[Closed] Anyone run their brakes the Euro way?

It's to do with which side of the road you drive on and being able to indicate safely. But I run mine euro and ways have,never really bothered me but find it hard to ride normal now.

It's usually an easy job to swap them round, and can often be done without a bleed. Even if they do need bleeding then realistically it's good to have a bleed kit for your brakes anyways, and they're pretty cheap.

By all means go ahead and try the brain relearn thing, but don't forget if you have other bikes, or ever ride anyone else's/hire/demo bikes in this country, it could all end badly!

Swap them around unless you want to have a painful experience realising that you haven't quite got used to it yet.
No real benefit to either way round but stick with what you're used to.

hire/demo bikes in this country, it could all end badly!

On a holiday to Interlaken many years ago I took my bike, the rest hired them. The 1st few hours were comical with many, many incidents due to the brakes being a different way round 🙂

I went Euro in the early 90s because my left hand has all the finesse of a mole wrench, so it gave me better control of the rear brake. There were some additional benefits, mostly minor things like better cable routing on most frames, but also the major one of being able to let someone have a go on my bike and then shouting at them to "go on, do a massive skid!" (To be fair, I only did this on grass.)

No disadvantages I've found (once you've adapted), unless you want to borrow someone else's bike. But that's not an issue for me because everyone else's bike is too small.

they come the wrong way round,

Errmmm... I'm afraid you have it wrong Good Sir...

Whole world have it like that minus very few unique countries like UK claiming to have it right and all other being in wrong :p

Main positive of front brake in left hand for me is to be able to up-shift on STI whilst breaking without trying to mutilate my wrist and fingers.

Cheers!
I.

I've bought a few Euro handed brakes and just swapped the hoses round. It's an easy job. And I'd hazard a guess, quicker than getting used to a new style of braking 🙂

25% of our customers are Polish so we now phone ahead and ask their preference before swapping them to UK style

Oh, and if they're certain brakes, the levers may be ambidextrous (Guides come to mind)

Right Front is the only way that's right.

CX bike and FS bike are right (cos I swapped the hoses)

XC bike is wrong (cos I haven;t yet swapped the hoses)

Road Bike (that I hadn't used for years) seemed to be the wrong way around, and must have been like that since the 90's when still living in UK, and I have no idea why.

Going down a gravel descent on a footpath, then cranking on the "front" brake when coming up behind walkers is good! 24 foot skid 🙂 and they jump out the way 😉

I do. The right hand is the 'go-to' hand, so if you get into a situation, the right hand is going to hang on tighter and as I don't want to lock up the front wheel ever......
Also, it makes life so much easier for me when doing hike a bike.
Its not just the Euro way, the Canadians and Americans ride this way too.
The only downside is when you lend a bike to a pal.

After 5 years and around 50k motorbike miles, front brake = right hand is not something that would be quick to change, muscle memory etc.

I'm a euro with RH front brake - same as motorbikes everywhere. I used to think I could ride both then grabbed a handful of back brake (which was the front) in extremis and went straight over the bars. Now everything with two wheels has a RH front brake.

Yes, I do.

But only on one bike, only on my polo bike.

The polo bike is front brake only and on the left hand side. All other bikes are right hand front brake.

It never confuses me except when I'm riding one handed. When that happens my brain auto-switches which side it expects the brakes on. It's odd.

I do euro style only because my bike came like that and I was too lazy to change it. I'm completely used to it now and the other way just feels weird to me now.

Hired a road bike in the canaries with euro brakes, got a hairpin on a descent wrong, vowed never to ride a bike with euro brakes again, also ridden motorbikes for 30+ years so front = righthand lever isn't something that gets forgotten easily.

So
Are euro motorbikes the same as the bikes with the brakes the other way round?

righthand lever isn’t something that gets forgotten easily.

Wrong :p

You should generalize, that once picked up habit/muscle memory is very hard to overcome.

Hence all my bikes are euro set-up. Since I learned how to ride I was always like that. Once had bike with UK set-up and not having particularly fond memories of that.

Cheers!
I.

So
Are euro motorbikes the same as the bikes with the brakes the other way round?

Nope, all motorbikes around the world (well, modern ones at least - some very early vintage bikes had controls all over the place!) and scooters are right side: front brake, and left side: clutch on a geared motorbike, rear brake on a scooter.

Modern geared motorbike controls are go and stop on the right side (rear brake is under your right foot, throttle on right grip) and gears/clutch on the left side.

Before I moved here, I rented a DH bike from Cove Bikes in Vancouver and the first trail I rode was a sketchy black (CBC) with a "qualifier" entry.
Needless to say, brake levers were the wrong way round and I very nearly stacked it on first move (CBC has a fast tarmac entry and you need to take a quite bit of speed up a short entry ramp).
Anyway, luckily the brakes were ambidextrous and I was able to swap the levers around on the trail and continue riding the trails...CBC is also the start of a very very long descent and I didn't fancy doing that with "wrong way round" brakes.
I hope Cove remembered to switch the brakes back again for the next renter!😳😳😳

Use whatever you want but most people are right side dominant. So right foot on the brake in a car right hand to control the most critical brake on a bike.
Also driving a manual car on the correct side of the road means the dominant hand is still on the steering wheel whilst changing gear.
Basically anyone left handed should move to France.

I run mine euro. Just makes sense to me. Right hand operates everything behind my arse(incl. dropper post) and Left hand everything infront(incl. bell).

So right foot on the brake in a car

I guess you’ve never raced a kart or a paddle shift car 😉

I wouldn't go Euro for no better reason than 'the brakes came that way'.

