I set my front brake to the right hand so I can feather the rear brake if needed while shifting or reaching for a bottle. On my 1988 custom frame, I even had the builder snake the rear brake through the top tube to the left hand.
Keith Kessel Shreveport, La. USA
On Fri, January 16, 2009 4:52 pm, Colin Laing wrote:
>
>> From Colin Laing
>>
>
> Now that the bar-wrap saga is almost laid to rest, may I submit "brake
> levers" for discussion...In England, since most of us rode fixed wheel in
> the winter and even early season time-trials, the one and only brake
> lever was on the right hand side. Various ideas of this were that we rode
> on the left-hand side of the road, the right hand was generally the
> stronger of the two and mainly, if a young chick had joined the group, it
> was easier to push her along into a head-wind. When racing on the
> Continent, the mechanic would oblige my request to switch the cables
> around but with some mirth. On emigrating to the States in 1974, I thought
> it best to "go with the flow" and did my brakes American and Continental
> style...all went well until 2 years ago on the "Sunday Bash" whilst in
> Britain....I switched bikes with a young chap who wanted to try a
> Campagnolo Record equipped bike ...with about 5 miles to go and in
> pouring rain, we went down a 1 in 4 (called Scarth Nick),,,and I tapped
> the wrong side lever going into a bend...The bike did a complete 180 ..I
> managed luckily to stay upright,,,but even luckier, the other guys
> thought I did the manouver on purpose and marvelled at my performance..
>
> So, which is the correct side? COLIN LAING ( awaiting Obama's stimulus
> check)