dedhed

When I had both RH & LH shift motorcycles "back in the day" and mostly rode the RH shift bike, I'd often downshift on a LH bike & find myself stabbing the rear brake instead of the anticipated downshift.

livedarklions

Jan Heine has a different version of the origins that has nothing to do with hand signals at all:

https://www.renehersecycles.com/whic...r-which-brake/

Jax Rhapsody

I know a guy from england and he said over there bikes are set up like motorcycles, with left rear brake and whatnot.

I-Like-To-Bike

All true; the stuff about "CPSC regulates bicycles as toys" as the reason for the specific hand brake configuration standard is an irrelevant smokescreen for some other agenda.

tcs

Yeah. 'Course he gets his history wrong. The USA was a coaster brake country as well,




so that should have put the front brake on the right according to Mr. Heine's theory.

And here's an 'English Type' (not French!) Schwinn from 1940 (not imported, BTW - I can't find any evidence that Schwinn ever imported French bikes) but you'll note with American left-front/right-rear.

tcs

If you can link us to some controlling American legislation other than the CPSC's Requirements for Bicycles 16 C.F.R. Part 1512, we'd all be delighted to be enlightened. We wait.

livedarklions

Not sure about him being wrong about coaster brakes. I rode a lot of American coaster bikes as a kid and a young adult. As I recall, absolutely none of them had front brakes.

Did the British bikes in the U.S. have right-rear hand brakes? My memory is that they did, which would really contradict the "imported from France" claim. Heine's claim is that Schwinn "imported" the standard by copying the French bikes, not actually importing bikes. I think the "British" type bikes were actually the first mass sale bikes to break the coaster bra dominance in the US.

I suspect that the reasons for adoption of this standard are lost to time. That's not unusual. Does anyone really remember why people started putting the hot water faucet on the left?

livedarklions

I don't think it's fair to state that the CPSC regs treat bicycles solely as toys. There's a separate category of "sidewalk bicycles" which clearly are toys, and they have a different set of requirements for brakes.

That said, the reference to some sort of "agenda" was absurd trolling.

trailangel

I guess I'm messed up. I think dominate hand should be for rear brake... takes more strength on the rear.... then go for the front.
Which ever way ....left right.. right left you set up.
Gravel and dirt riders who want to grab the front brake... let me know how that turns out. I'd rather lock up my rear wheel first.... dirt or asphalt.

I-Like-To-Bike

The point is that American manufacturers were already using the right hand - rear brake, left hand-front brake configuration long before the legislation of CPSC's Requirements for Bicycles was adapted.

Perhaps you can explain why you chose to invoke the cliche about "CPSC regulates bicycles as toys" as a reason for the hand brake configuration in the US. For enlightenment purposes more about the long history of disdain and contempt held by some alleged bicycling advocates towards the CPSC can be found at Those who rode good bicycles were angered at the prospect of having to ride crummy toy bicycles

tcs

Here's a couple of shots from Schwinn's 1941 catalog.




Telll me again what the American 'standard' was?

TheDudeIsHere

Well that was a strange feeling!

I just took a car in for repair because the TCS system was malfunctioning. I just posted my ride today having ridden my bike home from the mechanic. Second after I posted the details including TCS, I return to the home page and see TCS. Took me a few seconds wondering how my TCS got on the home page then realized it was a post from another. Hmm! Weird feeling!

tcs

Okay, so we've had a claim that American bikes just copied French bikes which is not supported by historical evidence, and a claim that there was a historical American 'standard' configuration which is not supported by historical evidence.

The OP asked if there was an industry standard, and I gave the answer 'yes': the standard that governs this for new bicycles sold in America is the Consumer Products Safety Commission's Requirements for Bicycles 16 C.F.R. Part 1512. No one has been able to show that this standard is invalid or not applicable, and no one has been able to reference any superseding requirement from the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Is it just short days and cold weather here in the northern hemisphere, and folks are grumpy because they're not out on the bike enough?

tcs

Mr. Heine has gone to considerable lengths to create a French cycling mythology to promote his business, NTTAWWT.

