Wrong way around brakes

Went for a ride with a couple of other families this morning. Our standard group. Five kids from 5-10 years old. The other two dads are quite short, and my eldest is getting tall. So after a few laps of a favourite set of jumps I said why don’t you have a go on Tommy’s dad’s bike. A Santa Cruz 5010 is a step up from his Trek Marlin!

I follow him down and he’s looking great as he flies over the table tops, then just at the end of the run he suddenly goes OTB and takes the handlebars in his back and plenty of bark off his arms! Tommy’s dad is Colombian he runs his brakes the wrong way ‘round!

Any other similar stories I can share with Reeksy II to make him feel less of a dick tonight.

Any other similar stories I can share with Reeksy II to make him feel less of a dick tonight.

I did a skid competition at SSWC07 on a borrowed bike. I was drunk (very) and the bike was borrowed from an American (iirc). Tarmac / face interactions are quite messy 🤣

Recently rented a road bike in Europe. They’d deliberately left the front brake spongey and not as sharp as the rear.

I started riding back when disk brakes were still a novelty. We had a very international group, some Americans and Canadians mixed in. This rich kid turned up with a high-end DH bike with Hayes HFX disk brakes (which were very powerful, but a bit switch-like in their modulation.) Everyone wanted to try the new fangled brakes so we did big skids across the car park, and then an American had a turn without realizing the brakes were opposite to what he was used to. Painful to watch, but hilarious.

I was riding in Hindelang when I first moved to Germany when they first started trying to set up bike parks. I was on my Heckler at the time (’98 100mm travel) so decided to hire a Scott with 150mm!! travel.
We took the lift up and were on a fire road section when we saw a group of young ladies walking up. We had been trying to chat them up the night before without any success, (one of their main issues was how can mountain bikers come from England when there are no mountains) I decided to do a nice drift on a corner to impress them. I grabbed a big handful of rear brake to start the slide, but wait, it was the front. Naturally I appreciated their help getting me out of the trees, and their comments about English guys, mountains…
Finished the ride down, lift back up, saw them again and it was like mr Pavlov was ringing his bell. Determined to prove them wrong I thought, brakes the wrong way round, must not pull left lever. Muscle memory is not always your friend.
How we all laughed that evening as they sat drinking beer and I was scraping grit out of my leg 🙄
Still in touch with one of them, they couldn’t believe that the British reputation for slapstick humour was carried into real life.

I did the same at Levi Bike Park in Lapland last Summer on a hire bike. The trail was so dry and dusty it was like riding on marbles. Touched the rear brake to scrub off some speed before a turn, except it wasn’t the rear brake…

It took weeks for the skin to grow back on my arm, even longer for my pride to heal.

I had a bike from Europe a while back, and the brakes were the ‘wrong’ way round.
I didn’t have any bleed kit to let me swap them over, so just got on with it a rode.
That bike was my main bike for so long I got used to it.
I’m now having to always think ‘what brake – what hand’ when on a British spec bike.

Levi Bike Park in Lapland

Ooo, thread hijack. What’s that like?

The first proper bike my parents bought me was a Peugeot with the brakes set up in the French stylee, and as a result I’ve had them that way round ever since. It’s the cause of some humour when mates take my bike for a spin, especially if they haven’t asked first so that I can warn them…

I had a few sketchy moments on my Mojo the day I bought it before I realised that the moron at Whinlatter Cycles had set up the brakes the wrong way.

When I queried him on it he said he did it with all bikes. I meant to speak to trading standards about it, but not surprisingly never got round to it.

First time the wife went to Morzine and she was fairly new to mountain biking. She was riding well but struggling on the steeper open sections. Turns out she’d been told (by her mum) that you never use the front brake. A quick correction to tell her it’s fine to use the front brake and she promptly over did it and went over the bars.

I bumped into a chap in Finale a few years ago who was testing a prototype Merida 96, the posh carbon XC bike, only three prototypes in existence apparently. For some reason he let me have a shot on it, I piled into he first corner pretty much flat out, went for what I thought was the front brake, didn’t slow so squeezed harder, locked the rear and chucked it sideways into a tree🙈

I’ve done taht on a borrowed touring bike while trying to navigate a tow path gate at the top of a canal embankment, it was steep enough that i didn’t so much go over otb as do a forward roll with the bike still attached all in slow mo. I ended up upside down faceing the other direction still in cycling position. The weight of the panniers and the long grass i ended up in meant I was really struggling to get my spds free every kick and wiggle i slid a bit furtehr down the bank. I was in histerics. the canal topath was NOT quiet, much confusion and amsement from the onlookers.

