Is there a reason that the throttle on motorcycles is set to pull the handle towards the rider as opposed to pushing it away from the rider?
Is it a comfort thing? A safety thing? Surely it could be made the opposite way if someone wanted, do people do that?
When you reach for the brake lever, the throttle will roll forward and cut the gas.
If I remember correctly Evel Knievel used a reverse twist throttle.
Yeah, this. If it was the other way around, it would be very easy to accidentally accelerate when reaching for the brake, which is the opposite of what you want to do. With the current setup, you naturally roll of the throttle as you reach for the brake.
This must be somewhere that standardisation is a good thing. There is no reason for the accelerator to be on the right in a car (Model T Fords had the brake on the right and a hand throttle).
at least in the US, motorcycle controls weren’t standardized until the mid 1970s. for ex, Triumph and other British makes had the gear selector on the right, Indian bikes had a left-foot-operated clutch, some Harleys had left hand gear shifters (“suicide shifters,”) etc.
even now they’re not 100% standardized; the majority of bikes have a single turn signal control on the left handlebar. Push it left to indicate left, right for right, and push down to cancel. Harleys with self-canceling signals have the left turn signal control on the left handlebar, and the right signal button on the right.
Way back when I was a child our family got a mini-bike. Which in those Olden Tymes meant a crude two-wheeled machine with about 8" diameter solid (wheelbarrowish) wheels powered by a lawnmower engine driving the rear wheel through a centrifugal clutch and no transmission; just two sprockets and a chain.
The only controls were a conventional motorcycle-style twist throttle on the right and a foot brake on the left that pushed a metal flap against the tread of the rear tire.
In the first few minutes of my riding career I cranked on too much throttle in a turn, was thrown back by the mighty acceleration, which caused my right hand to further twist the throttle to wide open. The crash happened before I could figure out to pull myself forward and crank my wrist towards closed. Oops. Bike needed fixing but I was fine net of some scrapes & bruises.
I became pretty convinced that having that runaway positive feedback loop built into motorcycle throttles was backwards and stupid. A few more weeks’ experience convinced me otherwise. As did getting more sophisticated machines w more controls on/around the right handgrip. Haven’t had a throttle runaway in the ~50 years since then.
FWIW, the traditional arrangement of the throttle(s) on a helicopter is backwards to motorcycles. It’s a twist grip on the end of a lever operated by the left hand. For whatever reason, flexing your wrist upwards vs. your arm which is the “more power” direction on a motorcycle is the “less power” direction on a helo. And vice versa.
I can see good logic for why helos are arranged as they are given the other functions of that lever. But I have to imagine that more than one motorcycling helo pilot has had moments of muscle memory confusion. Oops. Modern helos mostly use an automatic throttle system inflight so this is less of an issue than it once was.
Since mandated in 1977, the primary controls (brakes, clutch, throttle, shift lever, engine kill switch) do not change position on different models.
The turn signals and ignition switch are examples of non-primary controls and, therefore, can be just about anywhere the manufacturer deems *acceptable *(i.e. bike will still sell).
The old Cushman scooters had roll away throttles and woe be to those who did not practice riding one if all other motor wheeled riding was with roll towards throttles like in today. An big empty parking lot was great.
Little brother got one and insisted my Dad ride it. Dad was an old Biker from the 30’s & 40’s. He got maybe 40 feet before the crash. He was not impressed.
Brother finally got old nuff for a car and had no motorcycles until he had done many other machines all with roll towards throttles. Snowmobiles, water craft, etc…
We all ( 7 kids ) used outboard motors all the time so roll toward throttles were standard. Brother just had to be different and cheap. The really cool Mustang scooters were the coveted ones but were more $$$$
I personally hate thumb lever throttles.
YMMV
Ref both jz’s comment about standardization & Gus’s stories.
This was the early 1970s. After our minibike episode we quickly graduated to various dirt bikes while Dad also had street motorcycles. At one time we had Japanese bikes with left pedal shift in the common 1 down, neutral in the middle, 2-4 or 2-5 up pattern. And Japanese bikes with left pedal shift that was neutral at the top, then 1-4 downwards, and Brit bikes with right pedal shift 1 down, 2-4 up. Plus one oddball that was, IIRC, Japanese with right pedal shift with neutral at the bottom, then 1-5 going up.
Thank Og they all had right side roll-towards throttles and right front brakes along with left hand clutches. Otherwise none of us would have survived to adulthood.
Such fun. 
Whiskey Throttle is the technical term.
My bike (2003 Honda Shadow) has it on the side, and it pulls out. My wife’s Yamaha has it like OP described, though. It was a pain until I got used to it.
And older Harleys, before they went to self-canceling signals, had a turn signal setup where the turn signal was on as long as you held the button.
It worked OK, but I never saw or heard of any other manufacturer doing it like that.
I had a late '70s Yamaha road bike that had the smartest turn signal setup I’d ever seen then or since. It was the usual horizontal spring-loaded slide switch under your left thumb. Pull it left or push it right then release to start the signal blinking. So far, so conventional.
But it was self-cancelling in a uniquely smart way. After you triggered the signals, the continued to run until both
A) 5 seconds.
AND
B) 200 feet of travel.
I don’t remember the numbers exactly but they were in that ballpark. The bottom line was if you did a lane change rolling down the road or freeway they self-canceled just as you finished the maneuver. If you were sitting at a traffic light waiting to turn, they self-cancelled just after you rolled out of the turn after waiting however long for the signal to change. Brilliant!!
There was a push to cancel feature but the only time I ever used it was when I signaled to turn then changed my mind. The damn thing seemed far smarter than any modern AI thingy. But it was just those two dumb sensors & a relay to make an AND gate.
That same logic would work just great on a car too. But I’ve never seen in in any subsequent vehicle of any make.
over the past decade, Chryslers and Fords (among others) have made it so if you flick the turn signal stalk in your lane change direction (not far enough to get the stalk to latch) the car will flash that side’s turn signal three times.
Yeah, that’s pretty common. My current new-to-me car does that too. I’m forever ending up in the wrong signaling mode. I’ll get it some day.
But this was fully automatic, on a motorcycle with severe size & weight constraints, and it was in 1978. 1978 was closer to WWII than it is to today. :eek:
I always assumed that Yamaha somehow managed to get a patent on something that’s really pretty obvious, then they wanted to charge out the ass for it so everybody else just said “screw you” rather than licensing the better invention. Since it was patented, Yamaha prevented the rest of the industry from making that simple improvement.
Nope.
You may reach forward for the brake lever, but as soon as you grab the brake lever the amateur rider immediately rolls their wrist back, giving the bike gas and revving the engine. This will be especially pronounced for those who are used to riding bicycles with gripshifts who are used to rolling back the wrist to gear down at a stop.
As a result someone riding an automatic bike without a clutch (like a 50cc scooter) will end up shuddering to a bouncing stop.
A rider has to learn to separate the squeezing motion of the fingers from the natural inclination to roll the wrist.
I rode motorcycles before the twistshift came in on bicycles. I never rolled the throttle back when braking.
ETA:Even when I had a bike with a twistshift, I never confused the two.