I have noticed on one of my bikes and a friend's bike, the Shimano or Dia-Compe sidepulls have the cable routing on the right (facing the bike) side of the caliper arms. On most other vintage bikes I've seen, the sidepulls route the cable on the left (facing the bike) side of the arm. It turns out on both the bikes I've mentioned, the only practical way of attaching levers to the front brakes is by switching levers, a la Sheldon Brown. I'm thinking these brakes are "wrong-sided" for one of two reasons, and wondered if anyone could confirm/deny my theories:

1) Development of aero levers, which means that it's a shorter cable path from the normal front lever position to the brake.

2) Brakes made for an Asian market. Maybe since everything in Japan and much of Asia is on the opposite side of the road, brake lever orientation is similar?

Also, was wondering if anyone had any tips on dealing with these kinds of things. On my friend's bike, I have actually installed some "inline" or "cyclocross" style levers for upright braking on her drops, and the only practicable way to do this was to revers the left and right levers. I'm hoping she'll be able to go along with such a scheme.

Thanks.