LBS overlooking something?

A shop close to me that recently opened has been selling bikes with brakes the wrong way. They specialise in road but are such nice guys, my friends have decided to give them a chance and ordered their new mountainbikes through them. 3 of my friends have now took delivery of their new bikes with the brakes the wrong way round. is this not illegal? When questioned about it my friend was told that all mountainbikes of there stocked brand have been delivered to them this way and that that must be how they are supposed to be.

I want to approach this subject with them in a nice way. They really are top guys starting out in a cutthroat market and making a good name for themselves with their keen pricing and can do attitude.

How would you address this and does anyone know of actual law that i could point them in the correct direction

Pretty much everywhere but here runs their brakes the other way round. I’d be suprised if it’s a legal requirement.

European bikes used to come that way quite a bit, but now mostly standardised on front-right like us AFAIK. It’s in the ISO standards.

I believe the legality is to do with us britons using our right arm to signal our intentions for turning both left and right and as such the rear brake must be supplied on the left so that speed can be safely controlled during signalling. I think i read some where as a rule of thumb if the country drives on the left the rear brake should also be on the left and vice versa.

But as i said i am unsure if it is actually a legal requirement, i want to protect the shop owners from the claim culture we live in, so that people don’t see this as an easy way to claim from the shop for any crashes etc

http://www.ctc.org.uk/cyclists-library/regulations/safety-regulations

Aye, it’s to do with is driving on the left – able to signal whilst turning across traffic. I don’t know any country that drives on the right and has brakes like us.

Nealglover thanks for that at least i have something to show the guys
. They appear to be selling a lot of mtb’s recently and i can tell they would much rather deal in road but cant pass up sales. i may ask if they need a saturday boy to help with any bike that isn’t road orientated

I think the origin of this comes from a cyclist being most vulnerable when making a cross traffic turn and removing the option of grabbing a handful of front brake during the process.

I’m not sure which laws or trading standards are relevant. And every new bike should have a bell and reflectors fitted
.
Personal opinion, I would have another polite word for their own sake. Do they have a competent mechanic who can bleed brakes?

New owners should be warned of this and, at least, given the option to swap over.

They have a very good mechanic but again potentially only good with roadies. I’ll have a chat with them tomorrow as i havn’t been in since my pals took delivery of their bikes. Cheers guys

So are they selling road bikes with the brakes on the wrong way round too ?

So assuming that their customers are aware of the rules they are ok. They all compete.
However reading Chris Judens work carefully I see that it may be possible to disassociate the paragraph that say that that “they must” with the one above. The shop needs to be made aware of this so that they can carry on knowing how to deal with it.
Many people prefer right/rear. I don’t but than I am old and ride a motorbike.

Most of the bikes we sell need a brake-lever swap (road, MTB and hybrid). It’s weird when you occasionally get a right-rear in for a service!

Are they buying the bikes from a parallel / grey import?

All cubes and other European bikes arrive with the brakes opposite… BUT we switch them when building the bikes, takes such a short amount of time I don’t see why you wouldn’t.

Surely the issue is some poor customer who rides off and hits the floor first time they brake if these chaps don’t get it right?
We had a Slovak staff member who borrowed a friends bike, and headed off down the 1/5, 1000ft descent centre drive. She ended up with broken arm, elbow and serious amounts of skin left on the fence that she catapulted over when she grabbed what she thought was rear brake….

BS EN14764 states:

The brake lever for the front brake must be on the right- hand side of the handlebars and the rear brake on the left-hand side.

That’s the construction regs for bicycles in the UK, so yeah, I’d say illegal. It’s maybe an overly strong term, but it covers it

Which is a very basic thing that any Cytech qualified mechanic will have been taught.
They sound like a bunch of chancers to me, they certainly aren’t taking any pride in their work.

Plenty of companies source bikes from Europe when UK stock us low. You change the brakes round. That’s just what should happen. I’ve done plenty, road bikes, hydraulic discs, whatever.

PeterPoddy – Member

BS EN14764 states:

The brake lever for the front brake must be on the right- hand side of the handlebars and the rear brake on the left-hand side.

EN14764 specifically doesn’t apply to mountain bikes.

Correct. 14766 covers mountain bikes, and states,

The handbrake levers for front and rear brakes shall be positioned according to the legislation or custom and practice of the country in which the bicycle is to be sold,

I didn’t realize that the left/right brake lever was set up as Left/Rear and Right/Front there in the UK. Here in the US, it’s the opposite. Some people here change it around, especially if they also ride dirt-bikes to avoid the confusion and potential of launching themselves OTB.

Any bike sold in the UK must have right brake lever operating front brake unless customer has specifically asked for euro setup and we’d make a note of this on the work order in case of any future legal enquiry 😉

Any bike sold in the UK must have right brake lever operating front brake unless customer has specifically asked for euro setup and we’d make a note of this on the work order in case of any future legal enquiry

The voice of sense. Agreed.

British Standards (and BE-EN standards etc) are not law, they are simply examples of good practice.

The brake lever for the front brake must be on the right- hand side of the handlebars and the rear brake on the left-hand side.

