I’m thinking of getting wider bars so I can use one finger on the brakes. But before I get round to getting them I was thinking of moving my levers so they are clamped on the inside of the gear levers so I can try one finger braking. I know levers mostly come set on the outside of the gears but is there any actual reason for it?

So you can still change gear when you’re one finger braking? I certainly couldn’t reach, perhaps I have dinky digits.

Depends on brakes and shifters. All of my brakes are inside the shifters. Then again, they’re all hope tech levers which are pretty long.

I recently switched to 1 finger braking after many years of using 2 (or more) fingers. I haven’t died yet…

Brake levers can be either inboard or outboard of the shifters.

All of my bikes have inboard brake levers, I much prefer them that way.

What shifters? SLX or above has 2 optional positions where it attaches to the bar clamps, you can remove the little windows as well to save space. Run all of my bikes the other way around come to think of it.

It’s a rider fit and comfort thing.

I 1 finger brake, i could not get a happy medium with shimano gear shift pods and my brake levers as the design of the pods blocked getting the sweet spot and they didn’t have removable shift indicators.

I swapped to a SRAM Attack shifter and bingo perfect placement and comfort.

My finger can single brake, and work the shifter, before i had to move my hand to shift, or have good shifting but 1 finger braking was around the middle of the lever so less effective braking.

Only reason for me was to make it fit my hands and more comfy braking-shifting 🙂

I’m going to give it a go, cheers for the advice. If I don’t ever post again it’s obviously gone badly wrong 🙂

Did this on my rockrider for the first time last year. Haven’t want to swap back. The levers on my tektros are really long though so they needed to go inside the gears or I wouldn’t be able to reach the shifters at all.

As several posters have said, I run all my levers inside the shifters, for exactly the reason you want to.

Have no fear, OP, all is well!

XT shifter dials are removable which gives more choice. You definitely need a few inches between grip and brake otherwise your fingers are in the wrong place for the levers imo. Single finger braking is good.

run them where you want so long as you can reach them.

Personally I run my levers outboard but it all depends on the model of lever/shifter and also on your hands.

In terms of importance of ergonomics: Brakes >> Gears

Put the brake levers in the ‘right’ place for you and adjust the gear shifters around that. iSpec / variable shifter positions can make them fit better.

Two finger braking is for noobs and dweebs.

Another levers inboard of shifters guy here.
Wouldn’t have them any other way – the only one of my bikes that doesn’t use this layout is my singlespeed

It does depend what kind of shifters/brakes they are, though. With new-style shimano brake levers, the (shimano) shifter always goes inboard. However many fingers you brake with.

Still playing around with my current set-up, but this is how I’ve got mine at the moment. Might even move the levers further inboard.

Despite much forum derision, i like Avids, so for me it’s shifters inboard, brakes outboard. But it’s whatever feels comfortable.

brakes inboard works for me and i have tiny xt levers so i am sure you will be fine

I’ve gone for Hope matchmaker mounts, been riding these for about 4 years, they de clutter the bars and you can run them a good 3 – 4″ inbound from the end of the grips,

XT thumb shifters seem to be that big nowadays you have to have the way inboard to get your hands on the grips.

Try it, I doubt you will die but you never know ?

inboard for me…hope lever, xhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/dickbarton/9365003633tp://m.flickr.com/photos/dickbarton/9365003633/ttp://m.flickr.com/photos/dickbarton/9365003633/r shifter.

on my phone and link should be http://www.flickr.com/photos/dickbarton/9365003633/

Inboard/Outboard? How quaint!

Avid Matchmakers here. (With Elixir Rs which have been flawless)