Hairy Hands

Do you have a preference if the front brake is on the right or left brifter?

Why, what's your reasoning?

ThermionicScott 

What's a brifter?

I keep my front brake on the left because it's what I'm used to, and I'm too lazy to convert all my bikes.

lhbernhardt

Dominant hand should control the front brake. This is because in a panic or steep downhill stop, you need to be able to feather the front. You squeeze both brake levers, but as the rear wheel becomes unweighted and starts to skid, you release the FRONT lever (releasing the rear will do absolutely nothing) until the rear stops skidding. You then pressure the front again, repeating as necessary.

The front brake does most of the work, due to weight transfer, so the stronger hand should control it. Since most North Americans are right-handed, it's curious to note that the default bicycle delivered in NA is one of the very few (maybe the only) product designed for lefties.

When I first started cycling back in the 70's, one of the ways you could tell it was an experienced cyclists was that he had his bike set up "Italian style," with the right lever controlling the front brake. This setup is also called "moto," as motorcycles have their front brakes controlled by the right hand.

If you race cyclo-cross, and you normally dismount on the left, it's an advantage to have the left lever going to the rear brake. This way, when you are dismounted and coasting on the left pedal, with your right hand on the downtube ready to lift the bike, it's nice to have control of the rear brake with your left hand as you go down the slippery descent. (Slippery roads are one place where you want to be VERY judicial with the front brake. On ice, you don't even touch the front!)

I think the reason bikes in NA are set up with the right hand controlling the rear is fear of applying too much pressure with a dominant right hand and doing the "endo." I think this is pretty rare. The other advantage of having the right hand go to the rear brake is that it is consistent with the shifting: right is rear for shifting and braking. But I've got my geared bike set up with right to front brake, right to rear derailleur, and it makes no difference.

It's one of those things that most people never think about, but I do think that if you're right-handed, it's a big advantage to have the right hand control the front brake. And it shows that you've actually given this issue some thought.

Luis

lhbernhardt

One more thing: back in the old days (70's for me), sidepull brakes were set up according to national preference for braking to give a smooth brake cable arc. So Swiss-made Weinmann sidepulls had the front brake caliper hanging to the left ( viewed from the rider's perspective). On the old non-aero brake levers, this gave a nice arc from the left lever to the brake caliper, without crossing over to the other side of the bike. With the Italian Campag and Universal sidepulls, the reverse setup was used so that you got the nice arc from the right lever. Shimano came along and copied the Italian setup because they just copied the best stuff, obviously giving it little thought since their big market was the US. Americans would have a wider cable arc from left front lever to right side of front caliper.

This setup actually became an advantage when aero levers came out. You get a nicer arc from the left lever to the right front brake (less of a curve). Funny how things turn out. With the right lever controlling an Italian front brake, I have a tighter curve in the cable. Very insignificant mechanically, maybe an issue aesthetically.

Luis

Commodus

^^ I think you just answered the hell out of that question.

MetinUz

I believe this is not the best way to brake for the shortest stopping difference. As Sheldon Brown points out, you can exclusively use the front brake, almost to the point where the rear wheel is about to lift off the ground (in theory). Because the rear is unweighted, braking it does not help. This obviously works only when the front wheel has enough grip (dry pavement, etc).

StephenH

Depends on which hemisphere you're in, which way the water swirls in the drain, which side of the road they drive on, and whether you're left or right handed.

Seriously, I think think it matters, other than not changing up. I understand they do it backwards in some parts of the world, and nobody seems to notice the difference in either place, so it's not like some big calamity if it was reversed.

ThermionicScott 

The reasoning of having the "dominant" hand controlling the front brake ignores the fact that you can develop strength, skill, and proper instincts with the other. I play guitar/bass, and arguably my dominant hand is "wasted" by just doing the picking.

znomit

Cables run nicer from the left.
We are exclusively right down here, it's governed by which side of the road you drive on.
It is slightly confusing to have them mixed up if you have a few bikes, and of course motorcycles have the front brake on the right.

DGlenday

In the UK, Africa, Australia, and much of continental Europe, the standard is front-brake = right-hand.

Because I grew up riding that way, I had to get the LBS to switch the cables when I got my current bike. Not much problem in the past, but with newer bikes that have the cables under the tape, that's a bigger job. They "get it", though - seems every Brit / Aussie / SA / etc. ex-pat asks them to make the same change.

unterhausen

i like having the front brake on the right because that's the way I've always had it. It also makes it so the mechanics at the lbs grab the wrong brake and then I laugh and laugh

Jamesw2

This thread is going to giveive me a complex. It stops when i pull on the levers! Woo! Hoo! I ran manual milling machines and needed to use both hands . So I never considered what is the correct side for the front brake. I just adapted Right hand to the rear brake. That way i can pull the handlebars to the right to get off the road. I seldom use the front brake but when i do i have/prefer a Dos EQUIS

Hairy Hands

I need some photo's or advise from those that have routed the front brake to the right brifter. I am using this Vbrake on the front instead of a cantilever. The Noodle is on the right and the cable routing from my right brifter has to make a very sharp / almost 90 degree bend to get from the handlebars to the noodle.. Is this severe of a bend in the cable ok? Im having problems finding any do it yourself articles on routing the brakes this way.

