Mentioned to me several times now by MTBing ladies. Their hands are small enough (small "reach") that in order to brake properly on a rough surface they must shift their hand off the main meat of the bar and just hang on to it with their thumb while getting the lever, even with the lever pulled in max on its adjustment and kept near the bite point. This makes them ride really cautiously (try it, I can rest my palm on the bar and reach my brakes no problems, they have to rotate round so their palm leaves the bar).

How do the STW women cope with this? I'm sure it cant just be the ladies I know!

Mrs TJ has the levers on her bike pulled in close – she has very small hands but manages fine. Two fingers on the levers and two round the bar

Its all in the set up. On all mine and her bikes I can set the levers so that they are close enough to the bar to use a normal grip even with small hands

I guess they haven't adjusted the lever reach have they?

I have small hands (wear womens size small biking gloves or childrens) but I've never had a problem reaching brakes/gear levers on any bike I've been on.

Yes, lever reach right in as far as possible and know perfectly well to ride with two fingers on levers, two on bars but physically could not do so without having palms in a position with no grip on the bar. I'm fairly used to setting up my own bars but I have mammoth hands, when I've attempted to set theirs up to the minimum possible bar->lever distance, and right over to the inside so 2 fingers are at the end of the blade enough to give decent leverage, either the levers hit the bar before biting or they cant reach them. Tried different brakes. They just have really short fingers which leads to them having to hold on with their thumb and reach the brake with their smallest and next to smallest fingers instead, hands rotated inwards. I cant get my head around it, but I can see them doing it on the trail and it seems to really hinder the bar grip and leave at least one with blisters on the inside of their thumb after 10K or so offroad. I'll draw a diagram. In the great diagram you can see the bottom one (lady) with the thumb stretched to a max, direction of force on the bar is over the top of the bar so an impact twisting bar just bends thumb back. And hands twisted inward so outer fingers can reach while stretching thumb to its max as not doing this means not reaching properly at all (can put fingers on top of lever, just, at biting point, but not maintain grip on it).
Tried adjusting reach, angle, placement on bar. Just doesnt seem to help.

Gears are not an issue. Just seem to have short palms.

My work is done here 8)

my GF has flexy fingers (musician) and she has hers further out than me and we have similar sized hands..

If you need to bring the levers further in, either use a longer reach adjust screw or gently warm the lever and then bend it into shape. If you take the 2nd option, I'd strongly recomend taking the blade off the lever and removing any plastic bushes in the blade (they melt!)

fozzy – put it any further out and she cant get enough brakign force to stop in a hurry, and I can bearly either so its not just that she's feeble – my mammoth hands are usually causing major flex in levers and brake hoses.

I'm wondering if it's a short finger issue rather than a small hands issue. My fingers are proportionally fairly long

Paule – thats an interesting option, I hadn't considered lever "mods", but the problem then stands that her brakes (maggy loise FRs, or hope C2s) then have sufficient "dead space" that means the lever traps the other fingers behind the bar first. Maybe I should move the levers even further inboard so there can be no other finger contact, then wind the adjustment right in to the max and hope the dead space doesnt hit the bar. it already looks a bit odd and takes up a lot of "cockpit" 😀 space.

ebygomm – it could be short fingers or short palms, either would do it, but the combination dont reach the levers 😀 I'll spend another hour or two adjusting for the one I'm attached to, see if I can find more of a compromise. Its a shame, she'd be al ot faster down things if she felt she could brake and hold on at the same time 😀

ebygomm – Member

I'm wondering if it's a short finger issue rather than a small hands issue.

Yeah, could be. Despite my gear shifting issues mentioned in the other thread, I don't have a problem with my brake levers. I have very long fingers, so much so that I need to buy large size gloves and put up with baggy palms 😕

Other option is some sort of finger-stretching techniques. 10lb weights anyone?

…make you look bigger.

I'll get my coat.

would middle finger braking be an option, leaving thumb and index finger with a stronger grip?

Does make the holding on better, but the braking suffers then (strength). I'll report back after the next ride!

My GF has quite small hands. Recently I changed the brakes to hydraulics avid 3's.

I dont find the problem is reach, you can set the so levers are very far in.

But the problem that you have to make sure the brakes are very well bleed or the lever can come too close to the bars.

If the brakes are very poorly bled it may even touch the bar before the brake is fully actuated.

I had Avid BB7 160mm on before which obviously didnt have this problems but she tended to lock the rear wheel out all the time as she is so light.

or gently warm the lever and then bend it into shape.

I don't see the benefit in warming the lever – it would have to be mad hot to make any difference unless they are <<<shudder>>> plastic ? And if you bent it far enough to make a difference wouldn't it be likely to fail at any moment ?

Well bled (fully stripped and carefully looked after) but some brakes seals really pull the pistons a long way back.

sfb – yes heating the lever wont make any odds unless you can do it in an inert atmosphere and at furnace temps! But I could get a custom one cut at work.

Would Ergon grips help? I use them but don't have girlie sized hands.

When our girls were small, aged 6 and 8, we used Magura Julies, these are really designed for very small hands, they are now on Hayes 9s with the screws adjusted to reach.

Tracey

I have tiny girlie hands I guess you learn to cope, however by going for a womens specific bike (which I was never convinced about) everything was added specifically for a short recah

Just an idea but you could try to use really slim grips, adjust lever as close to bar as possible then adjust the position of brakes really inboard so when she pulls levers they dont hit the 2 fingers still on the bars (I have my brakes setup like that on my heckler, levers close to bars is comfier for lots of braking on long DHs and such)

But I could get a custom one cut at work.

Now that is very interesting indeed as I have the same problem with my motorbike and cant justify expensive adjustable ones

adjust the levers for one-finger braking. if she doesn't have enough leverage then a larger disc may help, but closer to the bar she gets the easier it will be to exert more force. maybe even take a file to the front side of the grip to allow a little extra movement for the lever in an area where it won't get much natural wear?

then buy her one of these:

😀

I run with my brake lever assys inside my gear change assys so that I can get my index fingers on the brake lever ends. Could this help?

The brake levers that you have, can you adjust where they are at rest as well as the bite point?

My GF has seriously tiny hands, her bike usign V brakes so I fitted the skinniet grips I could find, and wound the levers in so reach was good, then made sure the brakes were setup so that they bit pretty much straight away. She seems able to lock the wheels up pretty good with the minimum of effort.

If setting lever reach and lever bite point independantly and sufficiently far in is an issue with the model of brake she has, you need to look at getting different brakes.