In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...
Quoted message said:
In message <[email hidden]>
Colin said:
I have my front brake on the left for the following reason: The front brake gives most braking force and therefore gives most control. The time I want most control is when I am putting myself in a postion of most risk. For me, the position of most risk is turning right across oncoming traffic, when I'm positioning myself just to the left of the center line, signaling with my right arm and slowing down, so logically my left hand needs to control the front brake.
So signalling and you want to do an emergancy stop with only one hand on the bars. you brake and your body is thrown forwards with your left hand steering your bike right into the line of oncomming trafic. -->
Martin.
A good point, and not one that occurred to me for the simple reason that I ride a recumbent, so all bracing against braking force is done by my feet against the pedals. Having a fold-forward handlebar stem for easy mounting/dismounting precludes bracing against it too :-)
Case in point, I'm half way through a training to be a cyle trainer course (second half tomorrow and Tuesday) and in the first practical session we (10 of us, as you'd expect generally fairly frequent cyclists) were asked which brake was most effective. Something like 7-3 front, and we had a "find out for yourself session" on the wet grass we were on. Yes, front brake much better. At this point the instructor throws in some variation, and takes us to the reasonably steep slope in the corner of the park and asks us which will be best there? Only 3 of us stick with the front brake option, and the others have to find out the hard way that they shouldn't have changed their minds...
Depends what they do on the slope, whether trying to stop while going down, or while going up. I know a few steep hills which when wet are very hard to stay stopped on in an upwards direction if you use the front brake.
-- Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]
