front brake on right?

Justin Vincent writes:

In Australia it is a safety requirement (as are reflectors!!) that
new bikes sold must have the rear brake lever on the left, so that
when turning right a hand signal can be given while
braking. (Reverse all of the those directions for the USA).

Are you sure it isn't that the front brake must be on the right hand?

I find that description odd. So what does that say to motorcyclists
who seem to all have the front brake on the right for reasons that
appeal to me. Roughly 90% of people are right handed, according to
researchers, therefore putting the more important front brake under
control of the right hand is reasonable. That the front brake is
primary has been established on motor vehicles as well as bicycles.

The hand signal argument is specious, considering that at bicycle
speeds, braking for a turn in traffic can begin merely tens of feet
before turning, by which time a needed hand signal should already have
been given. Signaling while turning is useless since by that time its
benefit has ceased.

Having said that, I have all my bikes set up in the US way as I
prefer that my stronger right hand pulls on the weaker rear brake.

I don't see the benefit of having the front brake on the less skilled
weaker (for most riders) left hand.

There are no problems with cables either way; do what you want.

That's definitely a benefit of flexible control cables.

Jobst Brandt

Lou Holtman wrote:
snip

Why is it so hard to operate the front brake with your left hand when you
are righthanded? You can operate all modern brakes just by pulling with one
or two fingers and still get more then enough brake power. I don't get it.

Lou



It isn't difficult; either way works fine once you learn it. My
reasons for right-front braking:

First bike with hand brakes was an "English Racer" (Sturmey-Archer
3-speed), about 1960, set up that way. Old dogs and new tricks.

Motorcycles have right-front braking. If you ride both, less likely
to get confused in a panic situation.

I'd rather have my better hand on the more critical front brake. For
me, as a right-hander, this is the right hand. I've seen arguments
on this forum that right-handers have better control with the left
hand, but that's counter to my experience.

I don't buy what I think was the reason for left-front on U.S.
bikes, that the front brake is dangerous and the back is safe, so
it's better to put the natural hand for most people on the safe
brake.

It's good enough for Mario Cippolini (although to be serious, from
looking at photos of European pros, the great majority now use
left-front).

Dave Lehnen

I run all my bikes right-side-front. Never had a cable routing problem
at all - the cable makes a nice single bend from the right side of the
bar (where it comes out from under tha bar tape) to the left side of
the brake. I think the routing is BETTER than for a left-side-front
setup, where the cable needs to make a much tigher bend.

You might need to adjust the length of the brake housing, if the stock
was too long or too short.

writes:

Jim Smith wrote:
I like to use the right lever for my front brake. This works well
with
the old side pull style calipers because at least some of them have
the cable on the left side. It isn't so great with any of the
modern,
dual pivot calipers I have seen because they all are set up for the
cable on the right side. This makes the cable routing not so neat.
My bikes with dual pivot or cantilever brakes end up with an S curve
in the cable.

Are any dual pivot calipers made with the cable on the other side? I
thought I heard somewhere that in some countries the law mandates the
front brake on the right lever. How are the cables routed on these
bikes? What do other folks do about this issue?

Left-side-arm dual pivot calipers do exist, but they're generally used
on oddball applications like short-wheelbase recumbents where the chain
goes past the right side of the caliper.

It won't hurt the cables to be wired "opposite". There's enough
flexibility- by far- to allow it to work well. Don't worry about the
"S" curve.

Yes, it works fine. I have a couple bikes like that. It's just that I
am putting a new bike together and I don't have any calipers for it
yet. Having the cable on the "correct" side would be more elegant, if
it is possible to do.

Do you happen to know who makes those calipers with my prefered
chirality?

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 21:20:11 -0600, Jim Smith
may have said:

Are any dual pivot calipers made with the cable on the other side?

Yes, as mentioned elsewhere. I have also seen a modified V-brake
noodle used at the end of the regular cable to provide the second half
of the S-curve in a short radius gracefully.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

"Pete Biggs" writes:

Jim Smith wrote:
I like to use the right lever for my front brake. This works well with
the old side pull style calipers because at least some of them have
the cable on the left side. It isn't so great with any of the modern,
dual pivot calipers I have seen because they all are set up for the
cable on the right side. This makes the cable routing not so neat.
My bikes with dual pivot or cantilever brakes end up with an S curve
in the cable.

Are any dual pivot calipers made with the cable on the other side? I
thought I heard somewhere that in some countries the law mandates the
front brake on the right lever. How are the cables routed on these
bikes? What do other folks do about this issue?

I use right-front brakes and I've never had any problems with "normal"
calipers (inc Campagnolo), maybe cos my large frames allow a gentle cable
curvature.

Alhonga deep drop dual pivot calipers have the cable on the "other" side.
Available from St John Street Cycles, UK.

Thanks!
I found a picture and review of this unit he

http://www.63xc.com/willm/alhonga.htm

I'll see if I can't get a look at one in person.

hhu uuhh writes:

isn't the difference between front and rear brakes just the side where
the cable attaches?
just swap your front and rear brakes and recable...

Nope. The cable is on the same side. I think the only differance is
the length of the stud.

