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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