Two fingers for clutch and f-brake

[Nath]

Reading the thread about standing up has made me think about this.

I did a weekend break with one of those Spain trailriding companies last year. They taught and recommended making an effort to get used to standing up and using just two fingers for the clutch and brake levers. I could see the logic behind this but doubted whether three riding days was enough to start benefiting. The standing up only just started to come good by the third day (and I'd be starting from scratch again since I haven't been off tarmac since, a year ago), but the two fingers for clutch and front brake did start to work out.

I work as a London based despatch rider, and I when I came home from my long weekend I decided to make the two finger thing permanent. That would be the biggest advised changed to my riding style for years. It took a couple of months to get comfortable with, as the clutch on my cbf600 was obviously heavier than on an enduro bike. And all day everyday riding takes its toll. At first I was experiencing noticable pain in my left hand towards the end of a weeks riding, not helped by my relentless use of the gearbox on a bike with a very close ratio box. And i noticed I wasn't pulling in the front brake hard enough when trying to stop in a hurry - A few scarey emergency stops which would have been comfortable had I still been been braking as normal.

Over time I beat the braking issue, I guess a matter of conditioning those two fingers to be stronger, and to naturally react in emergency stop situations. My left hand still gets achy near to the end of the week, if I've been spending too much time stuck in London rather than out on the road, but not so much as to be a problem.


On the road, riding like this during the last year (and about 60k miles) has probably saved me from a couple of accidents. If you like to go through traffic aggressively, it will probably eventually save your life. For anyone wanting to improve their riding style on the road this would be the biggest suggestion I would make easily. If you ride off tarmac, the advantages are obvious, documented, and pretty much essential if you want to tackle the tricky stuff without looking like a dickhead.