Rowan

It shouldn't be an issue if you have enough length in the cable. Remember, the rear derailleur cable has to curve through 180 degrees in most cases... and it's not an issue if the curve has a nice radius to it. The additional cable shouldn't interfere with your handlebar bag.

By the way, according to John Forester, the reason why brakes were set up the way they were was to do with signalling, and that fear about endoing with the front brake. In other words, the "dominant" hand for signalling in North America was the left, so the right lever went to the rear. Weird, but IIRC reading Foresters books, that was how the legislator required bikes to be sold.

In Australia, the reverse was true because we drive on the left side of the road.

I accidentally fell into understanding this when I got my old Fuji Touring bike -- which was not on the market in Australia at the time, so was to US specs out of Taiwan. I liked the set-up with the levers, because the left brake lever went to the front brake, and most of my bikes have been set up like that since.

Homeyba

I always thought it was weird that bicycles have the front brake located on the left side. Especially coming to bicycles from a motorcycle background where it is located on the right. To be honest, it doesn't really matter which side it's located on as long as you are aware that most of your stopping power comes from the front and stop accordingly.

Hairy Hands

I have been experimenting with this since I first started this thread.. The more and more I thought about it, I found that I use the right brake lever almost exclusively out of habit. So, why not have the strongest brake on the right lever, problem is on this new build that it looks like I will need a fairly long run of cable to keep the radius of the curve reasonable. If I go straight down from the bars to the noodle the bend would be 90 degrees and a very tight radius.. Could possibly kink the cable.

unterhausen

I find that it really doesn't matter to me which brake is on which hand. Bikes really don't stop that fast

Homeyba

Don't you have a set of Mavic OP ceramic wheels? For some reason I was thinking you did. They have slightly better braking performance than regular wheels in the dry and significantly better in the rain. Disk brakes (which we're going to see more of on road bikes in the near future) stop significantly better than std. road bike braking systems.

Carbonfiberboy 

lhbernhardt and a couple others have it: it's just about cable routing. If you don't ride a motorcycle, I think it makes no difference, so cable routing takes preference. But rout the cables however it pleases you. I don't care.

thebulls

That's a confusing way to describe the best way to panic stop. You achieve maximum braking force by braking as hard with the front brake as you can while not losing control (helps to also get your weight as far back and as low as possible). Meanwhile you feather the rear brake--or don't even use it--so that it does not skid when it is unweighted by braking force from the front. The contribution of the rear brake to a hard stop is negligible . Therefore you don't release or feather the front brake during the stop for the purpose of being able to use the rear brake. You may have to feather the front brake if you are about to endo or if the rear end has unweighted so much that the tire provides zero traction and the rear end is about to get sideways. This is all well known. Some even say not to use the rear brake at all in a panic stop, it's just a distraction. Bicycle Quarterly recently tested stopping distance and found a procedure like I've described minimizes stopping distance.

Hairy Hands

I got the problem solved with 1 phone call to TRP brakes.. They have a 130 degree bend Noodle that is designed for people that use right brifter to front brake. In the mail free of charge, good customer service. Thanks for everyone's help!!

rodar y rodar

Aside from being accustomed to one way or the other, this is the best reason I can imagine for even caring which way they go! It almost makes me want to turn my shifters "upsidedown" and take my bike to a shop for a tuneup.

Rowan

I keep hearing people state that the contribution of the rear brake is negligible. But I have good brakes on all my bikes, and the rear ones are very good. If a rider knows how to use brakes, the use of them together brings a bike to a halt very quickly and with a larger degree of safety than overusing the front brake which can result in a front-tyre washout and a fall. This is even more so in the wet.

Homeyba

Rowan, I think that there are a lot of variables and a lot of generalizations. On a shorter geometry bike under heavy braking the rear wheel is unweighted to some extent. This is very obvious in motorcycles because they have stronger brakes and better tire grip. It's very easy to get a motorcycle rear wheel in the air under heavy braking. On a bicycle it's harder to do that (mostly because of tire grip) but you can still significantly unweight the rear tire on a "race" geometry bike. The result is that this causes the rear wheel to lock up much easier and deminishes it's stopping capacity. On longer wheel based bikes it's harder to unweight the rear wheel under heavy braking so the rear brake will have more stopping power because it has better contact with the pavement. In either case, the majority of your stopping power is in the front brake. Very simply, the fastest way to get any bike stopped is to use both front and rear brakes to the point where you are almost locking both of them up. Depending on the bike you are on that may mean more front and less rear to varying degrees.

Very few people can stop their bikes in the minimum distance possible. It takes a lot of practice and a very good feel for what your bike and tires are doing. There is a very fine line between maximum braking and falling on your head!

fietsbob

Well it is sort of blending in from other threads.. I've seen Moto setups
offering advantages for Cross racing , to do braking half way thru a dismount and barrier leap.

I found the rear on the left useful when I was gasping pushing my loaded tour rig up a hill
in a push, set brake and rest, push some more, repeat.. situation.
[you young studmuffins on light race bikes never worry about that , I know]

and in crowded spaces grabbing the left rear lever
makes rolling the bike upon it's back tire a bit easier,
to move it around standing Up on its back wheel.

and my Brompton M3L came that way ..

Now I have a mixed stable , some in each camp.

I understand you guys with the Brifters may be challenging Logic
with the rear brake and the front derailleur control , left side
and the front brake above the rear Mech shifter.. .. on the right..