Brake Configuration

Chris Gerhard <no_spam@not_btclick.com> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Drinky said:

I tried out a friends bike yesterday and nearly went over the handlebars as his front brake
(right hand) is where my back brake is.

Does one of us have our bike set up incorrectly?

In the yes one of you does have your bike set up incorrectly.

In the UK the front break is on the right.

Now in the rest of Europe[1] and in the US they have the front break on the left.

All new German bikes I have seen this year have had a RH-Front brake. I think I read somewhere that
this is to be the new Euro standard. It would make sense, as all powered 2-wheelers are so
standardised.

I, however, as a right-handed person, operate both down-tube levers with my right hand when changing
up, while using the right hand to change down on the rear and the left hand to knock the chain down
onto the inner ring.

This all goes to show something, but I'm sure I don't know what.

Dave Larrington - legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uklegslarry.beerdrinkers.co.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
bhpc.org.ukbhpc.org.ukOpen ↗
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"pig pog" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Drinky said:

I tried out a friends bike yesterday and nearly went over the

handlebars

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

as his front brake (right hand) is where my back brake is. Does one of us have our bike set up
incorrectly?

For me at least there is only ONE right way - the same as every motorcycle - front brake on
the right. The left lever is either the rear brake or the clutch - both are pretty hopeless
for stopping.

How do you guys that ride Europe spec bicycles and motorcycles manage - seems damned dangerous to be
swapping between the two

Hugh Fenton

"Hugh Fenton" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"pig pog" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Drinky said:

I tried out a friends bike yesterday and nearly went over the

handlebars

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

as his front brake (right hand) is where my back brake is. Does one of us have our bike set
up incorrectly?

For me at least there is only ONE right way - the same as every motorcycle - front brake on the
right. The left lever is either the rear brake or the clutch - both are pretty hopeless for
stopping.

How do you guys that ride Europe spec bicycles and motorcycles manage - seems damned dangerous to
be swapping between the two

I don't swap between the two, I configure all my bikes the European way. Were not all Brit bikes the
other way round Rear brake/Gearshift until the last batch of NVT offerings circa 1977?

Hugh Fenton said:

How do you guys that ride Europe spec bicycles and motorcycles manage - seems damned dangerous to
be swapping between the two

- never tried to pedal on a motorcycle
- never tried to change gears with my left foot in a car
- never tried to speed up my bicycle with my right hand

These are much different vehicles anyway. Getting used to various lever positions doesn't seem to be
a big deal.

Guenther

I don't see why it would be a problem - if "foreigners" can cope with the brakes that way round, it
shouldn't be beyond a reasoanbly intelligent Briton :-)

I admit that both my bikes are configured the minority (British) way with the front brake on the
right, but I regularly switch between my three cars without any confusion - one is left-hand drive,
with gears and handbrake to my right; one is right hand drive with gears and handbrake to the left,
and one is right hand drive with gears to the left and handbrake to the right!

I am curious to know why bikes have the brakes set the other way round in this country though -
surely it can't be anything do with which side of the road we drive on. I must remember to check
what the Japanese do next time I'm there...

"Guenther Schwarz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hugh Fenton said:

How do you guys that ride Europe spec bicycles and motorcycles manage - seems damned dangerous
to be swapping between the two

- never tried to pedal on a motorcycle
- never tried to change gears with my left foot in a car
- never tried to speed up my bicycle with my right hand

These are much different vehicles anyway. Getting used to various lever positions doesn't seem to
be a big deal.

Guenther

Guenther Schwarz <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hugh Fenton said:

How do you guys that ride Europe spec bicycles and motorcycles manage - seems damned dangerous
to be swapping between the two

You're right there: you grab a handful in an emergency, you want it to be the front, usually (YMMV
for some DH situations)

Quoted message said:

- never tried to pedal on a motorcycle

Honda SS50

Quoted message said:

- never tried to change gears with my left foot in a car

Been known to happen while stationary in certain inter-personal situations.

Quoted message said:

- never tried to speed up my bicycle with my right hand

Drop a gear and spin

Guenther: What is the the situation in .de-land now? I haven't found anything on the web regarding
changes to the StVZO for bikes (it just says that there must be two brakes, front and rear,
indepedantly operated - paragraph 65, I think), but I popped into Rad'l Bauer at the weekend (a bike
shop with a lot of stock in Munich) and every bike I looked at had RH/Front setup. All the
magazines, like Tour & Bike, however, are showing bikes with the LH/Front configuration.

Rory said:

Guenther Schwarz <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

What is the the situation in .de-land now? I haven't found anything on the web regarding changes
to the StVZO for bikes (it just says that there must be two brakes, front and rear, indepedantly
operated - paragraph 65, I think),

I am not too much interested in legal stuff regarding bike riding. So I am not an expert on this
topic. AFAIK the law requires just two independantly operated brakes and a dynamo operated light
equipment with certain exceptions for road racing bikes. I would suppose that the brake setup is
defined in a DIN and possibly also in an international standard.

Quoted message said:

but I popped into Rad'l Bauer at the weekend (a bike shop with a lot of stock in Munich) and
every bike I looked at had RH/Front setup. All the magazines, like Tour & Bike, however, are
showing bikes with the LH/Front configuration.

Again I am not an expert. When I bought my last bike the ones with two hand-operated brakes had
mostly the
LH/Front setup. The ones with hub gears and back pedaling brake had the single lever for the front
brake on the right, of course.

Sorry for not being able to give you more information on this topic. But again, I think this is not
a problem in real life.

Guenther

In article said:

I am curious to know why bikes have the brakes set the other way round in this country though -
surely it can't be anything do with which side of the road we drive on.

Sheldon says there is a correlation.

sheldonbrown.orgbrakturn.htmlOpen ↗ "The theory that seems most probable to me is
that these national standards arose from a concern that the cyclist be able to make hand signals,
and still be able to reach the primary brake. This logical idea is, unfortunately, accompanied by
the incorrect premise that the rear brake is the primary brake."

(Unstated but reasonable is that hand signals are more important when turning across traffic (UK
right turn, US left turn).)

Geoff Bowles said:

I don't see why it would be a problem - if "foreigners" can cope with the brakes that way round, it
shouldn't be beyond a reasoanbly intelligent Briton :-)

Too right, Geoff. Even I can cope, and no one ever called me intelligent. :-7

I've never ridden a bike with left/front levered brakes but I, as I'm sure is the case with most
peeps in this NG, have ridden cycles with various gearlever setups. On Saturday, I rode an ancient
MTB (sort of) with thumb shifters - not rapid fire, the sort with the shifters on the top of the
bars. They took all of thirty second to get used to.

However, I was following a certainly-not-the-same-James (this one was six) whose style was to pedal
furiously for five seconds, freewheel, hit his brakes for some reason then pedal madly again. I
certainly learnt quickly where my gears shifters were and how they operated. Naturally, my front
brake was covered all the time.

James

--
"Sorry mate, I didn't see you" is not a satisfactory excuse.