Cycling UK Forum

I'm based in the Czech Republic and the brakes on bikes here are the wrong way round. i.e. right lever is rear brake, and left is front. Took a little bit of getting used to at first.
Anybody know why they are like this?

To answer your question I have no idea. However I swapped by brakes around nearly 40 years ago because I used to find on my daily commute that I had a right turn on a fairly steep downhill section where I would easily lock up the rear wheel, particularly in the wet, braking with my left hand and signalling with my right hand. I've run my brakes that way ever since.

Brexit.

levarg wrote:I'm based in the Czech Republic and the brakes on bikes here are the wrong way round. i.e. right lever is rear brake, and left is front. Took a little bit of getting used to at first.
Anybody know why they are like this?

They ride on the wrong side of the road!

I've always had left hand front brake as the front brake is better when turning across traffic. UK bikes are the other (wrong) way round

iandusud wrote:To answer your question I have no idea. However I swapped by brakes around nearly 40 years ago because I used to find on my daily commute that I had a right turn on a fairly steep downhill section where I would easily lock up the rear wheel, particularly in the wet, braking with my left hand and signalling with my right hand. I've run my brakes that way ever since.

Similar story for me. Always put the front on the left.

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.

Japanese too

levarg wrote:Anybody know why they are like this?

It's so you use the back brake while signalling a turn across the road because having one arm off reduces your ability to brace yourself against the bars and thereby increases the risk of sliding forwards if you use the front brake. When turning nearsidewards, it's usually less of a problem if you can't signal because you're braking, plus in theory, that's the turn you're more likely to need to brake harder for.

Of course, lots of continental bikes only have one brake lever, with the back being a footbrake/coaster-brake.

We had a deployment in 1988 called Outback 88, a six months deployment. I was in HMS Sirius. We called at Gib, Columbo Sri Lanka, Lumut Malaysia, Pattaya Thailand, Singapore, Port Moresby Papua New Guinea, Sidney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Bunbury (near Perth), Bahrain, and Gib again.

All drove on the left side of the road except Gibraltar ............... which was odd because it's British.

Took my bike with me, and cycled in all those places.

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

Anybody know when it became standard British practice to have front brake on the right? My 1918 Royal Enfield has a left hand front right habd left. My 1924 Sunbeam front brake right back brake back pedal NOT a coaster hub but linkage from the bottom bracket. However a 1932 Golden Sunbeam I had had LH front RH rear brakes very confusing. These are all rod braked bicycles and are in there original configuration.

mjr wrote:

levarg wrote:Anybody know why they are like this?

It's so you use the back brake while signalling a turn across the road because having one arm off reduces your ability to brace yourself against the bars and thereby increases the risk of sliding forwards if you use the front brake. When turning nearsidewards, it's usually less of a problem if you can't signal because you're braking, plus in theory, that's the turn you're more likely to need to brake harder for.

Of course, lots of continental bikes only have one brake lever, with the back being a footbrake/coaster-brake.

.. and the single hand brake lever is generally on the right (front brake), but it is rarely used, the back-pedal brake is used mostly

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?

Spinners wrote:Brexit.

Brakesit?