Off to Austria and the bike I am taking has got euro sided brakes and I don’t want to grab what I think is the rear and end up going over the bars…

I don’t want the faff of removing the hoses… will they still work if I swap sides on the bars, meaning the bleed port will end up on the underside?

I’ve not tried it, but mine tend not to work terrible well for a bit after being stored up side down / in a car. So I would suspect not.

I doubt they would work, the master cylinder would be upside down. You may also find that you can’t butt your shifter (s) up to it.

Two minute job to carefully undo both lever hose connectors, swap over and tighten.

Have a read through epic’s hose shortening guide

You won’t be cutting any hoses but advancing the pistons and reconnecting the fittings makes swapping the hoses quite straigtforward. No one rides with upside down brakes 🙂

If they have been bled properly then yes they do work upside down, there is no air to have an issue with. I hired a bike in Jamaica and the guy swapped the levers over, no issues at all and the brakes were getting a good work out (and so was i, it was hot as hell!)

As cp said, they may physically not fit with the shifter when inverted.

Operationally, the reservoir sitting below the master cylinder would give you a high risk of pulling any air, which would otherwise sit harmlessly at the top of the reservoir, into the master cylinder.

I wouldn’t risk it. Swap the hoses over.

Swap hoses, it’s a 5 min job if that, (time to undo two nuts & tighten two nuts!).
Ideally having someone with you to hold 2nd hose is better so they can hold one hose vertical whilst you’re working on the other.
Secret is to pump pistons out prior to detaching hoses 😉

doesn’t work.

As a Brit living abroad i frequently swap bikes with the lefty fronty weirdos. You do get used to it very quickly….. 😀