Becoming left handed to stay healthy

[MikeF]

I met a chap in Carlisle once. He had only one arm, ....

How did he faff with things like his camera?

[Bez]

Even at the age of 11, I was set in my ways regarding F/R brake levers…

You can't be irreversibly set in your ways at 11. I managed to cope fine with switching my levers over when I was a good few years older than that.

Tangentially… here's a more extreme bicycle-related thing about neuroplasticity

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

[Mick F]

Incidentally the convention for taps is hot on left and cold on right, but how many are the other way?

There's a convention?
I did all the plumbing in this place when we moderised it, but the hot/cold tap positions were dictated by the runs of the copper tubes. Neatness and simplicity dictates plumbing runs.

As it happens:
bathroom basin is hot left as is the kitchen sink, but the bath is hot right.

[Mick F]

Just thinking ...............

If someone has a bike with front brake left and they are fully used to it and happy .............. what happens if they rent a bike?
Come to that, if you go to (say) Mallorca and rent a bike for the week, which way are the brakes wired?

It's never occurred to me before, but it would be a nightmare for me.
It's like swapping a knife and fork round and trying to eat.

What about swapping the clutch/brake/throttle order in LH drive cars?

[Cyril Haearn]

Just thinking ...............

If someone has a bike with front brake left and they are fully used to it and happy .............. what happens if they rent a bike?
Come to that, if you go to (say) Mallorca and rent a bike for the week, which way are the brakes wired?

It's never occurred to me before, but it would be a nightmare for me.
It's like swapping a knife and fork round and trying to eat.

What about swapping the clutch/brake/throttle order in LH drive cars?

One should spend a few moments getting to know the strange bike, how the gears work etc

Mixer taps are much better, with h + c the water is usually too hot or too cold

[thirdcrank]

I did read somewhere - possibly in his autobiography - that Douglas Bader owned a sports car with the brake pedal on the right and the accelerator in the middle. IIRC, that was before he lost his legs. I learned to ride a motorbike (BSA Bantam 175) several years after passing my car test and braking with the left foot was initially a problem, immediately cured after braking when I tried to change gear without thinking it through. The worst I've had on a pedal cycle, and not particularly bad was when I first got my shopping bike (coaster brake) and absent-mindedly back-pedalled very slightly. That too was a quick cure. Although I'm used to RH lever = front brake, I've never had a problem with things the other way round. I once acquired a secondhand Peugeot with the LH setup and rode it for several years and couldn't be bothered to swap them round.

I've remembered a couple of other things, both relating to police driving tests. I took my first in a Hillman Hunter with the handbrake down the RH side of the seat. I managed a series of hill starts on a route selected to include them. The examiner explained afterwards that an important factor was proper use of the handbrake rather than riding the clutch. Some years later, I had to take a re-test at the time when indicator stalks were switched to the left and I'd never driven a car with them. I had the wipers going a couple of times.

[Mick F]

Yes, wipers instead of indicators!
I think we've all been there!

I like the handbrake on the right.
Had it like that with my Humber Sceptre and the Hillman Hunter. I think it was a Rootes thing.
Also got it on the right with Community Bus - Fiat Ducato.

As for brake levers on a bike, maybe it's the way I ride a bike that it would affect me.
I ride "as one" with the machine ............. man and machine in perfect harmony.
I don't "drive" or "ride" a bike, because it's like not riding a horse or driving a car.

My bike is part of me, and an extension of my body, and I couldn't cope with someone swapping bits over.

[MikeF]

Incidentally the convention for taps is hot on left and cold on right, but how many are the other way?

There's a convention?
I did all the plumbing in this place when we moderised it, but the hot/cold tap positions were dictated by the runs of the copper tubes. Neatness and simplicity dictates plumbing runs.

As it happens:
bathroom basin is hot left as is the kitchen sink, but the bath is hot right.

Yes. I believe the reasoning is that more people are right handed so will likely turn the right tap first, which "conventionally" will be the cold one. That way they reduce the likelihood of "burning" (scalding) themselves. However some say cold taps were always on the right so the only place to put a hot tap was on the left.
But I believe that this is a BSI standard - hot left, cold right.

If you see a sign at a wash basin that says something like "beware water extremely hot" and the taps are unmarked, which one would you turn first? I'd turn the right hand one - or curse the plumber. If you're blind how would you know which is hot and cold tap?

[go4it]

I read/ heard recently that it is unlawful to wire bike wrong way in U.K, even to go as far as not being paid out on insurance claim.Maybe Felix was trying to warn you.

[PDQ Mobile]

I read/ heard recently that it is unlawful to wire bike wrong way in U.K, even to go as far as not being paid out on insurance claim.Maybe Felix was trying to warn you.

An April Fool?
It's after midday but it slips in seamlessly somehow.


(Wolves spotted in the Brecon Beacons.)

[Paulatic]

I read/ heard recently that it is unlawful to wire bike wrong way in U.K, even to go as far as not being paid out on insurance claim.Maybe Felix was trying to warn you.

From CUK

Specific requirements

One might suppose that the remaining provisions of this regulation were comparatively trivial, and so they are. Every new bicycle has to come with:

Any hand-operated brakes arranged left-hand rear, right-hand front
A bell
White or yellow reflectors on both sides of each wheel or tyre
A white wide-angle front reflector, or a front lamp
A red wide-angle rear reflector
Yellow reflectors front and rear on each pedal

I recall when I was 11 a lad had a bike wired the wrong way. He was ribbed and quizzed so much by others it wasn't long before his dad put it right.

There are exceptions

There's also an exemption for bikes that are made to the design and for the use of an individual customer, but only if that customer intends to use the bike in competitive events. Accordingly, in order for a touring cyclist (for example) to obtain exactly what he or she wants in a custom-built bike, or to have the brakes on any new bike connected front left, rear right (it'll be safer if that's what they're accustomed to, having learnt to ride abroad), it may be necessary to pretend an enthusiasm for bicycling treasure hunts, map-reading competitions and the like!