[Closed] Does anyone set their brakes up US style?

You learn very quickly I’ve used loan bikes in the Alps and you soon adjust.

Yep, rear right for me. Swapped and didn’t really have an issue initially. Now it’s the normal

You learn very quickly I’ve used loan bikes in the Alps and you soon adjust.

How well do you adjust?
I've never ridden front brake left style, but I imagine I could teach my conscious brain to learn it quickly. However, I have a lifetime of subconcious experience that front brake = right lever - can you also unlearn this?
My karate teacher told me that if you repeat a move 10,000 times it becomes instinctive, that you do it automatically without conscious thought. I don't know how many thousands of times I've pulled my brakes UK style.

You learn very quickly I’ve used loan bikes in the Alps and you soon adjust.

Same here... until the emergency braking on a hairpin bend, stopped just short of the armco after locking the back wheel not once but twice, vowed never to ride a bike with brakes the other way round ever again.

I do! But that’s mainly because I’m an American. You’ll find that most of the rest of the world, outside of the UK Australia and Japan, do so as well. Not just “US style” 🙂

Sarcasm aside, having lived and ridden in a number of countries around the world, it is interesting to me that a number of “UK-influenced” countries that drive on the left also often have US or Continental brake lever setups including Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa.

Per my comment on another recent thread on this topic and @Drac above, it really isn’t that hard to adjust. I’ve ridden “UK style” brake setup bikes (borrowed or rented) on some fairly gnarly downhill here in the UK, with no issue after the first 15-30 minutes of getting used to it

Having said that, if sides were switched I personally wouldn’t relearn a new setup just for the sake of cleaner cable routing.

It's continental - mainly UK does it on wrong side, as we ride on wrong side of road.

Had to swap the brakes over for my misus when I bought a MTB bike from a mate as he rode 'continental' style.

I ride motorbikes too. Front brake on the right is good.

Interesting that for motorcycles as far as I'm aware are always front brake on the right. Even EU and USA. Hence moto style for UK bike brakes.

12 years out in Spain and I´m still on UK brakes! You can learn to ride quickly but in an emergency.... I¨m not so sure. In my first month of guiding we were riding Front-Left bikes and one of the group pulled on the wrong brake in an emergency stop at the roundabout and crashed. After that I vowed to always change them, no matter what the guests said was OK. Another time, last year a girl took a hire bike without asking on the arrival day and it had the brakes the wrong way round, she was fine for a fairly long ride, until she wasn´t! I ended up having to leave people waiting at the airport and rush to get her, take her to hospital and spend the night holding her hand as she recovered from a very nasty concussion. My honest advice is don´t accept a hire bike with the wrong brakes, it is very, very easy to change any brakes and there is no excuse for not doing it.

Trying to change... i¨m sure you can and you would get used to it fairly quickly and your emergency reactions would adapt over a longer time. But you would always have that worry of what if, I think. How do you know what you´d do in an emergency? I think that the 10,000 times karate anecdote is good, how many times have I pulled those brakes? A lot!!

Hose routing can be changed, yeah, it´s a pain sometimes with internal routing but I can change most brakes in 10 minutes, 15 with a rebleed, so a bike shop should be able to do that for you if you can´t mmanage.

FWIW, it´s to do with the side of the road you drive on. So there are a few places like the UK. And people who ride a lot of motorbikes tend to use UK brakes, regardless of what country they come from.

I don't know which way round is Euro or US to be honest even though I've been riding for many years! I have front brake right hand lever on my MTB and front brake left hand lever on my road bike and I can switch over with out thinking about it. Maybe a bit odd but there we go.

At Leogang, a few years back I asked Mrs BigJohn if she wanted me to swap the brakes over. She assured me she always used both together.

really isn’t that hard to adjust

Yes, for many people it is.

You learn very quickly I’ve used loan bikes in the Alps and you soon adjust.

No I don't. ( You might, which is fine)

lots of fine stuff from Doug

Very well said

However, I have a lifetime of subconcious experience that front brake = right lever – can you also unlearn this?

