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Up until the start of the year, I was a keen road cyclist, I even dabbled a bit on here amongst the experts, but unfortunately in February I suffered a stroke.

I am gradually starting to pick things up again, one of which is a desire to get myself riding once more.

The stroke has left me with some damage, in particular it has paralysed my left arm and left me very unbalanced(!). I'm hopeful that maybe converting to a tricycle will help with the latter, but I have a question specifically about the former.

For the sake of this question, the bike I'm thinking about converting is about 5 years old, has brifters and dual pivot rim brakes. It shifts mechanically.

Now, I figure that it might be possible to rig something up, so as to allow me to operate the front derailleur with my right hand. An inventive use of a bar-end shifter, perhaps? But I'm at a loss as to how I can get the bike to brake smoothly, operating both front and rear brakes at once. One solution I can think of would be to control both brakes with the same brifter, and I was wondering, is this even possible in practise?

Also, I'm aware that an easier option, given my disability, might be to use an electronic shifter. In this scenario, I wouldn't even try to modify the existing bike, but would instead buy something new. But of course, current fashion dictates that new bikes commonly ship with disc brakes, and so I have a secondary question regarding how I might do this with hydraulic disc brakes. (Presumably, with mechanical disc brakes, the approach would be the same as for dual pivot brakes?)

Please note I'm not looking for a product recommendation here - I'm quite capable of doing this myself - but if someone can say "Yes, I've seen it done", and maybe suggest some search terms, then I would be grateful. As things stand, I'm not even sure what to look for.

James Bradbury
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PeteH
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  • Thanks for fixing the typos, @JamesBradbury. It also affected my vision, but hopefully not quite to the extent that I'll be crashing into parked cars! – PeteH Oct 23 '16 at 12:31
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    If you check BMX brake items you can find a variety of levers with double cable pulls in a single handle. There are also "Y" brake cables that actuate two cables from a single lever. They are typically used with "Gyro" headsets. – mikes Oct 23 '16 at 13:09
  • Thanks @mikes, I'm seeing them on Google, I will look into them but, thus far, B/atman's suggestion looks ideal. – PeteH Oct 23 '16 at 14:59
  • @PeteH No problem. It would be interesting to hear what solutions you find, so could you update the question or answer when you have something that works for you? – James Bradbury Oct 23 '16 at 19:20
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    For mechanical (cable-operated) brakes you need something slightly more complex than a simple Y cable. Due to temperature changes, cable stretch, pad wear, etc, even if you precisely adjust the two cables from a Y to equally activate both brakes, there will be some imbalance in short order, so an "equalizer" (eg, a short lever at the head of the Y) must be used. However, this needs to have a "safety" feature so that all braking will not be lost if the cable on one side breaks or some such. – Daniel R Hicks Oct 23 '16 at 20:02
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    You could go to mechanical disks (e.g. BB7's) if you don't want to deal with hydraulics. Also MTB's a loosing the front deraileur, with insane rear clusters e,g, SRAM have a 12 speed 10-50, and 11 speed 11-42 common, so loosing the front mechanical is entirely possible, so with a problem solver you could use a brifter on a MTB rear. – mattnz Oct 23 '16 at 20:35
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    @mattnz - That's a good point re the front derailleur. I guess in the UK, discs might be nice for the rain, but rims should be adequate. I don't see a nice way to shift the front with one arm with a bar end or something and staying in control easily. Also, the part is a JTek Shiftmate in that case (which is a UK based company, so shouldn't be hard to find). – Batman Oct 23 '16 at 21:32
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    @DanielRHicks - That seems hard. With one lever, you're always going to have one brake cable out that can break, so you'd need something like a brifter and an interrupter lever. One of the brakes is hooked up to a splitter (e.g. Cable Doubler 2:1) with one end going to the interrupter lever, and the other to a combiner (e.g. Cable Doubler 1:2) along with the other brake, which is hooked up to the brifter. Then, if any one cable breaks, you still have braking. But you'd need to stick a bunch of barrel adjusters and stuff and faff with regular tuning (which is unavoidable). – Batman Oct 23 '16 at 21:36
  • And I'm not sure that that setup would introduce enough slop and stuff to not work well. The straightforward solution has 1 cable of failure, which is from the one brake lever to whatever setup you have. Something to think about though. – Batman Oct 23 '16 at 21:38
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    Actually, I guess one logical thing to do if you want an upright bike with two independent brakes is to have one rim brake to the lever, and an igh for the back with a coaster brake. You'd need to get a new brifter from Versa for the IGH since friction shifting the IGH with something like a Retroshift shifter + downtube shifter is probably not going to end well, and JTek's bar end shifter for IGH's is probably going to be a bit hard to use with one hand. – Batman Oct 23 '16 at 21:57
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    I would be very tempted to use back pedal brakes, but fitting the IGH shifter to drop bars will be an exciting challenge. You're into "custom bike build" territory just by asking that question. And Pete, welcome back, we miss you :) – Móż Oct 24 '16 at 00:04
  • As a side issue, I am looking at some of the offerings by the larger trike manufacturers. I can't believe that something weighing 28kg is being marketed as "lightweight"! This tank comes with 3x7 drivetrain. You guys with bikes don't know you're born! – PeteH Oct 24 '16 at 10:46
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    Hey Pete! I'd like to suggest you're doing it in the wrong order. If your balance is suspect then a two-wheel bike might be unsuitable. As soon as you look at a tricycle or recumbent then there's a lot more variety, albeit cost tool. Have you considered a `bent? – Criggie Oct 24 '16 at 21:00
  • You still have the same situation, unless you're using one of those levers which can operate both brakes at the same time (e.g. has 2 cable inlets). But the balance would be better. – Batman Oct 24 '16 at 21:12
  • @PeteH 28kg is heavy for a trike, but not unreasonably so if you're looking at a cheap or rugged one. Racing trikes should be under 20kg, unfaired you should be able to go under 15kg without too much hassle. My Rotovelo weighed 33kg with a Rohloff in it. Email me if you want pointers. KMX do 900 quid/19kg if you want basic and bombproof. Ice Sprint is lighter and nicer... but you pay for that – Móż Oct 24 '16 at 22:13
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    @Criggie, I am looking for a trike, I thought that was clear from the question? As regards a recumbent, anything low requires a tremendous effort to stand back up (even getting up from the couch was a major effort a few months ago!) So I really want something upright. But I've never heard of a "bent" - I'll check it out on the web. – PeteH Oct 25 '16 at 20:36
  • @Móż I think 28kg is very unreasonable when a fast road bike weighs in the region of just 10kg. High 20s does seem quite typical of the larger manufacturers, who will obviously be looking to satisfy the needs of most punters, rather than my needs. However I have found a guy who says his trike weighs around 15kg, so I remain hopeful of finding something. – PeteH Oct 25 '16 at 20:57
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    @PeteH upright trikes I'm afraid I know next to nothing about. I suspect needing three wheels, and needing much more lateral strength, makes everything very heavy. It's just a bad design IMO. There are some sitting-higher-up recumbent trikes, especially delta trikes. Greenspeed Anura is 18kg, Hase KettWiesel is 17kg. If you can deal with one of those I think it'd be better than an upright trike. – Móż Oct 25 '16 at 21:37
  • We're getting a little away from the question of brake levers - politely suggest this whole trike bit moves to chat. – Criggie Oct 25 '16 at 23:08
  • Thanks @Criggie but I don't really need any advice about the type of bike to look for. Brake levers with added function, however, is a different matter! – PeteH Oct 26 '16 at 06:41
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. – jimchristie Oct 26 '16 at 12:31

