.....on the drive side when installing clamp on bits. It doesn't really matter, but I'm sure there's a correct way.

You know you're getting old when you have to move the shifters on your city bike from the downtube to the bars after narrowly missing a parked car.

heads on the drive side. I dunno why I do this, didn't even know I did until you asked the question, and I went and looked.

Hmmm....

just feels right, I suppose. could it have something to do with the quick release orientation?

I always do bolt heads on the drive side, too. It does just feel right.

Neal

But . . . the QR nuts are on the drive side!

Hmm, I always do the nuts on the drive side I think, cause thats how I put it in the stand...

All bolt heads on the drive side.

Rim labels read from the drive side.

Hubs script read from the rear of the bike (i.e. sitting on the saddle).

Handle bar tape is wrapped starting from the bar end to the bar middle so that the exposed edges are "downhill".

Brake cable/housing routes to the rear of the handlebars (never in front).

QR levers on the non-drive side because Tullio said so fifty years ago.

And valve stems are boxed by the spokes.

Why? Well, I just don't know.

cause if you're right-handed, that's the side you'd most likely use the "active" tool (screwdriver) while the left would hold the "passive" tool (wrench)...also why most seat-pin bolts have the "trapped" side on the left: most of us are right-handed and that's the tool hand.

Standard practice has always been for bolts to go in or down, on the premise that if you lose the nut the bolt is less likely to drop out. Since a bike with a kickstand leans to the non-drive side, that would qualify as 'down'.

And QR levers go on the left because the rear would foul the derailleur otherwise. Doesn't make a lick of difference on the front, but it looks better.

I would say bolt heads on the drive side because that is the preferred side for pictures and the bolt heads look better than the nuts. I never gave it much tought before, but I do try to have them all the same. If there is a clamp that has a captured nut that only works one way, then I use that as the basis for the rest.

Bolt heads to the drive side it is. I've been doing it right.

Thanks everyone!

So if you've purchased a pre-built wheel from a naive wheelbuilder, you've got to tear it down and relace it with the proper orientation?

Oh, by the way, this thread is an example of vintage OCP.

Absolutely.

Typically the bolt head faces out. If the screw threads face out, they are more likely to snag something.
That's just "general" mechanical practice.

Great advice. So, which side is "out" on a two-sided bicycle?

And I work on motorcycles a lot: sometimes you have a stud with a nut, sometimes you have a bolt threading into a subsection, sometimes you have a bolt and nut with the nut on the inside or outside, depending on what its holding on and how it gets serviced.

In my experience, "general mechanical practice" taught me it varies on application.

All of my bolt heads face the drive side, where applicable.

yeah, well, I always think of the skewers as the busy end, like the nut end. All of the drive side is smoof, and the gronky stuff banished to the non-drive side. Except, of course, for the drive itself.

We're proud of that like a hot rod guy with a roots supercharger, though, right?

Oh, and a long time ago, I was told that everyone in the peleton ran the skewers on the non-drive side, so that you didn't have two riders hooking quick releases in the pack. that would really be sucksville. no way that would end well.

So, I run 'em like I was told.

Just so we're all on the same page. Tire labels should be drive side and centered over the valve.

Why? Most of my tubulars have the label opposite the valve (except three, which have the label about 45° from the valve.

First and foremost (on clinchers) it looks proper, and when repairing flats it's easy to find the corresponding shard in the tire in relation to the hole in the tube.

And you can read the hubs script through the valve hole.