Listers,
I picked up the "British" (right brake lever to front brake) method in college during the early 1970s, from Riley McLean, one of the . riders I have ever known and one of the great mechanics at Collins Cycle Shop (may it rest in peace) in Eugene, OR. Despite the occasional rude comment about "backwards brakes," I have been happy-- and safe--with it for almost 40 years on everything from my UO-18 mixte (Weinmann 999/750 CPs on "priest" bars) to my Campi Chorus 9- speed (and off-topic, of course) Eisentraut. I always run my brake shoes very close to the rims so that smooth modulation is almost instantaneous with either hand. This is MUCH easier with the right lever-front brake combo on my Weinmanns using a QR cable hanger on the headset.
Riding here in "the colonies" (aka the USA), careful right-hand-to- front braking allows speed modulation and serious deceleration while making hand signals. With my bell mounted on the left side of my bars, I can also ring it for small children as I decelerate. Of course, any serious at-speed riding calls for both hands on the bars and careful braking with both calipers, but I can often do the great majority of braking during city riding one-handed. (Track stands at traffic lights require both brakes on my non-fixie bikes.)
Now, if I could just figure out from all the handlebar taping comments how to TAPE my bars... (Left roll-front bar? Right bar, rear roll? Counter-clockwise only during a full moon? Tape the down tube to the bottom bracket? Re=wrap old, sticky Tressostar cotton tape inside out for better grip?)
Leaning to the far left politically but braking from the right in Alameda, CA USA,
Jon Spangler
On Jan 16, 2009, at 6:18 PM, <classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org>
<classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org> wrote:
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:11:27 -0600
> From: <globallyoff@s2ki.com>
> Subject: Re: [CR] Brake levers
> To: <colin_laing@yahoo.com>
> Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Message-ID: 56749.76.107.21.152.1232151087.squirrel@www.s2ki.com
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> 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)
>>
>>
>>
Jon Spangler
Writer/Editor
Linda Hudson Writing
510-864-0370/FAX 864-2144
MOBILE 510-846-5356
hudsonspangler@earthlink.net