Which way around do the pro's have their brakes set up?

[Racing roadkill]

The general convention has been/is: if you ride/drive on the left then the front brake is on the right (and vice versa). There are plenty of articles that cover the background to this. However, there are always exceptions e.g. in days of old, Italian riders had the front brake on the right (have a look at some pics of Pantani for example).

I have one bike set up the "British" (and Australian etc) way and another set up a la Continental and have no problems adapting to the different set-ups.

(Also completely OT but Italian lorries used to have the steering wheel on the right so that the drivers knew just how close they were to the edge on mountain passes).

Edit ... and I'm sure that Evans had the front on the right when he rode for BMC but the rest of the team had the front on the left

Pantani was one of my favourite riders, yes he was continually coke'd up to the eyeballs, yes he was nuttier than squirrel shoot, but "5 hours riding, then home for water and a slice of watermelon"

 

[Citius]

The general convention has been/is: if you ride/drive on the left then the front brake is on the right (and vice versa). There are plenty of articles that cover the background to this. However, there are always exceptions e.g. in days of old, Italian riders had the front brake on the right (have a look at some pics of Pantani for example).

That convention has no logical basis. Motorcycles routinely have throttle and front brake on the right hand side of the bars, clutch lever on the left - regardless of which side of the road they drive on.

 

[woohoo]

That convention has no logical basis. Motorcycles routinely have throttle and front brake on the right hand side of the bars, clutch lever on the left - regardless of which side of the road they drive on.

That's why it is a convention. Conventions don't need logic! (although you can use Google and Sheldon Brown for more background)

As for motorcycles, it may have escaped your attention that the industry was dominated by the British and then the Japanese, who also drive on the left. That is why that convention has stuck worldwide (and as a corollary why car indicators in the UK are on the "wrong" side these days (they used to be on the right to allow the left hand to operate the gearshift) because the Continental manufacturers stopped converting their setup for the UK to reduce costs.)

 

[Sharky]

My understanding, from my Dad, is that for safety purposes, you have the rear brake on the left, to give controlled braking when turning right and indicating at the same time. If it was the front brake on the left, it could be too severe and you could easily go over the top. (I've done it). On the continent, the same logic, but brakes are switched round.

However, in the old fixed days, when you only needed one front brake, this used to be on the left. Again the same safety logic. You could turn right and signal at the same time.

Cheers Keith

 

[Racing roadkill]

My understanding, from my Dad, is that for safety purposes, you have the rear brake on the left, to give controlled braking when turning right and indicating at the same time. If it was the front brake on the left, it could be too severe and you could easily go over the top. (I've done it). On the continent, the same logic, but brakes are switched round.

However, in the old fixed days, when you only needed one front brake, this used to be on the left. Again the same safety logic. You could turn right and signal at the same time.

Cheers Keith

Bang on.

 

[djmc]

The standard set-up in France is for the rear break to be on the right and the front break to be on the left (the reverse to what it is on bikes in Britain). Having it as it is in Britain meets with amazement. I am pretty sure that the pro's set up is as it is universally in France.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

We are lucky there are only two sides to choose from otherwise this could become contradictory.

 

[Racing roadkill]

We are lucky there are only two sides to choose from otherwise this could become contradictory.

That depends whether you're looking at the bike from the front facing back, or the back facing front.

 

[smutchin]

My understanding, from my Dad, is that for safety purposes, you have the rear brake on the left, to give controlled braking when turning right and indicating at the same time. If it was the front brake on the left, it could be too severe and you could easily go over the top. (I've done it). On the continent, the same logic, but brakes are switched round.

It's only too severe if you pull too hard...

In any case, you should probably be approaching turns using the same principle as when you're driving a car: mirror-signal-manoeuvre, with braking as part of the manoeuvre phase, ie after signalling. To illustrate: the regular route I used to ride to work in my previous job involved turning right off a busy road on a steep descent. Having the front brake on the left when making that turn would have been far safer - using the rear brake alone while signalling wouldn't have given me enough stopping power. The way I usually approached it was to signal right well before the turn and move out to the centre of the road, then use both brakes as I got close to the turn.

And if it's safety you're interested in, you really ought to have both hands on the bars when braking for maximum control. I discovered this recently when riding a borrowed bike with hydraulic disc brakes - hadn't been riding it long enough to get used to how bloody powerful the brakes were, applied the rear brake slightly too hard while riding one-handed and almost lost control.

Another bike I borrowed recently was set up with the front brake on the left. Only no one told me it was set up that way. I nearly found out the hard way when descending Fountain Drive (from Crystal Palace) - a lorry started to reverse out of a driveway ahead of me on the left, forcing me to brake hard. I didn't noticeably slow down so started to brake even harder, which just caused the rear end of the bike to start fishtailing all over the place. And I still wasn't slowing down. In the end, I had to do an emergency unclip and jam my foot down, completely wrecking my cleat. Luckily, I came to a halt in time though.

While I stood at the side of the road, I inspected the bike to work out wtf was wrong with it, and that's when it finally clicked. After that, it was fine - once I knew which way round the brakes were set up, I found it perfectly easy to use them that way. It didn't make any difference to the way I approached junctions or made hand signals.

A colleague of mine did find out the hard way that his borrowed bike was set up that way round. He made the discovery while taking a hairpin bend on a mountain descent in Mallorca... There's probably still a nice blood stain on the tarmac there as a warning to other riders. (Actually, I think he had already been told the bike was set up that way, he just forgot in the heat of the moment.)

 

[oldroadman]

Always had mine left front, right rear. Just swopped over on one or two supplied bikes. It's just what works well. On motos front brake is RH, clutch left, rear foot (unless they have linked braking 60/40 f-r, all on the right foot, plus hand lever for extra front power if needed). Not complicated!