Originally Posted by
nlerner
I definitely don't have the bike-handling skills to squeeze the rear brake lever with one hand, reach down and pull the cable yoke with the other, and negotiate the curve I was encountering at 20+ mph!
True - one would have to feel pretty confident about letting go of the rear brake to handle the bike while yanking on the yoke cable.
I've found that exposed top tube cables that run between housings can be handy in such situations; sometimes you can get better rear brake performance by pulling the cable between the braze-ons. Not that I'd recommend it, but it's good to know in an emergency.
-Kurt