Me too but you can learn not do it even after 10K times.

Due to only have use in my right arm I have brake set up Euro style, I find the thought that if the bike gets stolen and thief is in a hurry they'll at least slide out or go OTB

The only bike I have set up 'wrong' is my fixie which is Left lever = Front, but as its the only brake lever fitted it's not such an issue. But even that I'm tempted to change for the sake of consistency...

I've had euro brake setup on a couple of rental bikes (road) in the past and gotten on fine, but I have to admit I'd prefer them to be UK style just in case. I don't think I would ever want to rent a euro setup MTB...

We rode with a guy who preferred wrong-way levers because it made him think about braking rather than panic or dragging brakes all the time. Interesting theory, wouldn't work for me but it seemed to for him.

Always think it's interesting that bikes swap about but motorbikes don't. Front brake being right hand just makes more sense for the right handed imo.

Always think it’s interesting that bikes swap about but motorbikes don’t.

motorcycle gear & rear brake levers were sometimes on different sides, well actually are always on different sides but you know what I mean 🤔

If it ain’t moto...

It is a pet hate of mine when cable routing is only designed for left front brake. It can’t be that hard to design it to work either way

My first proper bike, when I was 9 or 10, was a Peugeot and set up with the front brake on the left and that’s the way I’ve had them ever since. Highly amusing when friends borrow my bike... When I’ve had hire bikes the other way round it’s not been hard to adjust though - no harder than driving a left hand drive car.

UK setup on the MTB and CX bikes, Euro setup on the road and TT bikes. Always been like that, never given it much thought.

Weird eh?

I guess the biggest problem with not being used to the brakes a different way round is if you go to do a really massive long winding skid with the rear wheel and pull the front brake really hard while unweighting the rear?

Having ridden motorcycles and bicycles with front right I am not safe on a bike with other way round brakes. Its OK until you need to crash stop. then you lock the rear and don't get enough front brake

motorcycle gear & rear brake levers were sometimes on different sides

At one point I had 3 motorcycles with 3 different shift patterns. 2 right side gears but one was first up and one was first down and the other had left hand gear shift. Very awkward

You learn very quickly I’ve used loan bikes in the Alps and you soon adjust.

Would have thought any decent hire shop would swap it to the customer's preference before letting them out of the shop. Speaking of which, we once saw a mechanic go over the bars in the street checking the brakes were working after doing this.

I usually brake fairly evenly front and rear but I'm sure it would go spectacularly wrong sooner or later if they got swapped.

Have had rear brake on right since around 1978. Rode BMX for 10 years with just rear brake and I am right handed so felt better on right. Moving onto two brakes on MTB and I just had to switch all the brakes around on every bike. Moved to fixed gear in 2003 using just a front brake and had it on the right in that case (again, tight handed so felt better)

Guess what i am saying is do whatever feels right to you.

It’s completely untrue (in my opinion) that you can adapt easily after 30 minutes. I rented a bike with European brake setup in the Alps once. Once. Never again. On hairpin turns with huge drops at the corners - I’ve rarely in my whole like been so frightened.

So the problem (in my opinion) is in an emergency situation, reflex can override rational. Then muscle memory takes over, you grab the wrong brake, and if you’re unlucky, you could be seriously injured.

This relevant video is 8 minutes well spent 🙂

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

I switched to US/Euro style many years ago. Took me a brief period (I forget how long, but probably half a dozen rides at most) to get properly used to it and then I was all dialled in just before.

I could switch back if I wanted to (I don’t) but it would probably take me longer to dial back in than it did before, because my brain has had 20 years of ageing since then.

That said, I’m not sure cable/hose routing alone would be enough to make me switch 🙂

Still UK style here after 20 years riding in BC. Wouldn't switch for any amount of persuasion, however having 1 cable entering the left and 3 on the right of my Scotts headtube is a little unbalanced 😉 Fortunately you get every iteration of cable combination inserts in the build kit so is all catered too.
The go-to bike shop we used for rentals wouldn't rent bikes to our guests without switching the brakes around.. could've been liability limitation, could've been them wanting to prevent silly bike damage with the inevitable otb.

