Lever position/direction
Discussion
I've recently bought a second hand Dutch made Koga for commuting, and wondering if it's odd or if British bikes do things the other way round to everyone else.
For starters the front brake is on the left and the back on the right, the other way round from my Specialized Hardrock, but I think that seems to be pretty normal in the Netherlands where front brake on the left and pedal back brake on the rear is also common.
However it's the gears that I keep getting wrong, it appears they're both set up to shift up on the thumb and down on the finger, whereas on my specialised the thumb shifter always takes you to the bigger cog, and the finger lets the spring pull you back to the smaller, so both thumbs lets you go up a gear at the front and down at the back, which I find a lot easier than thumb one side and finger the other that I have to do on the Koga.
Both on Shimano shifters, Deore LX on the Koga but not sure what on the Specialized. Is it the Koga that's odd or the Specialized?
For starters the front brake is on the left and the back on the right, the other way round from my Specialized Hardrock, but I think that seems to be pretty normal in the Netherlands where front brake on the left and pedal back brake on the rear is also common.
However it's the gears that I keep getting wrong, it appears they're both set up to shift up on the thumb and down on the finger, whereas on my specialised the thumb shifter always takes you to the bigger cog, and the finger lets the spring pull you back to the smaller, so both thumbs lets you go up a gear at the front and down at the back, which I find a lot easier than thumb one side and finger the other that I have to do on the Koga.
Both on Shimano shifters, Deore LX on the Koga but not sure what on the Specialized. Is it the Koga that's odd or the Specialized?
lufbramatt said:
Sounds like the Koga has a "rapidrise" rear mech. Was supposedly to make shifting more intuitive for new riders as your thumb will always take you to a "harder" gear. Didn't really catch on.
The Spesh is normal.
I accidentally bought a rapid rise rear mech for my commuter bike. I actually really like it: didn't take long to get used to, and it has a lighter action than the original standard one. The Spesh is normal.
Generally Europe/the US have the brakes the opposite way round to us in the UK. I'm not sure if it is to do with the side of the road they drive on, or something else. Or even if any other countries have brakes the same way as us.
It shouldn't be too tricky to change - I have changed hire bikes over before (and back before returning it).
It shouldn't be too tricky to change - I have changed hire bikes over before (and back before returning it).
Yeah, the UK is "werid" in that sense - most of the world has the front brakes of a bicycle on the left. Quite a few people in the States flip them to the UK arrangement though, called "moto style" (for obvious reasons).
All my bikes are UK style over here but my wife's Dutch bikes are Euro-style and anythign we rent is always the same. When we have UK friends over, it always causes comment. Luckily most Dutch (remtal) bikes have fairly mediocre brakes so you aren't likely to flip the bike over on yourself but I've had a few local friends come a cropper when borrowing my mountainbike.........
All my bikes are UK style over here but my wife's Dutch bikes are Euro-style and anythign we rent is always the same. When we have UK friends over, it always causes comment. Luckily most Dutch (remtal) bikes have fairly mediocre brakes so you aren't likely to flip the bike over on yourself but I've had a few local friends come a cropper when borrowing my mountainbike.........
When I bought my Cannondale Backroads (ask your dad!) from ebay, it still had the US/Continental brake arrangement. This was after 20 to 25 years of use.
I quickly got used to it after I bought it, taking it out for a windy blast up and down the coast of Essex. Things got 'interesting' after I fettled the brakes a little. Huge improvements were available simply from adjusting cable tension and positioning the 'V' brake pads properly against the rims, with proper 'toe-in' adjustment.
Still I made no real errors in which brake to pull hardest on, but I was riding it almost to the exclusion of my other bikes. When I started rotating it with the others I was aware that I ran the risk of confusing myself, or forgetting through tiredness.
When it came down to swapping the brake levers over, it wasn't difficult to actually swap the cables over (I put on new cables anyway). The issue in my case was that the bike was clearly built from a frame designed from the outset to have the US brake lever arrangement. This meant that when altered to UK "spec" the cable run and the arc of the cable bend from handlebar to frame wasn't ideal, as the frame lugs through which the brake cables were run were effectively on the "wrong" side of the frame. It works just fine in practice, but it's not aesthetically ideal.
The spur to change the brakes over was racing the bike at 'Battle On The Beach' this year. I decided to give a CX-style bike a go, and this 'Dale was all I had that fitted the description even vaguely. I kinda knew that if I'd left the brakes arranged US-style that I'd have forgotten at some point, probably about 40 km into the race, and I'd have undone all my effort on earlier laps by face-planting into a sand dune, or worse, a pine tree.
I quickly got used to it after I bought it, taking it out for a windy blast up and down the coast of Essex. Things got 'interesting' after I fettled the brakes a little. Huge improvements were available simply from adjusting cable tension and positioning the 'V' brake pads properly against the rims, with proper 'toe-in' adjustment.
Still I made no real errors in which brake to pull hardest on, but I was riding it almost to the exclusion of my other bikes. When I started rotating it with the others I was aware that I ran the risk of confusing myself, or forgetting through tiredness.
When it came down to swapping the brake levers over, it wasn't difficult to actually swap the cables over (I put on new cables anyway). The issue in my case was that the bike was clearly built from a frame designed from the outset to have the US brake lever arrangement. This meant that when altered to UK "spec" the cable run and the arc of the cable bend from handlebar to frame wasn't ideal, as the frame lugs through which the brake cables were run were effectively on the "wrong" side of the frame. It works just fine in practice, but it's not aesthetically ideal.
The spur to change the brakes over was racing the bike at 'Battle On The Beach' this year. I decided to give a CX-style bike a go, and this 'Dale was all I had that fitted the description even vaguely. I kinda knew that if I'd left the brakes arranged US-style that I'd have forgotten at some point, probably about 40 km into the race, and I'd have undone all my effort on earlier laps by face-planting into a sand dune, or worse, a pine tree.
I'm not sure it's worth swapping the brake cables or just getting used to it. Any other push bike I'm likely to ride in the near future will be the euro way round, and hopefully the rest of the controls are different enough on my motorbike that I won't accidentally go for the clutch when I want to stop 
I ride a motorbike daily. On pushbikes I rode ‘Euro / USA’ from late 1990’s as I imported a Kona Stab. Last year after staying up all night traveling and joining a dH MTB group in Malaga I got on my own MTB and at the 1st stop on road at a trail head I threw myself over the bars pulling in ‘clutch’ aka my front brake. I decided then go back to uk style, to match my motor bike. Currently in Madeira and hiring an Enduro bike for some riding with Freeride Madeira tomorrow, told them front right would be nice but I don’t really care, I think it’s only when you are tired or not thinking about what you are doing it’s an issue. However it’s when you are tired and not thinking g you want it natural - pulling the right lever. I hope they give me right hand front.
Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff