Hired a bike in Mallorca this week.
Discovered pretty quick the brakes are reversed here. What other countries have the front brake on the left…..or is it the UK the odd one out with the front on the right.
I only lost control on one bend when instinct kicked in and I pulled the wrong brake causing me to run wide…takes some time to adjust…
I still managed to have some fun. Great place to ride…
by Ordinary-Condition92
10 Comments
> is it the UK the odd one out
I guess only a Brit could ask something so clearly obvious, but here we are…
So you really believed your whole life that the front shifter should control the rear brake and the rear shifter should control the front brake?
Pretty much all of Europe is front on the left, as is the USA.
Italy, UK are on the right
UK is the odd one, but as a french person who bought a bike on a UK website, rear brake on the left was a godsend for me. If i had to setup a bike with brakes (i ride a brakeless BMX) it would be the UK way.
“Right for rear”
Mallorca normal, UK odd.
They are usually set up so you can indicate the more dangerous turn type (right for UK, left for Spain) while holding the rear brake (because regulators think it’s safer).
I have my personal bikes set up with front on right despite living in a drive on right country, because I mostly use the front brake… Sheldon Brown also claimed to have his bikes set up this way.
I will go and say that the UK version is better than the rest of the world. I am way more comfortable with my right hand of the bar and once crashed due to having my left hand on the front brakes while drinking with the right one.
Front brake on left, primary shift on right. If you need to brake and shift at the same time, this is the right way. For cyclocross or mountain biking right lever for front brake would suck.
The UK isn’t the odd one out, other countries like Japan and Australia, NZ (among others) tend to use left=rear, right=front.
It’s dependent on which side of the road that country drives. When indicating across a carriageway, you would be able to access the rear brake