Also while not on brake swapped bike but i have also gone otb whilst pushing a bike… lost my footing on a slope, grabbed the brakes to steady myself, locked teh frontwheel and over i went.

Turns out she’d been told (by her mum) that you never use the front brake

Thats really common, and quite surprising becasue my memory of most bikes growing up was that the brakes just about slowed the wheel if you turned the bike upside down and span it.

We had loaner bikes at my old outdoor centre. They were for the gap year and season worker staff – most of whom travelled internationally and didn’t have a car. It meant they could cycle to the local villages on a day off.
Depsite having laminated notices on the bike rack warning, we had a few issues.

Worst of which was a Slovenian cook who set off down the steep, 1km+ long driveway and went OTB at the corner – taking out a fence and breaking her elbow…

Turns out she’d been told (by her mum) that you never use the front brake

I’ve seen kids with front brake disconnected, my own nephew included, to stop them using the front brake…

Thats got to be ardeonaig Matt?

Ooo, thread hijack. What’s that like?

Nice trails with a good variation of difficulty but its certainly not the biggest hill. You wouldn’t want to spend a weekend or longer there.

In the US my riding buddy had his unlocked bike stolen from outside the bike shop where he worked.
Thief made it as far as the first corner before crashing and wiping out.

The bike was a fixie.

I’ve run my brakes euro for 25 years now. I road raced for a team and whilst I was a rank average 2nd cat the team leader was much better and had done a couple of seasons for a low end Belgian team. We were the same size so my bike was his ‘on the road spare’. He ran euro brakes because his bike used to be set up to be the spare for better riders there.

Euro used to cable up tidier too on road bikes back in the day. My head prefers it too – not sure if it’s because I’m a leftie and having my most important brake in my best/left hand or if it’s ‘everything at the back is on the right and everything on the front (when running a front mech) is on the left’.

Finally all these oob stories from people unaware they are riding a bike the wrong way around for them……you have to be using your brakes very poorly to be putting so much bias into (what you think is) the rear brake – the front brake is where the magic happens. What gives?

you have to be using your brakes very poorly to be putting so much bias into (what you think is) the rear brake – the front brake i

Erm….🤔

you have to be using your brakes very poorly to be putting so much bias into

Because you start to apply the back brake gently, perceive nothing happening, and pull it progressively harder. Only then do you realise that you’re making a mistake. While I’d love to have your pro skills, it’s a bit like Lewis Hamilton criticising my grandma for struggling with power-off oversteer in her Micra.

I endo-ed my way down a road in Mallorca after forgetting that the brakes were reversed on the hire bike (after riding it for a week). Managed to get it under control just before the sharp corner and ravine near the bottom.

Those sort of stains never come out of your shorts.

Erm what?

Turns out she’d been told (by her mum) that you never use the front brake

Same with my missus, only it was her dad. Still working on it.

Because you start to apply the back brake gently, perceive nothing happening, and pull it progressively harder. Only then do you realise that you’re making a mistake. While I’d love to have your pro skills, it’s a bit like Lewis Hamilton criticising my grandma for struggling with power-off oversteer in her Micra.

With respect it’s not pro skills. It’s just having been taught how to use your brakes well from an early age. Your front brake is not an afterthought to put on a bit after the bulk of the work has been done by the rear. You also don’t sit like a sack of spuds and wait for the stopping to start. Road, shopper or mtb. If you are being caught out by using only (or predominantly) one brake and it turns out to be the wrong one; whilst its annoying it if ends up in a crash it indicates a fundamental issue with your understanding of how to use brakes as much as it does a setup error (or miscommunication about what you are riding).

I just got back from a week in Mallorca. First proper descent on the rental bike (105 with disks) and I’ve left the braking a little late for the first hairpin. Apply both brakes and promptly lock up the rear. Aha my brain automatically goes, I’ll squeeze the right brake harder, and release the left a bit. I’m now still locked up at the rear but slowing less and less. It gets to the point that I’m fully off the left brake, and picking which bit of cliff I might be able to wallride around at 60kmph that I realise what’s going on and apply the brakes correctly. Oops!

