The german DIN states that the front brake should be routed to the right since it is considered as additional brake to the main coaster brake and it is considered further that your right hand ist the stronger one since most people are righthanded. This rules did not consider racebikes at all since the focus was on ordinary street legal bikes. I was thaught to route the right lever to the rear brake assumming that in an emergency brake as a right hander you will instinctively pull the right brake earlier and harder and therefor avoid flipping over the bars... So italian routing would be for lefthanders only....
Michael Schmid Oberammergau Germany Tel.: +49 8821 798790 Fax.:+49 8821 798791 mail: schmid@zunterer.com http://www.zunterer.com
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] Im Auftrag von Hilary Stone Gesendet: Dienstag, 10. April 2007 18:15 An: BobHoveyGa@aol.com Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Betreff: Re: Was: [CR]NOS Masi on E-bay, Now: Cable routing
In Britain all bikes are routed with right lever to front brake and left
lever to rear brake as standard and I think it is even part of the British Standard that all complete bikes must comply with when sold new.
Hilary Stone, Bristol, England
BobHoveyGa@aol.com wrote:
> I've heard two lines of reasoning on brake routing, one being that you
> route
> the left to the front since it is your weaker hand and the front brake
is the
> stronger (or at least the one that has better traction when your
weight gets
> thrown forward during braking), therefore the forces tend to even out
when you
> apply both brakes at once, less force going to the front and perhap
less
> chance of going over the handlebars. The other school of thought is
that since
> your front brake is generally the most effective, why not use the
right hand
> which has more power and also more finesse and faster reaction time...
when you
> want to stop in a hurry, the front brake will be doing most of the
work so why
> not put your good hand there?
>
> I always felt the latter line of reasoning made more sense. But
since I'm
> left handed, that means I still route cables in the conventional
(non-Italian)
> fashion, left hand/front brake. Unfortunately, on the mostly but not
> entirely off-topic bikes where cables are routed under the wrap, this
> is probably
> one's only choice since right to front usually results in an awkwardly
curved
> cable except perhaps on very large frames.
>
> Bob Hovey
> Columbus, GA
>
>
>
> In a message dated 4/10/07 11:45:46 AM,
> classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:
>
>
>> To all,
>>
>> That brake routing is generally considered Italian style and most of
>> the Italian bikes "back in the day" came this way. My opinion is it's
>> best to set up vintage Italian bikes like this. I have lots of bikes
>> both ways and it doesn't seem to matter to me at all; but some people
>> consider it unacceptable to ride that way. Makes no difference to me,
>> don't know why it bothers other people.
>>
>> Brian Baylis
>> La Mesa, CA
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
> **************************************
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