My Ciocc Designer came with reversed brake cable routing (left = rear, right = front), and I know one other Ciocc Designer (84) that also had the same thing done to it. Side note: never having seen this before, I unfortunately thought I could handle it. When I jammed my brakes down after hitting a small hole though, I went over the handlebars and ripped the top part of the nice Dura-Ace hoods . Argh.

My LBS mentioned this might be common with UK bikes due to the switched brake routing on motorcycles there. Anyone know where this custom arose from?

Sheldon had an article on this subject,https://sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html#whichside
Have you ever seen a motorcycle that didn't have the front brake on the right side?
My bikes are set up with the front brake on the right so I have control of the front brake when I signal with my left arm, the way we learned to way back when.

Most of my bikes are set up with front brake on the right, been that way since around 1980. Partly because I was riding motorcycles at the time, also due to the fact I was playing bicycle polo and wanted the rear brake on the left so I didn't do a header.

Aaron

Same with me, though many of my road bikes are still not "goofy" as of yet.

So that's the reason that one of the mountain bikes I picked up this fall had the cables set up like that. First thing I did was change it back --

Right after reading this, I was looking at a pic of the La Redoute squad on their blue Motos in TT mode in the '84 Tour. Sure enough, there's Paul Sherwen, third in line, with the right lever going to the front brake. Only bike in the line set up that way, that I can see. Sherwen's the only guy not wearing gloves, too. Hard man, that Sherwen.

Yet another time I should've looked in Sheldon Brown for information first. I've actually never ridden a motorcycle at all.

I set up all my bikes with front=right after having gotten used to this system in Europe. I find it much more intuitive, as well as easier in traffic. Very sorry to hear about your crash though; a change like that can indeed be difficult to get used to : (

No worries, the bike was fine except for the hoods (and I can still heal fairly easily at this age ). It seems a lot of people do set up their bikes this way - if I weren't left handed myself, I'd consider it as well.

All of my bicycles are set up front brake = right. DH was a downhill racer/street trials rider in the UK and I started riding again on his bikes. I swapped the cables on my bikes as I acquired them to avoid confusion.