20 odd years ago I was one of the team that put the trails around Machynlleth together. To publicise the routes some journos were invited to ride Mach3 which was my baby. A certain Guy Kesteven turned up with a brand new, still in the box Cannondale full susser and proceeded to assemble it in the carpark. One of the trickiest sections of Mach3 was the Chute, a steep downhill on loose wet slate. I warned the group and advised them on the best line then set off. Next minute Guy passed me on foot doing that windmill arms and legs running you only see in cartoons. He’d accelerated then pulled what he thought was the back brake, gone straight over the bars landed on his feet and kept going, oh how we laughed

With respect it’s not pro skills. It’s just having been taught how to use your brakes well from an early age.

See 5lab’s post above which was pretty much what I did word-for-word, even the skidding rear wheel. When you’ve got both brakes on and the bike isn’t behaving as expected it takes a significant cognitive effort to address the problem.

When you’ve got both brakes on and the bike isn’t behaving as expected it takes a significant cognitive effort to address the problem.

Which is why I ride the way around I do – so that a better rider than me could jump on my bike mid race and ride without extra thinking.

But that’s not what I was referring to. It’s the melons that habitually ride along a flat road/track and yank on a single brake and end up oob when it’s turns out to be the front not the rear. Nuancing your brakes as you brake to improve performance is a different skillset.

Tow path borrowed BMX and splash Ive checked ever since that day.

Ive always run my brakes the Euro/USA way

BMX’s in the 80’s came this way (my 5 year old’s 2021 bmx came with a right hand rear brake/no front brake) so ive always stuck with it on the BMX and MTB as it just feels natural to me

On the road bike i run brakes the UK way, dont know why, i pretty much always pull both brakes together on the road bike and you tend to brake more slowly so it makes no difference

I always tell people who try out my bikes that its a right hand rear brake set up, which as soon as they need to brake they forget!

What way round do other LHT countries like Japan run their brakes?

Euro used to cable up tidier too on road bikes back in the day.

Front v-brakes still look awkward with the cable coming in from the right.

See 5lab’s post above which was pretty much what I did word-for-word, even the skidding rear wheel

And another. Descending back to Soller from Puig Major and had a bit of a moment after a week of riding the bike. After I realised what was going on I let go of both brakes literally just in time to get around the corner, before a certain high side over a 2ft wall and a steep drop. Closest I’ve come to actual death (that I’m aware of)…

MrsMC runs her brakes the wrong way round due to her disability – LittleMissMC got caught out a couple of times when she borrowed her mum’s bike.

Always ridden with rear brake on right as most of my childhood I only had a rear brake on the bike and as I am right handed the lever was on right.
As far as I know all calliper brakes and v brakes are made for left hand front looking at ideal cable run and my current bike (Belgian) is made for right hand rear (a nice cable curve from bars to where it goes into frame on left hand side around the head tube) with a front mini V that again has a nice cable curve to the brake from the bars.

you have to be using your brakes very poorly to be putting so much bias into (what you think is) the rear brake – the front brake

Erm….🤔

Erm what

What on earth makes you think people are doing that?
I think it’s a given that pretty much everyone on this forum knows that you trim most of your speed using the front brake. The two brakes react in fundamentally different ways when you use them, and if the corrective action you take is reversed by wrongly connected brakes then it’s going to make it much worse.

I tried to bunnyhop a kerb. Forgot I was riding my son’s bike with flats rather than any of my bikes which are all SPDs.

What on earth makes you think people are doing that?

Erm, the ability to read. This and countless previous threads.

I think it’s a given that pretty much everyone on this forum knows that you trim most of your speed using the front brake

I’d hope so. So it’s clearly not members if this forum that are riding a strange bike and instantly go over the front at the first application of their brakes….which is the reported effect of not knowing.

To be fair to my son he was trying to do a big skid after the last jump, which is what everyone does there due to the trail layout and the fact that everyone was watching. Our kids have all had coaching from a young age so they’ve been through the braking drills heaps of times. They’ve never encountered foreign bikes before though.

Some funny stories thanks for sharing.

Mrs has always run hers wrong way round (her first Rockhopper came that way and we never noticed until she got used to it and refused to change back).

A few years later she’d progressed to racing elite xc and we hooked up for a day ride with the then National downhill champion. They swapped bikes part way round and the unfortunate champ smoked off down the trail and shortly after launched over the bars and into the trees…… Neither rider realised the reason at the time, and luckily it didn’t ruin her season 🙂