Engineering students from the University of Guelph won a national design competition recently after creating a single-handed bike brake lever that was inspired by the needs of a 9-year-old girl with a malformed hand. The girl, Lauren, couldn't safely ride a standard bike with hand brakes, so the team designed a system that can be operated with one hand. The bike brake lever combines both the front and the back into the same lever handle using linkages and is specifically designed so that it may be used on any bike. It uses the same brake cables as any other bike and would be easy to integrate to any bike by just taking the old handle off and connecting the cables into the brake lever. The designers built a prototype and Lauren has been riding around with it, enjoying herself thoroughly. The team is looking for industry partners to produce the brake lever.
To read the full news article featuring this hand-brake, written by Anne-Marie Tobin of the Canadian Press, published on February 27, 2008, click on the following link: http://www.cbc.ca.