Braking without left hand brake

[Kingfisher101]

Ride a bike with hydraulic disc brakes, mine would stop just using one or two fingers.

 

[PaulSB]

@alicat I had the same injury to my right middle finger two years ago. I wouldn't contradict your physio but my experience is different.

I continued to wear my splint when cycling for sometime after the injury healed. This was partially to protect the finger and partially to avoid discomfort while the strength returned.

I don't understand your physio's logic. I presume you ride for a few hours each week? It will be far from all of your time. The finger will regain its natural movement during every day activity. Protecting it with the splint when doing a possibly vulnerable activity isn't going to hinder that process. I would argue giving protection is a sensible precaution.

By chance I broke the same finger, more seriously, in an RTA seven weeks ago. My physio removed the splint last week. When I'm doing something strenuous, like gardening, I'm popping the splint back on for a couple of hours. Protection is important in my view.

 

[sevenfourate]

Ride a bike with hydraulic disc brakes, mine would stop just using one or two fingers.

I would think you'd be able to get a coupler to connect both Hydraulic brakes to one lever.(Or mechanically if you wanted to: via cable - just Hydraulic required less lever pressure as you say). I'm positive its been done numerous times for guys who've lost limbs in accidents.
In Motorsports for guys who need to continue riding in Championships while guarding an injury etc etc. Heck.....i'm also sure some standard road-bikes have what they call 'Linked brakes'......so they effectively do the right combination of front / rear braking for you without having to think. If not......i'm also sure it would be fairly straightforward to fit some sort of bias valve in; to split the braking 70/30 (For exapmple) Front to rear as required.

I've also seen numerous Freestyle BMX riders run two rear brakes (All these will be cable operated - not Hydraulic) controlled from one lever. Some have a cable splitter down the line. Some have a lever that houses two individual cables - ie: One cable for each caliper. Might take a little setting up, but............

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/39541838...3AKJlyFHmlY9G3cVQ0jh7XJWwr|tkp:Bk9SR7iJiommZA

*I think mechanically / technically theres lots of ways to achieve safe braking using F+R brakes: but only one lever........

Good luck ! With your injury. And your braking dilemma.

 

[alicat]

I don't understand your physio's logic. I presume you ride for a few hours each week? It will be far from all of your time. The finger will regain its natural movement during every day activity. Protecting it with the splint when doing a possibly vulnerable activity isn't going to hinder that process. I would argue giving protection is a sensible precaution.

I have had the same thoughts @PaulSB. The best sense I can make of it is that they think that keeping the splint on at this stage is creating a swan neck deformity and they don't realise I'm not out on the bike all day. I'm reluctant to go against their advice but I did put the splint on for a 10 minutes "popping to the shops" ride yesterday.

 

[presta]

In late Jan, I tripped and broke my left little finger (mallet fracture i.e. the tendon keeping the end joint straight came away taking a large fragment of bone with it).

Google is telling me that what you refer to as a 'mallet fracture' is an avulsion fracture, which is what I had in my left little and ring fingers after I tripped and fell in 2019.

The GP told me to exercise them. They were swollen like they were fit to burst, but it wasn't until I went back 9 weeks later complaining of all the pain the exercise was causing that he sent me for the x-ray which found they were broken, and by then it was too late to do anything with them. This was before I'd given up cycling, so I just braked using more force from the good fingers and less from the broken ones. I can't remember what I did with the shopping, probably just carried the bag with the good fingers.

The pain went eventually, and as far as mobility goes I got most of it back, but not all. There's still a noticeable set to the joints: they clench fully, but don't quite straighten. There's a bump that shows in the palm of my hand too, so I assume that something got pulled or torn in there as well.

 

[alicat]

^^^^ oh that sounds nasty @presta and I think Google may have misled you. My bony mallet injury is an extensor fracture at the DIP joint i.e. the end joint not the middle joint. I only left it 10 days before I went to the local minor injuries unit so they could splint it and in fact the fragment of bone has moved nearer the end joint.

 

[presta]

An avulsion fracture is when a tendon or ligament pulls a fragment of bone off, which seems to be what you're describing. Isn't a mallet fracture just one particular category of avulsion fracture? Your x-ray looks pretty similar to mine, except that it's a different place on a different joint.

 

[Dadam]

I'm not sure what your bars and brake levers look like (I'm visualising flat bars?) but can you hold the bar so that when you grasp the lever your little finger would not touch it, so you're squeezing the lever with the other 3 fingers? Or just the first two, as the little finger often follows the ring finger. You could maybe move the lever in toward the centre an inch or so, then your hand position on the bar wouldn't change. You would still have the force of the first two fingers plus a bit more leverage for them.

 

[Nibor]

You could get a 2 finger lever on the left as per the old BMX levers
https://www.townsends-lb.co.uk/comp...d__8144?currency=GBP&chosenAttribute=BLDCX2LR

 

[alicat]

^^^ Nice thought Dadam and Nibor but I managed to re-injure the finger without it touching the brake lever at all. Sudden braking force from the other fingers makes the little finger join in.

I've got five bikes and regularly ride 3 of them. I'm planning as follows:

1. Wear splint with flat bar shopper/sit up and beg bike (used for short trips round town).

2. Fit Problem Solvers cable doubler to drop handlebar road bike.

3. Practise pedalling backwards on fixed wheel or put it away for a while or fit a Dia-Compe right double cable lever.

Thanks everyone for your interest and contributions. It's not been the best of years but I think my finger is finally on the mend and I don't want to jeopardise it during the final furlong....

 

[fossyant]

You could get a bike with proper brakes (i.e. not drums), or possibly a parachute or an anchor ?

 

[Gillstay]

If you look at older motorbikes you will find that several used linked front and rear brakes. Via a cable. See Rudge or Gillet. 1930's.

Moto Guzzi did it with discs. So a double cable set up should be easy. I would start as suggested by looking at parts from BMX bikes.

 

[rogerzilla]

Decent coasters, with separate brake shoes, work pretty well. They do need fairly regular stripdowns as the wear debris contaminates the grease, but the singlespeed ones have few parts.

 

[mickle]

Problem solvers' single to twin cable doodahs and double cable levers suffer from the same issue: they make the brakes very difficult to modulate. It's very difficult to dial in any level of front/rear bias - so you never can tell which of your brakes is getting more power. And also, on certain twin cable levers, if one brake fails through cable breakage you lose both brakes.

In my opinion the best solution for you also happens to be the cheapest. Take your left brake lever off and install it, upside down, on your right handlebar - outboard and slightly underneath your right brake lever. Adjust both levers so that you can operate them both at the same time with different fingers of your right hand. Experiment with placement until you find the most ergonomic set up. You might find that two fingers on each lever works best, or one and three.

 

[alicat]

Thanks very much @mickle - what you said about cable breakage did worry me, I must admit.

I did order a Problem solvers doodah but didn't fit it. I'm trying to be brave and ride without any adaptation. It does mean that I'm not riding much at all but as time passes and the bend in my finger improves the problem should go away, I hope.

I'll have a go with your solution since it should work with my flat bar shopper bike and my Brompton.