"sunderland" writes:

I run all my bikes right-side-front. Never had a cable routing problem
at all - the cable makes a nice single bend from the right side of the
bar (where it comes out from under tha bar tape) to the left side of
the brake. I think the routing is BETTER than for a left-side-front
setup, where the cable needs to make a much tigher bend.

Hmm... You describe what I am looking for: a brake with the cable on
the left side. (that is, with the brake mounted to the front of the
fork the cable will appear on the left to a rider in the saddle.) All
the dual pivot and V brakes I have seen have the cable on the other
side. What sort of brakes are those on your bike?

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 16:47:03 GMT,
wrote:

I find that description odd. So what does that say to motorcyclists
who seem to all have the front brake on the right for reasons that
appeal to me. Roughly 90% of people are right handed, according to
researchers, therefore putting the more important front brake under
control of the right hand is reasonable. That the front brake is
primary has been established on motor vehicles as well as bicycles.

Dear Jobst,

Which hand is used for what is a perennial question.

The right hand is usually stronger, but despite most
comments, it's usually less sensitive.

We do write, paint, and bow stringed instruments with our
right hands, but those are all actually a wrist and forearm
movement, not any fine finger control.

Most people use their clumsier but more powerful dominant
hand for whacking things with hammers (or pushing or
pulling), and their weaker but more delicate non-dominant
hand for holding the nail precisely or threading the cable
into the housing.

Surgeons usually fumble around in your innards with their
more sensitive non-dominant hand when they're trying to feel
lumps, but squeeze forceps and slash with their more
powerful dominant hand.

The more sensitive and nimble non-dominant hand is usually
the one that you use to grab the elusive end of the string
between thumb and forefinger when tying or untying knots.

Getting back to two-wheeled vehicle controls . . .

One hand may be needed for the signal to cross oncoming
traffic, which in turn depends on which side of the road you
ride on.

Bicycles usually use the more sensitive left hand for the
important front brake, perhaps because sensitivity matters
more than power for the ordinary rider, who's more likely to
skid the front tire on a dirty or sandy spot on the pavement
than to suffer forearm cramps descending the Alps.

But motorcycles have more controls than bicycles, and they
work differently.

The dominant control on all motorcycles is the right-hand
twist-grip throttle. Like writing, painting, or bowing,
rolling the throttle on and off is a wrist and forearm
movement--as opposed to picking your nose, you can work a
motorcycle throttle just fine while wearing heavy mittens.

If you're working the throttle, you also have to shift
gears, which means that your other hand must be free to pull
the clutch lever. Since your right hand is busy rolling the
throttle back and forth, the left hand is used for the
clutch when shifting.

Now we need a third hand to work the front brake . . .

Well, if you're braking normally, you're not working the
throttle with your right hand, but you may be pulling the
clutch in with your left, so motorcycles put the front brake
on the right.

(If you're doing delicate trials work and descending a nasty
slope, you leave the clutch alone, squeeze the bejesus out
of the front brake with your right hand and simultaneously
work the throttle, giving the rear wheel a little gas to
hook up again whenever engine braking at idle becomes so
great that the rear wheel breaks loose, skids, and loses
traction. Luckily, only tiny motions are needed to adjust
the throttle at this speed.)

The rear brake is worked with one foot, while the gear shift
is worked with the other. Which side was gearshift and which
was brake not standardized until the 1970's. Now pretty much
all gearshifts are on the left.

Standarization is a good idea. Some old machines not only
shifted on the right, but also reversed the normal pattern
so that you pushed down for low.I once roared off on a
Ducati 350 after sitting for quite a while and forgetting
that the gearshift was on the right and that I needed to
push down for second gear. Instead of getting second gear as
I expected on my other motorcycles, I stomped on the rear
brake with the clutch in.

The automatic transmission Honda 90 of the 1960's had no
clutch, so an almost useless left-hand rear brake lever was
added to the normal rear foot brake.

Curiously, most people who ride motorcycles and bicycles
have little trouble reaching for the correct lever to make
the front wheel slow down, probably because the riding
styles are so different, with the throttle on one being your
right hand, while your legs are the throttle on the other.

Carl Fogel

writes:

Which hand is used for what is a perennial question.

The right hand is usually stronger, but despite most
comments, it's usually less sensitive.

Any evidence for this?

We do write, paint, and bow stringed instruments with our
right hands, but those are all actually a wrist and forearm
movement, not any fine finger control.

True, and the left hand seems to have the harder job.

Most people use their clumsier but more powerful dominant
hand for whacking things with hammers (or pushing or
pulling), and their weaker but more delicate non-dominant
hand for holding the nail precisely or threading the cable
into the housing.

I suspect there would be more smashed fingers if you tried it the
other way around, and not because the nail was moving.

Surgeons usually fumble around in your innards with their
more sensitive non-dominant hand when they're trying to feel
lumps, but squeeze forceps and slash with their more
powerful dominant hand.

The tools are designed to be used in the right hand, they don't work
as well in the left. (watch a left handed surgical tainee some time,
they have problems at first.) If the tool goes in your right hand,
you will tend to root around with your left.