Continental brakes - Wrong way round

[Cunobelin]

Brexit.

Brakesit?

[Vorpal]

So the most sensible explanation is because of hand signals.

Personally I think it makes more sense for right-handed riders to use the right hand for the front brake. The dominant hand provides more control for the dominant brake. How often do people use hand signals compared to using the brake anyway?

The philosophy may be (incorrectly, IMO) the other way around.

In North America, cyclists signal both turns with the left arm (out for a left turn, up for a right turn), and therefore have the rear brake on the right. This is effectively a legal requirement at point of sale in the USA, although campaigners have protested this (they don't think the government should decide which brake should go where), and Sheldon Brown preferred to have the front brake on the right, as do many cyclists who brake mainly with the front brake.

Motorcycle hand brakes are set up right-front in the USA, and bicycle handbrakes are set up right-front in much of Asia. I don't know if that is a legacy of the British Empire, or merely practical. It does imply that it's not solely due to signalling.

I drive the guys at my LBS nuts because of having the right-front on all my bikes.

[Brucey]

if you are on a bike (esp with dropped bars) which has a powerful front brake, using it to slow down in a controlled fashion whilst one hand is on the handlebars (and the other one is signalling) is kind of tricky. Even moreso downhill. I can understand why someone changed their brakes over if they found they had to make that exact manoeuvre every single day.

In fact this is so awkward to do that when making a left turn downhill, I usually don't even try to brake and signal at the same time.

cheers

[Mick F]

It's not just bikes.Their cars have the steering wheel on the wrong side too.

One thing that has always puzzled me is why with LH drive cars, the foot pedals are the same way for RH drive cars.

[Brucey]

It's not just bikes.Their cars have the steering wheel on the wrong side too.

One thing that has always puzzled me is why with LH drive cars, the foot pedals are the same way for RH drive cars.

why bother to have the steering wheel turning the same way either.....?.....

cheers

[pete75]

It's not just bikes.Their cars have the steering wheel on the wrong side too.

One thing that has always puzzled me is why with LH drive cars, the foot pedals are the same way for RH drive cars.

why bother to have the steering wheel turning the same way either.....?.....

cheers

And the same for bike handlebars and while we're at it perhaps the pedals could turn the other way.

[Cyril Haearn]

It's not just bikes.Their cars have the steering wheel on the wrong side too.

One thing that has always puzzled me is why with LH drive cars, the foot pedals are the same way for RH drive cars.

Not puzzled me, most people are right-handed and right-footed

[LittleGreyCat]

Allegedly you should brake using mainly the front brake on both bicycles and motorcycles.
I have never been comfortable with this because if the front wheel locks up and breaks away (especially in the wet) then you are usually in a whole world of hurt. Given that, watching Moto GP the riders often brake so hard with the front that the rear wheel comes off the ground.
I have the same issue with cars. Advice/regulation seems to favour understeer (going straight on) instead of oversteer (rear end starts to overtake front end). I am no great fan of going straight on at a corner, but quite happy to apply a little opposite lock to bring the tail back in line. I like the nose of the car to be pointing where I am going and the rear to more or less look after itself.

[Bmblbzzz]

This would, if accepted, demonstrate that all the foreigners* are wrong.
As they ride on the other side of the road.

*excepting Indians, Nepalese, Australians, Pakistanis, Irish, Kiwis, Indonesians, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Kenyans, Ugandans, Tanzanians, South Africans and many others that I forget.

And (for the OP) the Czechs (along with most of the former A-H Empire) until 1939. Let's blame Kaiser Bill.*

*Yes, I do know.

[RickH]

why bother to have the steering wheel turning the same way either.....?.....

In between school & uni in the late 70s I spent the summer working in a warehouse & got to drive various forklifts. These all had rear wheel steering (when driving forks first). The sit down ones steered conventionally - turn the wheel clockwise to turn right anti-clockwise to go left.

There was, however, one that you operated standing where the wheel was reversed - turn it anti-clockwise to go right & clockwise to go left*. Lesson number one for driving it would be that someone would take it out to the middle of the yard & you would be invited to drive it. You would then spend some time driving round in very small circles as you tried to make minor steering adjustments by steering the wrong way, followed by bigger steering adjustments the wrong way as the corrections needed got bigger until you reached full lock one way. And then you would straighten out & repeat in the opposite direction. After a short while most people learned to react the right way but there were a few who never could "get" it.

