Reason Im thinking about this is Im just determining what my pub bike will be (Im off to San Francisco in a few days & getting a pub bike seems like the decent thing to do). So, I was looking at pics of a Swobo Otis & cldnt work out why the pic was doing my nut in..then the penny dropped 
Anyway, was just wondering if anyone had any idea why it is the way it is..
Bike Forum
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Brakes - why do our cousins in the USofA put the brakes on the other way???
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Posted 3 years ago #
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I think it's the whole world that go that way, except us. Bloody left hand drive bikes
Posted 3 years ago # -
yup, where I am from the brakes are opposite way to England
Posted 3 years ago # -
The way I understand it is you keep your left hand on the bars whilst you indicate to turn right so you can cover the rear brake which is less likely to throw you off if you panic brake and lock the wheel. Therefore in a right hand drive country you keep your right hand on the bars to turn left and cover brake. That doesnt explain why all motorbikes are right hand front brake
Posted 3 years ago # -
Im going have to tell the LBS there to swap it over or I am going to be soooo confused by it...I can see all kinds of nasty accidents happening when I swap bikes!
Posted 3 years ago # -
it's just irrational thinking. There's a lot of it about.
Posted 3 years ago # -
It's all a bit sinister...
Posted 3 years ago # -
Really it ought to be the other way round in the UK (and where drives on the left) and the right way round elsewhere in the world (that drives on the right) so that when (here) indicating right (to cross oncoming traffic) you can leave your (right) indicating hand indicating and left to use the front brake braking (instead of the less effective rear) surely?
Posted 3 years ago # -
In the uk, the best way round for slightly clumsy people (and i include myself in this!) is that you indicate to turn right whist feathering the back brake with your left hand. If you feathered the front and then got a bit wobbly your reflexes might make you squeeze harder and go over/off.
At least, that is what i always thought.
Posted 3 years ago # -
That doesnt explain why all motorbikes are right hand front brake
I guess because you have indicators you don't need to use your hands.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Nice one Pants - Ill buy that. It almost makes sense apart from the motorbikes..
Posted 3 years ago # -
Am I right in thinking a hand signal is not necessary in the situation where the hill is too steep to control the speed with the back brake alone ? I signal my intent by riding along the white dividing lines
Posted 3 years ago # -
Don't know whether it's true, but I read somewhere that it's because you can't apply so much pressure with the left hand(everyone was assumed to be right handed at one time), and therefore would be less likely to throw yourself over the bars.Seems to make sense in a country where you can sue somebody else successfully for your own stupidity, not sure about elsewhere though.
Posted 3 years ago # -
how should I know?
Posted 3 years ago # -
I have always set my brakes up with the rear lever on the right.
With me, i think it comes from racing bmx, only ever had one brake on it, and because i'm right handed, thats where it went.Posted 3 years ago # -
all motorbikes a rh front brake,, i have had a couple of big offs on hire bikes abroad when you grab a big handfull of what you thought was the rear brake on a steep decent,, or a flight of stairs inside a factory in taiwan
Posted 3 years ago # -
What about left hand turns?
You still need to signal and slow down.
Posted 3 years ago # -
UpQuickDownSlow - Member
That doesnt explain why all motorbikes are right hand front brake
I guess because you have indicators you don't need to use your hands.
My motorbike hasnt got indicators but then it is 40 years old in july.
It might have changed but you didnt need indicators to pass an MOT the only requirement was if they were fitted they had to work.
Posted 3 years ago # -
some euro riders will have their brakes set up like us brits/aussies/kiwis/japs/south africans/zimbabweans/irish if they ride motorbikes to eliminate the confusion of going from one to another.
they falsly call it 'moto', not 'empire'.
Posted 3 years ago # -
If you look at your frames all the stops for the brakes are set up to have nice clean cable lines, so no nasty kinks in the cable. The front on the left and rear on the right. The correct way
Posted 3 years ago # -
i was under the impression that cycle brakes in UK were like that (front right, rear left) BECAUSE of conforming with motorcycle brakes standard.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I asked this question a while ago in my German LBS. They said that many years ago the brakes were set up like we have them in the UK (ie right hand for the front brake). Then when cantilever brakes were developed it was deemed that as most people are right handed the stronger right hand would have too much power for these new 'super' brakes and so they changed them round. Seems plausible to me.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Plausible, other than all euro road bikes having been setup right/rear since forever
Posted 3 years ago # -
It's to do with the right hand/turning right thing, hence being related to the side of the road you ride on!
Posted 3 years ago # -
Just found this:
Do you know why this is? A brief history of time…Cycling hand turning signals originated from the same signals that cars used before they had indicator lights. For example, in America when a car wants to turn left, the driver (who sits on the left side of the car) put his left arm straight outside the window. If the driver wanted to signal right, he had to make a “L” with his left arm out the window (because he wouldn’t be able to reach out to the right side of the window with a straight arm to indicate a right turn). Similarly in places like Australia and the UK where you drive on the left side of the road, the driver (sitting on the right of the car) would have extend his right arm straight out the window to turn right, and same arm in a “L” shape to signal to turn left.
These turning signals were adopted by cyclists and the national standards organizations in each country got involved. There was concern that the cyclist should be able to make hand turning signals and still be able to reach the primary brake. The logic is accompanied by the premise that the rear brake is the primary brake. These standards organizations misunderstood braking and thought that using the front brake was hazardous and would cause the cyclist to abruptly topple over the front when hitting the front brake (endo!). In reality, very few accidents result from braking from the front.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Always run rear-right/front-left. For me you do more gear changing with your right, and back in the day, before discs it wasnt so easy to try and haul on a brake lever and change at the same time, 'speshly on the road with down tube shifters! looks better too
Posted 3 years ago # -
I've run the "right" way around (front left) for years. Works for me.
-Better/ cleaner cable lines.
-Everything for the front of the bike on the left (gears & brakes) and rear on right- seems more intuitive.
-I'm also left handed and best hand on best brake made sense.
-It annoys others.Posted 3 years ago # -
As ever, the late great Sheldon Brown had a view:
Posted 3 years ago #
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