer resists – you’ve learned that (like most cyclists) he doesn’t understand ultimate braking on 2 wheels either. Just be nice, and say you just want to try it. Then go ride.

Nozipho

I have the same problem. I am left-handed, and I do all my shifting and braking using my left hand I have taken the right STI lever and placed it on the end of the left drop so that the brake lever is almost touching the left brake lever. This allows me to have independent braking, both front and back, allowing me to fully use each brake.I also have Ultegra Di2, which allows me to modify what each lever does. In my case, both levers shift the rear derailleur, allowing shifting from both the drops and the hoods. To shift the front derailleur my mechanic stripped down a climbing shifter and we attached the stripped down shifter to the left STI lever just above the brake lever. The right side is just a dummy hood, which is completely stripped down.