Oh and thats index finger too…

particularly if you're clipped in, your feet are highly constrained to a small circle, and necessarily the point of application of the force they exert (barring the propulsive torque) is concentrated on the bottom bracket, an even smaller space. Imagine keeping your torso still, what limited freedom your feet would have to act.

You seem to have a talent to stating exactly what I'm saying but then also saying that you're disagreeing with me!

The body position is moved around (in a quite particular fashion – see the article linked previously) in order to effect control of the bike via the feet. The hands are relatively much, much less important. If you ride on your feet (yes, to reiterate yet another time – you will need to transfer your weight to get in the right position) you will not get thrown forward on to your hands.

I'll carry on riding on my feet, and teaching hundreds of others how to do the same.

simonfb, i suspect that your techniques are ingrained from lots of riding over a fair few years; if you were to receive some coaching of some form on how to use flat pedals to your advantage, weighting your bike etc. it might go some way to improving your self confessed limited skillz, err, dood.

that said, i know you love your riding just the way it is and thats what counts, right?

learning how under rotation and riding on your feet work is IMO essential for anyone wanting to advance their handling in fast, technical situations. bottle, quick reactions and fluke will only get you so far!

as for the brake thing, one finger here too. i think the hope m4's with the tech lever are great for 1 finger braking as due to their relatively long lever blade you can get really good leverage which then allows you to run them pretty close to the bars and still get more than enough power. i often get comments on how far inboard i run mine but it really works for me. give it a bash!

levers are now angled up a bit and wound closer to the bar, this pic was pre-setup. i run my brakes 7cm inboard from the grips then do the rest by feel.

I don't have any choice in the matter I only have two working fingers on my right hand. Hasn't held me back.

Which is the index finger ? I use the first to hold the bars, the second to work the brake lever.

(This didn't help me much on a motorbike though)

Obviously I am using my left hand to whip out a mirror and check my hair and make-up.

That reminds me of Hugo Koblet – who reputedly always carried a comb to fix his appearance as he finished a stage.

One finger on Juicy Ultimates or BB7s. All fingers on my drum brakes (and could use some more) 🙂

I got used to riding with my index finger permanently resting on the lever,came from riding discs,most braking only needs one finger,if its serious then add another.
I used the C2's since they arrived with the pro levers,those were quite short 😕 I suppose that's why I adopted the style

I use two, but mostly because I can't get the brakes in the right position to use one. Force of habit too now I guess.

1 finger FTW….

I brake middle finger only. Mind you, I can barely hang onto the bike at high speed and end up running death grip so get regularly moaned at by the BF for doing so.

Prolly should try and convert to using my index finger. Might actually have some control over the direction of the bike then…

Good thing about using the middle finger is you can sort of lock your thumb and index finger together around the handle bar. A very wise man in the alps taught me it, does require to run your levers out far enough to avoid crushed knuckles.