You'll probably be OK at first but you are most likely to stack it when you need to brake unexpectedly. Its a bit like the first time you drive an automatic car, you are fine for your first 30 minute drive, then you arrive and concentrate on parking, and you instinctively move your left foot and push the footbrake into the floor, mistaking it for the clutch, and bounce your passenger into the windscreen (as they've just taken their seatbelt off)

Always a good watch:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

<blockquote So right foot on the brake in a car

I guess you’ve never raced a kart or a paddle shift car 😉

I forgot my smiley.

 

Yep, euro here.  I used to have a mix of euro and uk on different bikes but that just didn't work when you had to stop all of a sudden.  When you had time to think it was ok though.  Once I switched everything to Euro it took a couple of months to really sink in and now it seems like the 'right' way

Muscle memory is quite amazing really, like twisting my foot off a flat pedal before stopping, or pressing down the imaginary clutch when coming to a stop in an automatic car. Or banging a gearbox into reverse with just my foot on the brake... 😀

I forgot my smiley.

Yeeeeaaaaah likely story 😉

<blockquoteYeeeeaaaaah likely story 😉

Actually no I've never raced a car, track days and punter Karting is about it.
I once got away with a massive off at the Nurburg ring. One of the reasons I like racing pushbikes is it doesn't bankrupt Me.

Been running my bikes 'euro' style since the mid nineties. Mainly because I road raced for a team and the leader had done a season for a Belgium team the year before and rode that way. Our only spare bike was setup for him. He was also cooler than the rest of us so we copied everything he did!

Road bikes used to cable more neatly that way around. Also as a lefty I like having my front brake in my left hand - that's where the action is. The rear brake is just an afterthought. My OCD also likes front brake, front mech in one hand, rear brake rear mech in the other.

I went to an event in Austria, and my bike was broken when I got there. Hired a HT for the day, switched my saddle and grips, and rode.
This was the Salzkammergut challenge, so 211km, 7110m climbing, and descending. I rode for 20 minutes the day before the race, then just rode and didn't think about it. No problems, no crashes.
I've done that on road bikes in Sicily, descending Etna and Crete. Just get on and ride.

I have run with rear brake on right since 1980 as rode a BMX with just a rear brake for 10 years and I am right handed. Stayed that way ever since.

I have always run my bikes with the brake set up the euro way since I was a kid. I didn't know that they could be switched until I was in my mid-20s, now in my 50s I can't imagine switching them the other way.

As we're coming up with spurious reasons to run brakes Euro, I might as well add that it's much much cooler to say you run them "moto", as our Canadian/American cousins sometimes call running brakes the right way around. 😉

RH/RB - always has been.
Over 100k miles on motorbikes yet that never has been an issue when getting on a pushbike with the rear on the rh side.
Dominant hand is the right so the main braking for me is just that - the one that WON'T need me needing dental work.

Also, it makes life so much easier for me when doing hike a bike.

Maybe I'm being slow, but can someone explain this?

Thanks!

Si

Actually no I’ve never raced a car, track days and punter Karting is about it.
I once got away with a massive off at the Nurburg ring. One of the reasons I like racing pushbikes is it doesn’t bankrupt Me.

Heh. Not dissimilar here actually, karting and a couple of track days. Loved two-stroke karts, was completely meh about cars. Similarly gave it up because it was just getting more and more expensive.

Always have just ran mine 'moto' because that's how they where, but having also rode motorbikes for a while (not so much anymore) I really wouldn't want it any other way. Muscle memory.

Also being right hand dominant I have much finer control with that hand so I want that on the front brake. Riding steep tech on the edge of traction I'd much rather have that fine control on the front. Much easier to ride out locking the rear.

Riding steep tech on the edge of traction I’d much rather have that fine control on the front.

My logic in switching to right-rear was the opposite: on steep tech you're not using the front at all unless you're stopped and balancing (ie it's locked) whereas the rear is critical for control.

But then my idea of steep tech—certainly at that time—was borderline trials riding on a rigid bike (or 2" of front suspension at most); others' idea of it may be blasting through rock gardens on a however-much-travel-bikes-have-these-days full sus.

My YT came setup the Euro way. I got used to it being like that before I got around to swapping the levers. As above I like having my right hand on the back brake now. I reckon if I got a UK bike now I'd swap the levers to keep it Euro.

My logic in switching to right-rear was the opposite: on steep tech you’re not using the front at all

I bloody well am, otherwise I'd be accelerating away with a locked back wheel!

It's all so long ago now 😀 anyway, I definitely found right-rear gave me better control; enough to persist with the adaptation required for it to become fully ingrained.

My Motorcycle head would never let me adapt.

I bloody well am, otherwise I’d be accelerating away with a locked back wheel!

This totally. When there's little weight on the rear it's not going to slow you down much.

In one of his recent video Yoann Barelli talks about using the front brake as it gets steeper as that's where the weight and traction is.

There is also the fact that consequences of messing up the fine braking control on the front is usually worse than messing it up on the rear.

On my big bike I swapped from a shimano 2 pot front caliper to a 4 pot for more modulation, and a bit of extra power is nice too. Still running the 2 pot on the rear and feeling no need to change.

The same as on a motorbike, most of your braking is done with the front brake.

Yeah, I was talking absolute horse shit there, not sure why. Spent too long on tarmac 😀

Anyway, more control over the rear brake at the expense of the front worked out better for me. For some presumably non horse shit reasons.

I do ,ever since a I hired a bike in chamonix,many years ago. (pre disc brakes!) My right hand was stronger on the rear and gave me better control and less panic.

I had completely forgotten this was a thing until I was riding at Finale a few years ago and was offered a go on a Merida 96 carbon prototype, only a couple in existence at the time.
I remembered when arriving at the first tight corner much too fast and found that I really wasn't slowing down at all...
They were very understanding but my turn on it did seem shorter than others