Mountain Biking - Left-handed bikers

My 10 year son is left handed. I got him a Mountain bike recently and I was wondering last night If left handed cyclist ever reverse the the brake lever and shifting setups on their bikes to match their dominant hand. I don't know why I decided to wonder about this. I just thought it interesting I guess.

Thanks.

Actually a lot of riders that ride MX do this. Also in many parts of the world this is the standard set-up.

For cable actuated brakes it's very easy. For hydraulic disc brakes it "can" be a bit more complicated depending on the brake manuf. Many like Hayes now have a lever that works in either orientation. If not, then you have to install new lines and rebleed the system. Not too complicated, but sometimes more than your "at-home-repair" can handle.

As far as shifting, most people stick with the left=front, right=rear orientation.

The dominant hand becomes less critical in shifting, whereas for braking, feel and modulation of the lever is more significant.

L8R

Oh yeah, it also screws with your buddy's head when they test ride your bike!

L8R

My 10 year son is left handed. I got him a Mountain bike recently and I was wondering last night If left handed cyclist ever reverse the the brake lever and shifting setups on their bikes to match their dominant hand. I don't know why I decided to wonder about this. I just thought it interesting I guess.

Thanks.

Some riders, mostly those with motorcycle experience, run the rear brake on the left lever and the front brake on the right lever. I'm not sure what advantage it is supposed to provide, and not coming from the motorcycle world, I'm not interested in switching my levers.

The front lever provides most of a bike's stopping power. So the way things are normally set up, a right handed person is using their dominant hand on their weaker brake.

A few years ago I went for a breakfast ride with my club. I think there were 6 of us. When we got to the restaurant and began to arrange ourselves at the table, I discovered that I was the only right-hander in the group. That was a strange experience. It was like the aliens had landed and I was the only one who knew. I am quite sure they were all running their brakes in the conventional right-rear/left-front fashion. Of course, this was a bunch of roadies...

Anyway, as for switching brake levers, it can be done, but I don't see an real advantages in it.

but wouldnt you be used to using the way it was already set up?

i dont think the dominance of the hand would matter, it would be what your used to, wouldnt it?

It matters for modulation. Most people have more fine tuned control over there dominant hand. I run reversed due to a handicap I have and the fact I want a lot of control AND power over my front wheel.

I may have thought about doing it years ago, probably after feeling like I was about to do an endo from braking harder with my dominant hand. Mentally, I just modulate the braking (as suggested above) but generally brake harder with my right hand than left.

I guess we lefties just generally adapt to the world being bass-ackwards most of the time.

ahhh... i get it, you want to have more control over your front brakes, as opposed to your back, because you can just jam on your back and its fine, but the front would probly break your neck.

I am left handed and I have never heard of that. All I can say is it would be better to learn the bicycle standard than to make one thing the exception.

One good example is i don't have the shifter in the car on the left hand side, so it isn't that big of a handicap.

I am left handed and I have never heard of that. All I can say is it would be better to learn the bicycle standard than to make one thing the exception.

One good example is i don't have the shifter in the car on the left hand side, so it isn't that big of a handicap.

I have my levers switched left being back brake and vice versa, I am right handed and it helps me modulate my front brake close to the threshold of the tires, when I ride a regular setup I eat mad sh*t cause My left hand isnt as precise, Also it keeps me front endoing when I get on my honda 450F :D

hahaha..that would hurt a bit more than on your ordinary bike :p

Whatever you're comfortable with, that's cool.

You do realize that if you swap his levers, you are setting your son on a path where he'll have to go through the hassle of swapping levers on every bike he owns in his life?

Unless he moves to europe :)

Also Australia have the "backwards setup" rear/left and front/right. It's rerally easy to use this as you get more modulation, but if you started riding with the levers the other way around it would be just as easy as that is what you were brought up doing.

Also here's a little fact, Sam Hill, Nathan Rennie and Jared Rando all use the rear/left front/right brake setup because they are Australian. This goes for all other Aussie riders basically.

I'm not going to swap his levers. I just wondered if some mountain bikers did this. It made sense to me. Swapping the levers would mess me up because he is still pretty inexperienced and on rides I give him advice and if his controls were switched I'd probably cause him to crash. I also bought him right-handed golf clubs. A very good left-handed golfer I play with plays with right handed clubs and always has. He told me do the boy a favor and get him right handed clubs it will make buying clubs easier for him in the future.

Plus I'm no mechanic.

Thanks for all the responses.

I actually started out the normal way. But due to a small disability I don't have the strength or leverage on my left hand. Since my front brake is used 80% of the time, it was a logical switch.

In most cases, if equipment or machinery is setup one way, it doesn't matter whether you're left or right handed. 99% will adapt without even having to think. It's usually only when given a choice, a left hander will naturally lean towards what's comfortable.... for instance learning to bat or swing a golf club.... Most left handed people who play guitar play them right handed....