Can you learn to one finger brake?

When you one finger brake where do your fingers sit? At the same position where they would be if you were 2 finger braking or further towards the end of the lever? If it's not the latter then you may need to adjust your hand position or move your levers inboard to make that comfortable.

What brake levers? Are they designed for one finger braking?

I tried it with 3-finger levers and just couldn't adapt. Then I got some Saint brakes with proper 1 finger levers. Took about 5 minutes to adapt. I can adapt back and forth now. It just comes down to having suitable levers.

What gotbike says, you can’t just change to 1-finger braking without changing the lever/hand position, you might also find you need to change the lever reach position in/out to suit too. It’s absolutely worth sorting out though, there really is a good reason for almost every rider doing it

As per previous post, move your levers towards the stem about 1 finger amount so (a) you can comfortably only use 1 finger and (b) get maximum leverage from that one finger (your strongest finger). In long alp runs you're definitely need all 3 available fingers to hang on to the bars on long tiring runs 🙂

What about one of them wee finger exercise machine thingies. Designed i think for the older generation to retain finger strength* post retirement

* The reason Im looking to get one 😆

Once somebody pointed out that I was using my fingers to brake rather than hold onto the bike I learnt PDQ.

Have you tried middle finger braking? You get to hold on to the bars with your strongest finger, brake and give everyone the bird. And if you get tired you can swap out to index finger braking.

Shimano levers are best for this IMO. Move them inboard so it's difficult to do anything other than one finger braking. You'll soon learn!

I learnt it, needs brakes with an appropriate lever and enough power for your riding. I was doubtful until I tried SRAM G2 RSCs with 200/180 rotors and then bought a bike with them specced, then I got faster and doing longer runs and got finger pain, upgraded to Hayes Dominion A4s, braking is now bliss.

I have some MT7 brakes with 1 finger levers waiting to go on the bike so hopefully they'll make it easier to get used to.

Sounds like you just need to get used to it, brakes have been good enough for one finger use for probably decades.

Perhaps some of those crab claw style gloves that only has the index finger separately would force your hand.

Firstly you need brakes that are powerful enough to allow 1 finger braking. What do you have?
Get them sitting in the right place and you won't need 2 fingers to be comfortable.
If they're adjustable wind them in so you don't have to stretch for them.

Practice, practice and more practice - you may need to adjust the lever position to help get your 1 finger on the end of the lever blade (to help improve leverage and power with the pull), keep practicing and it will start to become more natural and feel better.

Short answer is YES but it's way more difficult to change than start off that way.

It's like I can ride around a car park with continental/US brakes but as soon as I need to brake intuitively on a trail I'm OTB or kids on balance bikes putting their feet down or clips/flats/clips. (Or manual/automatic)

All are totally possible but require extra effort (that effort increasing the more accustomed you are) and possibly** a few crashes until it becomes automatic... (**depending how fast you want to push the change)

As said above you need to adjust lever position... the absolute golden rule though is if your other fingers are "trapped" behind the lever you'll keep swapping back.

What brakes do you have? I'm a big heavy fella and a bike I had years ago which had hayes single pot brakes I had to use two fingers to apply enough pressure for a solid stop and it only had 160mm front rotor.

Current bike has sram guide R dual pot on 200mm rotors, two finger braking feels like I've no modulation. Worth noting I have a good probably 2" gap between bar and brake mount on the bars so I'm grabbing the end of the lever with my index finger which gives me enough modulation

I didn't used to one-finger brake, but as soon as I had the latest Shimano lever shape (and power, although, they obviously weren't really powerful, cos we all [i]needed[/i] an extra piston or 2 didn't we!) it just came naturally. That lever shape has been around for yonks now. Just get some if you haven't and line em up with your index finger.

Swap your brakes and shifters round, so that the brakes are nearer to the stem than the shifters.
This allows you to align the end of the lever with your index finger, whilst not crushing your other fingers when braking.

I've been doing this for years, and not longer get braking cramps in my fingers.

Can't work out why bikes don't come with things set up like this, TBH

“Swap your brakes and shifters round, so that the brakes are nearer to the stem than the shifters.”

This. Or move the whole lot towards the stem. It should be almost impossible to get your middle finger onto the lever, your index finger should be right on the end of the lever in the hook.

When I learned I moved the levers in a bit.

I'm not good at new bike skills. I managed this one.

You might find tinkering with the free play / stroke / bite adjustment so it bites a little closer to the bar helps.

Also a bit of excess power / bigger rotors helps.

I changed from two to one finger braking when I got some better brakes.

All my bikes have had the brake levers on the outside and shifter levers on the inside.

Chromax wax grips helped. They grips are a bit longer, and push the controls more inmoard.

Hold the bar with your pinkie almost at the very end.
Point index finger forwards.
That is where you want the tip of the lever - adjust the brake lever to get it in that position.
Adjust gear levers afterwards; they are much less important.

There is no way you NEED more brake power than your index finger can provide with any current functioning hydro disk. It’s a psychological thing though so perhaps more powerful brakes will give you the confidence to get over the hump as it were. I’m not sure if there’s an easy way to unlearn habits of a lifetime, but making 2 finger braking difficult ergonomically might be worth a try (eg put a collar around the bar to stop your hands migrating inwards or something).

It’s probably worthwhile doing but ultimately there are riders with all sorts of weird ergonomic quirks going faster than you and me, so I’d suggest it’s not the end of the world if you can’t make it work for you. Life’s too short sometimes 🙂

I fpund it a doddle, pretty boggo shimano brakes, was a lightbulb moment for me. Obvs we're all different but it might just click so keep trying it

Pretty sure I've been single digit braking since V brakes came on the scene. Feels weird to try two fingers now.

Will try moving my brakes inboard as suggested above. I just need to try and overcome the weird feeling of doubt that I’m not going to stop or go over the bars. Will try and get my one finger levers on asap to force myself to learn. Will let you know how it goes..or doesn’t go.

Humans aren't all the same. You see those finger length nonsense posts on Facebook?

I've always one finger braked. All the way back to magura hs33, deore mechanical, avid bb5 or hope m4.

Based on your hands you should be buying brakes. Not based on internet spamming reviews. Buy what fits you.

I do it a lot more than I used to. I always alternated between 2-3 fingers or middle finger braking. Moving the levers inboard helps a lot, forcing the issue somewhat and giving more leverage. Decently powerful brakes help too, I think a lot of it is confidence in having control with one finger, which is something I never had with the setup I had for a long time.

Decently powerful brakes help too, I think a lot of it is confidence in having control with one finger, which is something I never had with the setup I had for a long time.

Yes, having more powerful brakes makes a big difference to confidence. I suspect this is why Shimano went for their Servo-Wave levers. They are utter bastards if they aren't bled properly, but they are great for one finger braking when they are properly set up.

I single finger brake but as fatigue sets in either move to middle finger or if really feeling it two finger.

MT7s so no problem with power. A week in the Alps will probably see the end of the week with more two finger.

Alps again this year and I'm doing squash ball two finger squeezes to try to build strength/stamina.