cable routing on sidepull calipers (Shi-Dia,etc.)
 

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.

It is because different countries ride on different sides of the road and so have different brake hook-ups for bikes (RH front or LH front). The British started bicyce mass-production so people copied their set-up for a while. The Japanese copied the Europeans (specifically, the Italians) after a while.

I set mine up front brake on right... too many years of riding moto to change now.

My 1962 Bianchi's Universal sidepulls were left-routed by your definition, and the non-areo front brake cable was routed from the closer right-hand brake lever. Back then, everyone did near-side routing. Schwinn 3-speeds and Varsities came left-front wired to right-routed Weinmann sidepulls, the mirror image of my "exotic" Italian import.

My 1981 Bianchi's Modolo Speedy sidepulls were also left-routed, and the non-aero front brake cable was routed across the handlebars, from the left-hand brake lever. When I converted to aero brake handles, this routing worked out very well, with a nice gentle curvature of the cable. All of this is a great argument in favor of centerpull brakes -- you can always route them any way you want! :)

Interesting input. Thanks for the history, all.