(*It was the equivalent of trying to reverse a car while sitting on the dashboard facing backwards, the sit down ones must have had a reversed linkage so the steering wheel operated "normally" when driving forwards.)

[pwa]

Allegedly you should brake using mainly the front brake on both bicycles and motorcycles.
I have never been comfortable with this because if the front wheel locks up and breaks away (especially in the wet) then you are usually in a whole world of hurt. Given that, watching Moto GP the riders often brake so hard with the front that the rear wheel comes off the ground.
I have the same issue with cars. Advice/regulation seems to favour understeer (going straight on) instead of oversteer (rear end starts to overtake front end). I am no great fan of going straight on at a corner, but quite happy to apply a little opposite lock to bring the tail back in line. I like the nose of the car to be pointing where I am going and the rear to more or less look after itself.

There are plenty of hills around here where you have to rely mainly on the front brake to stop and give way at the bottom because the rear wheel has so little weight on it that it locks well before any serious braking happens. I use the rear brake mostly for speed modulation and as a supplement for the main brake up front.

[Vorpal]

Allegedly you should brake using mainly the front brake on both bicycles and motorcycles.
I have never been comfortable with this because if the front wheel locks up and breaks away (especially in the wet) then you are usually in a whole world of hurt. Given that, watching Moto GP the riders often brake so hard with the front that the rear wheel comes off the ground.
I have the same issue with cars. Advice/regulation seems to favour understeer (going straight on) instead of oversteer (rear end starts to overtake front end). I am no great fan of going straight on at a corner, but quite happy to apply a little opposite lock to bring the tail back in line. I like the nose of the car to be pointing where I am going and the rear to more or less look after itself.

There are plenty of hills around here where you have to rely mainly on the front brake to stop and give way at the bottom because the rear wheel has so little weight on it that it locks well before any serious braking happens. I use the rear brake mostly for speed modulation and as a supplement for the main brake up front.

It is true, that losing traction under front wheel braking is much more likely to result in loss of control that rear wheel braking, but this has to be balanced by the fact that the best braking power is in the front. Like pwa, I use the rear, mainly as speed modulation, or on a long descent, I alternate between brakes, so as not to get either rim too warm.

When it's wet, or potentially slipperly, I slow right down, but if I still think there is a significant risk of traction loss/wheel locking up, I will brake on the rear, first. On hills steep enough to make the rear brake useless, I will probably be going so slow that if the front locks up, i can just put my foot down

[Brucey]

why bother to have the steering wheel turning the same way either.....?.....

In between school & uni in the late 70s I spent the summer working in a warehouse & got to drive various forklifts. These all had rear wheel steering (when driving forks first). The sit down ones steered conventionally - turn the wheel clockwise to turn right anti-clockwise to go left.

There was, however, one that you operated standing where the wheel was reversed - turn it anti-clockwise to go right & clockwise to go left*. Lesson number one for driving it would be that someone would take it out to the middle of the yard & you would be invited to drive it. You would then spend some time driving round in very small circles as you tried to make minor steering adjustments by steering the wrong way, followed by bigger steering adjustments the wrong way as the corrections needed got bigger until you reached full lock one way. And then you would straighten out & repeat in the opposite direction. After a short while most people learned to react the right way but there were a few who never could "get" it.

(*It was the equivalent of trying to reverse a car while sitting on the dashboard facing backwards, the sit down ones must have had a reversed linkage so the steering wheel operated "normally" when driving forwards.)

Lordy.... that sounds like absolute madness!

One of these?


not driven one myself....

cheers

[gxaustin]

I have a bike with LH front brake and all the others have RH front. I've grown used to swapping. Same as you'd have to when riding a hire bike in the US or mainland Europe.
I brake mostly using the front. Although it could skid in extremis the weight transference under braking will make this much less likely than locking the rear.
When I was a kid several mates said they'd been told never to use the front brake for fear of going over the handlebars With 1950s brakes

[RickH]

Lordy.... that sounds like absolute madness!

One of these?


not driven one myself....

cheers

Something very similar, if not identical. I think I was OK with driving it after about 20-30 minutes of practice, possibly a bit quicker - it's a long time ago now.