Brakes.. Front on the left or right.

[Profpointy]

????????
Am I missing something here, surely if you ride on the left hand side of the road and want to turn right, you will be braking with your left-hand and signalling with your right. So you will actually be using your back brake? Hence why the brakes are st-up depending on which side of the road you ride on.

Yes you have understood the situation, but not grasped it's a problem. Aforementioned Black Boy Hill is reasonably steep, so if you try and brake with back brake only, you will lock up back wheel, skid, then likely fall off - or if you don't brake quite as hard as that, you won't actually slow down, never mind stop! You need front brake to stop, and hence can't signal. On the flat, not such an issue.

Basically back brakes or for very gentle slowing or as a last resort, and not really for proper braking

 

[Lanzecki]

If you've been happy since 2009, why change now? Especially since it'll be a real hassle.
.

It's a good question TBH. I only really noticed because of the dark unknown road in the wet. Not i'm thinking about it all the time. Bikes, motorbikes etc all have front on the right. Maybe I'll leave it until the bar tape gets mucky. Give it a few weeks then [

If you mean you will need new tape, then not necessarily, as long as you taped the bars starting at the drops and finishing nearest to the stem (and didn't use sticky tape!). I have found that it is quite easy to re-use the bar tape - especially if it is quite new - if you just unwrap as far as the shifter. Use something to keep it in place at that point (a cable tie or similar) so that it doesn't unravel all the way, as the bit round the shifter is where the tape is stretched out of shape and is difficult to re-tape.

It's not the removing of it that's a problem, it's the prep work for a few mins to move/replace the liners etc. Just being lazy TBH. I've just the same bar tape before on other bike and it's easy enough to replace.

 

[Lanzecki]

It will be interesting to see how being aware of it now affects your perception of it.

This I think, is the word. Perception. While I must have been aware of the difference I became 'really' aware a few days ago. Everytime I ride the bike I'm thinking about it instead of the ride.

 

[Lanzecki]

To close this post. I changed all the brake and gear cables making the right lever the control the front brake.

I am now at one with my bike. But I'm still wondering why I never noticed before.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and support in my hour of need.

 

[sreten]

Hi,

On my road bike the front cable attaches to the left of the front brake looking forward,
its intended for front = right lever, so you can tell from the brakes what is intended.

rgds, sreten.

 

[Sterba]

You are doing the right thing. Make sure that the front brake is on the same side on all the bikes you ride. Which side is purely a matter of personal preferrence. Older guys like me grew up with left/front, and once used to that, never wanted to change. Most new bikes (made in Taiwan, sold worldwide) are supplied with left/front. Unless you also ride a motorbike, it hardly matters, as long as you know instinctively which is the front brake so you can jam it on in an emergency.

Here's story where right/front/left/back etc etc didn't apply. I was riding along a main road in the dark. A car was waiting to pull out from a side turning on the left in front of me as I was approaching. Sure enough he did, as they always do. He got out just ahead of me and I was going to miss him. But the silly clot was towing another car behind him. The second driver realised he wasn't going to make it as well, so he stood tight on his brakes, still in the minor road to the left of me. Too late, I saw the tow rope tighten up in the air about a foot off the ground. The impact of my wheel on the rope was quite soft, but the bike was not going to go any further. I did.....over the handlebars. Luckily I was wearing a helmet. I lived to tell the tale.

 

[biggs682]

If you've been happy since 2009, why change now? Especially since it'll be a real hassle.

I ride one bike (it's American) with the levers the "wrong" way round. I can't say it causes me any problems.

surely you just get use to it in the end

 

[srw]

surely you just get use to it in the end

Very quickly, actually. I have more problems with the fact that I've got different gear levers on each of my bikes (Rohloff, thumb levers, Shimano roadbike TSI, Revoshift, SA 3-speed, Shimano mountain bike TSI) - and the fact that the left and the right levers go in different directions to make things easier.