I had it on a hire bike over in gran canaria in january. Was weird, but I got on with it. Mostly just by braking with the 2 levers at the same time. Much prefer right front though. But you do adjust.

Had them set up rear right, front left since I had a BMX way back when. And possibly before that as my first bike at about 4 years old I think had been supplied by the American serviceman who lived next door as he ‘got a good deal’ on the nearby US base.

ive found no problem moving between setups when using friends’s bikes. Just a moment of thought, a check, and then off.

there was a post about Rose bikes no longer selling to the U.K. because of brake setup. When I bought my canyon I asked them to setup Euro style but they said they couldn’t for the U.K. market. And yet on-one offer Euro style setup for a fee.

I asked them to setup Euro style but they said they couldn’t for the U.K. market. And yet on-one offer Euro style setup for a fee.

That'll be some weird import rule - you can set your bike up how you like once it's in the country, but when importing it has to fit certain standards.

Kind of like the bell rule. There's no law that says anyone has to have a bell other bike, but you cannot sell a new bike without a bell attached.

Thanks for that video Bez, well worth the time it took to watch it.

Guiding on Gran Can a few years back.
Had a guy from Oz come along on one of the tours. I asked if he wanted the brakes swapping over. "I'll be fine" he says.

He manages to stack it after about 200m when braking to go around a fence. He goes over the bars and lands on the fence, grazing his left knee. Patched him up.
Off we went.

At some point there's a jeep tour coming towards us. The Ozzy guy decides to wave at them with his left hand and again goes over the bars. This time he managed to shred the palms of both hands.

What a duck.

He came into the shop three or four days later still with the bandages on that I had applied. Told him he needed to change them. We did it for him. It stunk and the wounds on his hands had gone manky. We sent him to the hospital to get it cleaned out.

Swap your brakes.

Worth knowing, sram guide brakes are universal/symmetrical in design so if you watered to swop them over you don’t have to bleed them (just have to turn them upside down and use other sides clamp).

Worth knowing, sram guide brakes are universal/symmetrical in design so if you watered to swop them over you don’t have to bleed them (just have to turn them upside down and use other sides clamp).

Yep agreed. Possibly the one single redeeming feature about Sram brakes.

That’ll be some weird import rule – you can set your bike up how you like once it’s in the country,

Not convinced it's an import thing, it's a sales thing. ( That may of course be what you were trying to say)
Looked into it after the Muppet in Keswick bikes sold me a bike with the brakes the wrong way round. Turns out to be illegal.

12 years out in Spain and I´m still on UK brakes!

Conversely after 25 years in Spain my brakes are all Euro/US style. Never had any problem using the brakes on the motorbike, either - pushbikes and motorbikes are different enough to avoid confusion (at least for me).

Dont YT swap the brakes round when delivering to UK? I heard it was illegal to sell here with EU / US style brakes.

They hadn't when I got mine last year, but with the Rose bikes thing, that may have changed.

Anyway, Moto/UK style for me. I've ridden motorbikes for years too so there's no chance I'm changing.

Thanks for that video Bez, well worth the time it took to watch it.

If you are ever offered the 200 dollar challenge, the trick is to ride with your hands off the bars 😉

Dont YT swap the brakes round when delivering to UK? I heard it was illegal to sell here with EU / US style brakes.

I got my Jeffsy at the end of 2017 and it's EU style, never bothered to change it over and it's been fine.

Would have thought any decent hire shop would swap it to the customer’s preference before letting them out of the shop

Probably would yes but I loaned them from friends not hired.

I’m sure Light Water Valley theme Park has reverse steering bikes when we were kids, took a few loops of the course but again you could adjust. I was trying to think who use to ride their bike EU style Bez, forgot one of them was you. Seem to remember it catching a few people out when you ‘failed’ to tell them.