Schwinn bicycle histories in Crown & Coleman's No Hands and Pridmore & Hurd's Schwinn Bicycles have nothing in them supporting this claimed French influence.

livedarklions

I love jumping into a years-long argument I've never heard of before and know nothing about, so I'll just nod. I took Herse to mean that Schwinn didn't standardize until it started selling drop bar bikes which were more associated with continental Europe rather than England, and that Schwinn chose to follow the French brake arrangement at that point. I have no idea if this would even be worth mentioning in a book.

Just found this page that has old Raleigh USA catalogues Raleigh Catalog Database Archive --looks like somewhere between 1938 and 1962, Raleigh switched the arrangement from right front to right rear on its USA bikes. That change is occurring well before the CPSC. I also looked at the 1962 Schwinn catalog, and the scans aren't all clear, but the ones I can see uniformly have the right rear brake arrangement. https://waterfordbikes.com/w/culture/schwinn-catalogs/

Looks like two major manufacturers adopting this standard by 1962. I seriously doubt that hand signals became a more important factor between the late 1930s and 1962, but something appears to have been driving uniformity prior to the CPSC.

I-Like-To-Bike

No one claimed that this standard is invalid or claimed that there has been any superseding requirement from the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

What has been pointed out several times is that the configuration for right hand rear brake configuration was typical for American bicycles long before the CPSC came into existence and that the CPSC adapted the practice already in place for new bicycles sold in the U.S. The "CPSC regulates bicycles as toys" reference was just a cold weather red herring, at best.

I-Like-To-Bike

Some interesting pictures from Schwinn Catalogs of the past showing the brake lever configuration for their lightweight and middleweight bicycles with handbrakes.
From 1941:



From 1953:


From 1955:



From 1956:

I-Like-To-Bike

Raleigh USA Catalog 1962 with relatively clear display of brake lever-wheel configuration.

livedarklions

Contrast with 1938:


Like I said above, Raleigh seems to have shifted between 1938 and 1962, and Schwinn seems to have standardized during that era, and before they started selling drop bar bikes in any number. My guess is that Schwinn actually set the standard when it picked right rear for whatever reason, as it was the dominant player in the U.S. market at that point.

FiftySix

My off road motorcycles still had the front brake lever on the right. I converted my last mountain bike like that years ago, too. Even off road, the front brake has the most power. When the first disc brake motorcycles came out, the rear brake was still a drum in many cases. Then dual front discs came out with still only a smaller diameter rear disc.

It really isn't that hard to learn how to use a front brake without eating dirt or pavement no matter which hand you use, left of right. Full force use of the brakes on two wheels is almost never the answer. Feeling your braking power against the traction the bike's tires have with the ground is the way to go, no matter front brake or rear brake.

What's kind of bewildering to me is that no experienced motorcyclist ever talks of fear of using the front brake. But, many experienced bicyclists do.

trailangel

Agreed. I'm not saying I don't...or not to use the front brake. Of course I use the front all the time. It's the panic stop... grab rear first while I am sizing up the situation and then add front stopping power... in a split second.

Bill in VA

I seem to remember both of the motorcycle brakes were on the right (rear brake used a foot pedal, front used the right handlebar brake lever) and the left hand was the clutch and the left foot was the shifter.

That allowed better modulation of the front brake.

livedarklions

Some of us old farts actually grew up riding lots of bikes that didn't have front brakes. On most stops, I will just use the front brake, but I always try to use both on a hard stop.

FiftySix

My childhood bikes were only coaster brake equipped. Funny thing is on this morning's ride on my Schwinn, with a front caliper and coaster rear, I was mostly using the coaster brake only. Can't wear it out if I don't use it.

livedarklions

I'm trying to remember if I've ever had a coaster brake and a front brake. There's something of a "pat your head while rubbing your belly" effect there in having two completely different methods of controlling brakes operated at the same time. Not hard to do, but you do have to think about it.