That’s the construction regs for bicycles in the UK, so yeah, I’d say illegal. It’s maybe an overly strong term, but it covers it

Crikey, you live and learn!

I bought a bike off a well known forum user on here that had its brakes fitted wrong way round. I’d name him but he’s a good guy 🙂

Good to know for when I make another trip to the UK and decide to rent an MTB—would preclude launching myself when I first grabbed a right-handful of what I thought was the rear brake. 😯

I bought a bike off a well known forum user on here that had its brakes fitted wrong way round. I’d name him but he’s a good guy

Feeling paranoid now 😉

British Standards (and BE-EN standards etc) are not law, they are simply examples of good practice.

Well, it’s a bit more than that – it’s a trading standards thing that products must comply with the appropriate regulations.

British Standards (and BE-EN standards etc) are not law, they are simply examples of good practice.

No, not the law, but they are a LOT more than examples of good practice. They govern how bicycles are made and sold. Go and read one. You’ll see.

Edit – Wot Ben said

Why would you not do something like an m check when you go to ride a Bike that’s not yours?

When questioned about it my friend was told that all mountainbikes of there stocked brand have been delivered to them this way and that that must be how they are supposed to be.

I want to approach this subject with them in a nice way. They really are top guys starting out in a cutthroat market and making a good name for themselves with their keen pricing and can do attitude.

Firstly it should be up to your friends to talk to the bike shop about bikes that they have bought , not you.

Secondly your description of the bike shop staff is at odds with how they come across when dealing with this issue . Any LBS with a can do attitude would swap the brakes round for a customer , more worrying for me would be the fact that they sent bikes out like that in the first place and thought it would be OK.

Legalities aside, I’d be a bit miffed if I bought a bike, only to get home and find the brakes the wrong way round. Not a huge issue – first thing I would do is swap them round again, but not everyone would know how to do that. It can’t help their reputation.

It’s you Brits that has the brakes the wrong way round 😀

@ramsey neil
You are correct it should be my friends speaking to the shop about these issues, the issue is that these guys are new style riders big budget no common sence just want their new bikes and want them now. One of them was even advised that if he could wait a further 4 weeks for his new bike it would be the 2015 model but still said no. And if i dont say anything nothing would get said at all.

I call these guys friends but its more of a collective phrase, i work with them, live close to them but wouldnt invite them round my house every weekend for a few drinks. They ask my advise on bikes, gear etc. then completely ignore it because they read somewhere that a more expensive item is automatically better. All of this generally leads to me being paid to do bike repairs, or getting there few months old kit when something shiney comes out

The old BS 6102 pt.2 regs were considered ‘the law’ if a claim for injury following assembley negligence went to court, both employer and certified employee could be held liable

Good practise was to always build bikes to these regs, this included brake setup, reflector/bell package and correct pedal/foot retention to suit ‘open’ chainrings, then to have a record of this pdi, in case of any future claims.

They have a very good mechanic but again potentially only good with roadies.

Doesn’t sound like a “good” mechanic to me, sounds like he only knows half his job…

They have a very good mechanic but again potentially only good with roadies.
Doesn’t sound like a “good” mechanic to me, sounds like he only knows half his job…

No indeed, the rules are the same for road bikes, and if he thinks that MTBs are different or know so little about bikes that he thinks that could be the case, he’s not a good mechanic.

limkilde – Member

It’s you Brits that has the brakes the wrong way round

+1 😉

Anyone know how Chinese bikes are set up?

After borrowing a bike in France with the brakes the other way round- (left hand front) I slowly overtime switched all my bikes this way. This made sense to me if I’m overseas I don’t want to waste anytime adapting to the brakes being the other way round on any bike I borrow or if I have to buy spares, and in the UK you can usually find brakes the other way round discounted on sale. Win win 🙂

I managed to deposit myself on a hotel’s forecourt in the USA after grabbing a left hand full of brake on a borrowed bike – a painful lesson.
I find it almost impossible to train my brain not to pull too hard on the ‘wrong’ lever.

Road bikes even in the UK often have the left hand lever operating the front brake. It makes both the front and rear cable runs smoother, which in turn makes braking smoother (bearing in mind most are still cable actuated vs mountain bike where it is mostly hydraulic which doesn’t matter so much). Also, since most people are right handed, it means that you are pulling the cable which requires the most effort with your strongest hand (the rear, due to length of cable run, cable inner stretch and cable outer compression).

Having said that, despite having all of road bikes set up the ‘Euro’ way, I still have my mountain bikes set up with the UK front/right set up.

In response to your first post, what they have done isn’t wrong, but it isn’t the norm either.

all mountainbikes of there stocked brand have been delivered to them this way and that that must be how they are supposed to be

They have a very good mechanic but again potentially only good with roadies.

People mock Halfords for cluelessness and poor spannering, but these guys sound worse. If they don’t know and can’t be arsed to find out which way round the brakes are meant to go on a bike then what else are they doing wrong? I wouldn’t trust a shop like that to pump my tyres up.

Sorry, I know you said they’re nice guys, but they also sound dangerously inept.