i was musing this recently. today, it doesnt make any sense to me at all wqhy they have the brakes the wrong way round, particularly on a mtb. All motorbikes are ‘correct’ ie front brake on the right. So i wonder if any pro DH riders who also ride MX convert to UK mtb brake spec spec, or just deal with them being different?

Why are the brakes the other way? So you can signal without going over the bars. Then it becomes convention. Why would you want to have a road bike and mountain bike different.

It’s to with being able to brake (rear) whilst riding with one hand to indicate turning across a lane of traffic so the other way round if you are on the other side of the road.

I know of Americans/Canadians that swap them to ride “moto style”

What they said.

On a motorbike the rear brake is under your foot, so indicating with your hand is easy in either direction. But slowing down in a hurry takes (think back to SLS drum brakes) some hand strength, so it’s always done with the right hand.

who would ride a road bike 🙂

imagine being a serious enduro motorbike rider who also rides a mtb (or vice versa) – it would take some brain training to get right.

The reason i was thinking about it is the wife suggested hiring some mtbs on holiday for a jaunt about – great idea – but then i thought about the brakes and knowing me i’ll get it wrong and fall off. hopefully we can hire cheap ones with cable brakes and swap them over.

I always got used to it pretty quickly, a bit like driving a LHD car.

it would take some brain training to get right.

Only if you had some serious deficiencies. I’ve ridden bikes with brakes both ways round for years. No problems at all. I currently have 2 mountain bikes each with different brake setup and a road bike with ‘UK’ brakes and live and ride in the US with no brake-related issues.

isn’t the front brake on the right a thing only related to the dominance of Japanese motorbikes?

Didn’t I read somewhere that the front brake used to be on the left on English motorbikes? (I could be wrong)

I don’t recommend doing anything steep immediately after getting on your wrong-way-around bike. Gorse is a pit ouchy when you throw yourself in it.

Wrong way round brakes lead to the best “watch this!” Moments when someone tries to show off doing a big skid

MTB-Idle – Member
isn’t the front brake on the right a thing only related to the dominance of Japanese motorbikes?

Didn’t I read somewhere that the front brake used to be on the left on English motorbikes? (I could be wrong)

Yep, you’re wrong. It’s the gearchange/rear brake that changed sides.

The reason i was thinking about it is the wife suggested hiring some mtbs on holiday for a jaunt about – great idea – but then i thought about the brakes and knowing me i’ll get it wrong and fall off. hopefully we can hire cheap ones with cable brakes and swap them over.

Quite a few hydraulic brakes are easy to swap now. Also anywhere that has a reasonable number of UK tourists will be able to supply bike the right way round.

Also anywhere that has a reasonable number of UK tourists will be able to supply bike the right way round.

Whistler certainly does. They’re pretty spot on too, so they rarely ask they just give you what you are used to. Which screwed me up as they gave me a “UK bike” and I ride with brakes the Euro/US way around.

ive never bothered tbh . adapt pretty quickly .

even the wife managed.

its all in the mind if you start over thinking it you will get it wrong 😀

– and its not as if we were keeping it tame at mammoth mountain.

I swapped mine over because it looks better, and a better looking bike is a faster bike (obvs 😉 )

I have always had my rear brake on right. From days of box where I only had a rear brake and I am right handed so preferred it to be right hand.

There is no wrong way round about it, just down to preference.

Another rear-right here too. Have run my brakes this way round since early roadie days – cabling with continental brakes and frames is neater, plus Merckx had his brakes that way round, so it must be right 🙂
Never had any trouble riding bikes with brakes the other way round either.

How on earth does it “look better”?
2 levers on the bars and 2 hoses going to front / rear.

Sheldon Brown’s thoughts on the subject:

There is considerable disagreement as to which brake should be connected to which lever:

Some cyclists say it is best to have the stronger right hand (presuming a right-handed cyclist) operate the rear brake.

Motorcycles always have the right hand control the front brake, so cyclists who are also motorcyclists often prefer this setup. A moment of confusion in an emergency situation can be deadly. The left lever on a motorcycle operates the clutch, which will not stop you!

There are also observable national trends:

In countries where vehicles drive on the right, it is common to set the brakes up so that the front brake is operated by the left lever.
In countries where vehicles drive on the left, it is common to set the brakes up so that the front brake is operated by the right lever. The European Union has adopted this as a standard, even though only the United Kingdom and Ireland are left-side driving countries. The standard is not universally observed; a reader has written in to say that the left lever usually controls the front brake in Denmark.

The theory that seems most probable to me is that the national standards arose from a concern that the cyclist be able to make hand signals, and still be able to reach the primary brake. This logical idea is, unfortunately, accompanied by the incorrect premise that the rear brake is the primary brake.

For this reason, I set my own bikes up so that the right hand controls the front brake, which is not the norm in the U.S.

I also do this because I’m right-handed, and wish to have my more skillful hand operate the more critical brake.

Sheldon Brown’s thoughts make sense to me. When living in Finland, my bikes which I built up myself were RH Front, LH rear (moto style). Except for one complete bike bought from CRC which was delivered as RH Rear.

I’ve hired downhill, trail and bikes with RH Rear and it took me about 30mins to get used to the brakes being on the other side. Likewise, Estonian and Finnish friends have borrowed my bikes with moto-style brakes and have adjusted similarly quickly. I’ve not yet met somebody who can’t make the change…

Interesting that a number of people have stated ‘it’s easy to adapt’/ ‘it’s all in the mind’ etc…

That’s all well and good when you are able to consciously think about what you doing (i.e you are ‘consciously competent’)

The problem can come when you don’t have time to think about it, i.e. in an emergency and what you do normally in that emergency situation takes over, i.e. your ‘unconscious competence’ actions are executed…

That’s what happened to Richard Hammond when he had his crash, although he had learnt to apply the brake with his hand in the car he was driving, in the ensuing emergency he forgot what to do….

TooTall – Member
it would take some brain training to get right.
Only if you had some serious deficiencies

you bellend!

When weeing in the shoes of my enemies is not enough, and I might need to run them through with a sword, then I would probably need to control my rear brake with my left hand. Obviously foreign enemies cycle on the wrong side and make a complete mockery of revenge.

All my bikes are set up “US style” – because I’m an American. Beyond just being used to it, I always thought it made a bit more sense from a “right-hand manages rear brake/derailleur, left does front brake/derailleur”.

Also being American I’m doing my bit to spread our soft power through setting up my kids’ bicycles this way as well, and reminding them that all their friends’ bikes are set up wrong.

How on earth does it “look better”?

Only one shifter, on the right hand side, with a cable that goes to the rear of the bike. Back brake lever also has a cable that goes to the rear (obvs), put them together and they follow each other and it looks oarsumz 😉

How on earth does it “look better”?

Crossing over each other and matching the offset top tube cable guides.

Roadie brakes are designed for right rear are they not? Well campag defo. The cable looks awkward on the front brake uk style. I wonder if Japanese are the same as us – ie shimano

Brakes opposite way round to shifters, obvious init! 🙁