How to hold grips correctly?

[brucem76]

Another question from a NOOB - how should I hold my handlebars? I hope that's not too silly a question, but here's my journey so far. I started with my hands just wrapped around the bars, and I was moving all 4 (or 3) of my fingers onto the brakes when I needed them. This didn't feel ideal for a number of reasons, and I tried to set up my bike for 1 finger braking. However, my 2 options were:

 

a) putting the shifting lever clamps inside the brake clamps on the bars. This meant I could get my brakes exactly where I wanted them, with enough free space on the bars to wrap my thumb and other 3 fingers nicely around the bars. However, the gear levers were then too far in to reach comfortably (in fact, it was near impossible to change gears)

 

b) putting the brake clamps inside the shifting lever clamps on the bars. This allowed me to get my brakes where I needed them, and the gear levers reachable without moving my hands around - however, there was no longer enough space for me to wrap my thumbs around the bar, I needed to now rest them on the gear lever.

 

At the moment I'm going with option "b" (as option "a" doesn't work at all) This means I can keep my index fingers permanently on the brakes (which feels natural and comfortable, and I find I can apply the power I need easily), my thumbs to push the shifters away from me, and my middle fingers to pull the shifters towards me. All 3 feel fine, but not having my thumbs around the bars feels vulnerable, like I could fling my hands off the front of the bars on a big bump.

 

Any thoughts??

 

Gear levers are: SLX, SL-M670

Brake levers are: Formula RX

[DR ◣◢]

The correct order is grip -> brake lever -> shifter 

 

Other way round won't really work. 

[DJR]

Whatever you do, you HAVE to be able to wrap your thumbs around the bar, or you are looking for a disaster. Rather have the brakes perfect and move your thumb to shift. Braking is more critical than shifting. With a bit of fiddling, it should be possible to find a good position, that is, with any of the modern shifters and brake levers.

[Boerklong]

Push your levers down. It helps not to be parallel to the top of your bars

[Boerklong]

Something like this

[worriesnot]

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/workshop-setting-up-the-cockpit-on-your-mountain-bike-20662/

[Cois]

I am lucky.  My gears and shifter is one unit.  Some Shimano LX thing.  Works great.  Just had a few shifts when I was doing red light braking...

 

But, I had to move mine more to the centre of the handle bars.  There is a 1,5 cm gap between the brakes and the shifter combo.  So it is easy enough for me to brake and shift.

[DJR]

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/workshop-setting-up-the-cockpit-on-your-mountain-bike-20662/

Nice simple clear article

[brucem76]

Whatever you do, you HAVE to be able to wrap your thumbs around the bar, or you are looking for a disaster. Rather have the brakes perfect and move your thumb to shift. Braking is more critical than shifting. With a bit of fiddling, it should be possible to find a good position, that is, with any of the modern shifters and brake levers.

Thanks. I'll see what the best compromise is, that allows my thumbs to wrap around, thanks for the clarity...

[SteveJhb]

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/workshop-setting-up-the-cockpit-on-your-mountain-bike-20662/

 

Very nice article, thank you. As another noob I picked up a lot from here I'd like to experiment with.

[brucem76]

Interesting - I have had to move my brakes 40mm inwards - that seems like a BIG change (they were jammed up against grips by default) - after riding for 2 months with them so badly set up, I'm interested to see how things feel on the trails tomorrow! (I'll report back)

[brucem76]

The correct order is grip -> brake lever -> shifter 

 

Other way round won't really work. 

 

So it turns out, this is not true. Heaps of people set up with grip -> shifter -> brake lever. In fact, some setup guys insist it's probably the only way you'll achieve being able to do all 3 of these: one-finger brake, shift gears without moving hands, and wrap thumbs around bar. In my case, this is true - it is the only way to achieve it.

 

Big breakthrough: I realised I can take the gear indicators (those plastic windows that show you what gear you are in with a moving red line) totally off my SLX shifters (I don't ever look at them anyway) - this makes it possible to put the shifter clamp right next to the brake lever clamp, with no interference between braking and shifting.

 

Happy camper - had an excellent ride, being able to one-finger brake, and shift gears effortlessly, with my thumbs nicely around the bar.

[Brett]

Looks like Google answered your questions. Happy riding!

Check you at the bottom!

[Pieter1]

So it turns out, this is not true. Heaps of people set up with grip -> shifter -> brake lever. In fact, some setup guys insist it's probably the only way you'll achieve being able to do all 3 of these: one-finger brake, shift gears without moving hands, and wrap thumbs around bar. In my case, this is true - it is the only way to achieve it.

 

Big breakthrough: I realised I can take the gear indicators (those plastic windows that show you what gear you are in with a moving red line) totally off my SLX shifters (I don't ever look at them anyway) - this makes it possible to put the shifter clamp right next to the brake lever clamp, with no interference between braking and shifting.

 

Happy camper - had an excellent ride, being able to one-finger brake, and shift gears effortlessly, with my thumbs nicely around the bar.

Yea man. When I had gears I did the same with my slx shifters and it worked super well. Glad you are sorted.