2 Answers2

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Glad to see you're back!

You can use a Problem Solvers Cable Doubler 1:2 to pull 2 brakes with 1 lever. Its a little device which you hook up the two brakes to (assuming they have the same cable pull) with 2 sets of brake cables, then run something to the levers. This works for essentially any pair of cable operated brakes with the same cable pull.

For hydraulic brakes, there are some lever mounting strategies here, but I'm pretty sure the obvious solution (using a Y-splitter in the hydraulic line) won't work.

You also might want to look at this question for general one armed cycling stuff.

As for shifting, a bar end shifter is probably easiest, or shimming a thumb shifter. Depending on how your strength is distributed, an interrupter lever might be useful as well.

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Batman
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    Cheers @Batman, these things look ideal, and I seem to be able to get hold of something in the UK. I'm obviously getting sufficiently strong to be starting to think about cycling once again, I see you're just as prolific on here as you always used to be! The two brakes are identical, btw, so pull will not be an issue. – PeteH Oct 23 '16 at 15:02
  • Also, I've just spent the last couple of hours looking at new bikes on the web. Even if I end up going down a Di-2 (or something) route, several bikes still seem to come with rim brakes. So it looks like my question about hydraulic systems was pirely academic. – PeteH Oct 23 '16 at 15:21
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    @Batman I'm not a cyclist, but I do work on car brake lines. On older (non-fancy/simpler) vehicles, the two rear brakes were fed by one line that was split by a simple Y to go to each wheel. The two rear wheels receive equal pressure. The two front brakes are fed a little differently, but they still have equal pressure between the two of them. The fronts gets higher pressure than the rears. There are devices called adjustable proportioning valves that allow gear-heads to adjust the relative front and rear pressure. I don't know if it would be compatible with bicycles though. – Zach Mierzejewski Oct 23 '16 at 15:55
  • @ZachMierzejewski - You'd need something like an adjustable proportioning valve since you need to keep the relative pressures in the front and back different on a bicycle for good braking. But I think you need to put some booster or something for using just a Y, else the lever will probably just bottom out. – Batman Oct 23 '16 at 21:08
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    @PeteH - Problem Solvers is a part of QBP, so a ton of shops should be able to order it (especially shops that sell Salsa/Surly/All City/Civia, since those are all QBP brands). A lot of bike shops in the US buy their stock from QBP so they can normally special order it. As for the DI-2 stuff, I'm not sure that shifting is designed to be significantly easier. Worst case, JensonUSA ships world wide and would charge about 68 USD(56 GBP) for the device with shipping; 20% of it is shipping and stuff. You could probably also grab some inline adjusters at the same time to ease setup for little more. – Batman Oct 23 '16 at 21:17
  • @Batman well, certainly not common, but I did find someone who supplied them here. And we have none of what you probably think of as "big names" (Surly, Salsa etc.) in the UK, btw – PeteH Oct 24 '16 at 10:42
  • @PeteH - Ah. I saw Salsa had a bunch of dealers listed on their website, but maybe they're not well geographically distributed. – Batman Oct 24 '16 at 14:07
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Brake Director appears to be another option.

PeteH
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  • That looks neat (and probably better than the problem solvers solution if you don't have enough hand force). – Batman Oct 24 '16 at 15:11