Front brake - left or right?

dia tech and dia compe - same make??

Go to Condor they have them all on display.

anywhere in london sell the little dia-tech gold finger levers??

S

I bought a Gold Finger from from Condor today.

14.99

Left and right levers are in stock, available in several colors.

General rule of thumb is what ever feels right.

Whichever hand is not holding your polo mallet!

only two sensible answer to this dull question

europe has front brake on left UK on right worth knowing if you borrow (hire) in France Spain Italy

^ it soon becomes apparent!

left of course, so you can hold the polo mallet in your right hand

right of course, so you can hold the polo mallet in your left hand

do the goldfinger brakes need a road or an mtb/bmx barrel type end??

ta

The model at Condor come with a silver shim to be used with 22.2 bmx type bars.

Go shimless to use on larger 25.4 road bars.

Is that what you're asking?

oh no sorry - i was not very clear. i was asking about the cable type i needed.

BMX type cable end.

cheers

[Still in nursery. First post, and forgive me for it's possible stupidity -- haven't ridden fixed before, and awaiting getting a Fuji Track near the end of the year.]

What with only having a front brake on a fixed bike, isn't there a fairly high chance of being thrown over the handlebars? At least if your legs aren't pushing back hard enough on the pedals when trying to stop?
A couple of years ago, cycling on a geared bike one-handed because of carrying a shopping bag, I managed to pull the front brake and fling myself over, thus breaking my arm. I'd rather not repeat that. (Although this time it'd be in the UK, where the hospitals are marginally more pleasant than in Serbia.)

You need to learn how to use a brake correctly. Most braking should come from your front brake (if you have one and you should have one) unless it's loose/slippery in which case you wanna be a bit more 'relaxed' about your front brake use.

Your body weight should be moved right back over the saddle when you apply the front brake hard in order to keep the rear end of the bike down.

It's all just practice.

... and since one can't edit posts [or I can't see how, anyhow] I'll use my second of five nursery posts to correct:

"First post, and forgive me for its possible stupidity --"

another idea is to not have the brake set up too aggressive (i.e. a little pull and the brake grab immediately), I find the best way is to set it up to make it grab gently, so if something appear that shouldn´t have in the first place, quick instinct of grabbing the brake hard will result in a gentle slow down rather than a flip over the bar.

or have it set up properly and don't pull the lever so hard.

as hippy said, body weight and practice. plus anticipation and a sixth sense.

i have it on the left on my SS and on the right for fixed. why? becuase the brakes and levers were from another bike and i used both on my two bikes.

i ride a SS with one brake, arnt i dangerous.

in all seriousness i have them set up that way for right turn signaling, on my fixed its less important becuase i raely use the hand brake.

i have it on the left on my SS and on the right for fixed. why? becuase the brakes and levers were from another bike and i used both on my two bikes.

i ride a SS with one brake, arnt i dangerous.

in all seriousness i have them set up that way for right turn signaling, on my fixed its less important becuase i raely use the hand brake.

Roger that....

being able to signal for right hand turns is more important than being able to signal for left hand turns...so on the left for me....this has been covered before, have you searched?

Left - No
Right - No
Middle - Yes

pure class

Right that's it, I'm swapping my lever over to the left so I can right signal while braking.

Or am I? My left hand is weaker so I cannot brake as hard with it...

Why is your right hand stronger?

Right that's it, I'm swapping my lever over to the left so I can right signal while braking.

Or am I? My left hand is weaker so I cannot brake as hard with it...

I recommend having the brake on the side that your hands favour, ie: right handed people have it on the right.

why?

because you can modulate your braking better with your "good" hand.

the signalling thing doesn't do it for me, you're slowing down already for a turn, you're using your legs to slow anyway.
I signal all the time, and have never found the need to grab the front brake whilst doing it. an emergency stop with one hand on the bars isn't going to happen very well anyway is it!

as for people using only a front brake on a freewheel bike, the whole above argument goes out the window, those people are called "cretins"