I: [CR]Rear brake left - right?

(Example: Books:Ron Kitching)

Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2002 00:31:38 -0500
From: "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands@comcast.net>
Subject: I: [CR]Rear brake left - right?
To: Classic Rendezvous <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


David Feldman wrote:
> I know people who switched to front brake/right lever for urban riding, the
> better to signal turns while braking with.

in response to Jan's note:
> > I have a different theory: In Germany and Italy, coaster-braked bikes
> > were the norm. On those, you have one brake lever only. So you put it
> > on the right. If you add a second lever (for a rear brake), you put
> > it on the left.
> >
> > In France, coaster brakes never were populer. So they have the
> > inverse set-up - probably for no good reason, except they may have
> > started with rear brakes only! So the rear goes on the right. Don't
> > know about the U.S... Probably adapted the French model.
> >
> > For riding, it really doesn't matter. No good brake requires more
> > strength than a left hand can provide, and anyhow, the variation in
> > hand strength from rider to rider is greater than between hands of
> > the same rider.
> >
> > The funniest thing I've ever heard is that cyclocross might have
> > something to do with it - you want to feather the rear brake when you
> > have only one hand on the bars. If you do that, you probably won't
> > stay upright!

Personally, I use the European method of signalling, which is the extended right arm to signal a right turn, and extended left arm to signal a left turn. The upwards bent left arm to signal a right turn never made any sense to me or anybody else who was any more than 2 weeks beyond their driving test! This also rules out any link to signalling in the placement of the levers. I personally like Jan's theory. I would however like to point out that the first bikes with spoon brakes all seemed to have 'the' brake (invariably a front) on the right. I also would like to point out that traffic was so sparse and brake efficiency so poor in the early years of cycling that brakes were not overly important period! Brakes did not likely become limiting factors in racing until the 50's. The roads and componentry available didn't allow for the brakes to make any appreciable difference... My older Italian bikes can attest to the component part of that statement and riding of a few infrequently used mountain roads in Europe should be good evidence of the road part. For the rest, I think that it has now all become a thing of habit.

Looking back at some old cycling books, the main riders that you can see with the front/right set-up are Italians, Brits, Colombians and Eastern Europeans. The most notable is perhaps Francesco Moser, although the first winner of the Tour de France Feminin: the American Marianne Martin also rode with this set-up (as did Maria Canins...)

Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ

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