Why is the chain rings always on the right?
05-08-11, 08:57 PM
#27
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My wife had a question about this, "If the chain was on the other side
would the bike go backwards?"!
Remember guys, she is a lawyer, no an engineer.
would the bike go backwards?"!
Remember guys, she is a lawyer, no an engineer.
05-10-11, 12:52 PM
#28
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05-10-11, 03:02 PM
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What I want to know is why the front hand brake is on the left side? Most people are right handed, so shouldn't the brake that supplies the most braking power be at the hand that has the most gripping power?
05-12-11, 06:18 PM
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05-12-11, 06:44 PM
#31
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05-12-11, 07:39 PM
#32
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Well, the easiest answer is that the chainring is on the right side because that's the side the chain is on!
05-12-11, 07:59 PM
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If you grip your left (front) brake really hard, you endo and crash. If you grip your right (rear) brake really hard, your back wheel skids a bit but you probably don't crash. And inexperienced riders aren't good at modulating their brakes.
Of course, on the other hand, a skilled rider wants maximum braking. But maybe after a lot of riding, the left hand becomes strong enough to do the front brake so the issues is moot.
But unlike the drive train, this one is easy to change if you want to -- though it may confuse somebody else who rides your bike, or cause you to do an endo if you ride somebody else's bike, or until you get used to your changed bike.
05-12-11, 08:03 PM
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If you simply swapped your drivetrain over to the other side, and assuming a standard single speed bike, your back wheel would be flipped around and indeed you could only pedal backwards due to the freewheel -- pedaling frontwards would either do nothing or engage the coaster brake.
Didn't somebody make a bike that could be pedaled frontwards and backwards with a hub that changed gear ratio between the two? It was a gear mechanism before gears became commonplace?
05-12-11, 10:34 PM
#36
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Here's Sheldon Brown's version: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/bichain-fixed-free.html
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05-13-11, 05:22 AM
#37
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I would say that this is because you use your left hand for hand signaling (In the US anyway...) If you grab a handful of brake with one hand off of the bars, a rear wheel skid is much easier to control.
05-17-11, 03:39 PM
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HAND SIGNALS! Good point! I completely forgot about that little aspect, but your mentioning of it reminded me of a time I almost went over the handlebars because I did a one handed braking. Not fun...
05-17-11, 04:23 PM
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To keep your left pant leg clean?
To keep people a 100 years later occupied?
Because anything left handed was the Devils work?
A coin flip and left side lost?
The guys wife b*tched at him for putting it on the left?
Nobody could make a chain that ran backwards?
I give.....Why?
To keep people a 100 years later occupied?
Because anything left handed was the Devils work?
A coin flip and left side lost?
The guys wife b*tched at him for putting it on the left?
Nobody could make a chain that ran backwards?
I give.....Why?
Last edited by Booger1; 05-17-11 at 04:30 PM.
05-17-11, 07:41 PM
#42
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It's all really a conspiracy of the big hub and freewheel corporations... 
05-17-11, 07:52 PM
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I read somewhere, maybe 40 years ago, that the rear brake was on the right side because that's where the rear shifter was located.
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evilcryalotmore
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04-15-10 05:21 PM
