I've also heard another line of reasoning is, "That is the way motorcycles are routed."
I myself prefer left-front because it coincides with left-front-shift on my modern bikes.
Doland Cheung SoCal
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of BobHoveyGa@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 9:10 AM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Was: [CR]NOS Masi on E-bay, Now: Cable routing
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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