Inspired by this thread re: motorcycle control conventions:
Motorcycles are typically sold with the front brake on the right grip.
Bicycles are typically sold with the front brake on the left grip.
Why the difference?
It’s not actually 100% standardized, and there’s a lot of debate among cyclists on which arrangement is better. The late Sheldon Brown wrote a web article on the issue.
His observation is:
He goes on to explain why he disagrees - mainly because the front brake has far more stopping power, and should be considered the primary brake.
Also, I think the modern trend is to use both hands for signaling anyway (i.e. left hand out to signal a left turn, right hand for right turn).
On a motorcycle, you need to be able to operate the throttle and clutch simultaneously, and you need to be able to operate the clutch and brake simultaneously, but you don’t need to be able to operate the throttle and brake simultaneously. The only configuration that works with this combination is the throttle and brake on the same side, and the clutch on the other side.
I suppose it could be reversed from what it is now (throttle and brake on left, clutch on right), but since most people are right handed, it’s probably easier for most to switch back and forth between the throttle and brake with the right hand.
Another theory is that we followed the French. Early French bicycles only had a rear brake, and since it wasn’t all that powerful of a brake, you needed to operate it with your stronger right hand in order to have any decent stopping power. British bicycles on the other hand tended to use coaster brakes, which didn’t have a hand lever at all. So when front brakes later became popular, the British put them on the right, but the French already had a lever on the right so they put them on the left instead.
We imported more bicycles from France than England, so the French system became the standard here as well.
As I understand it, the British still have the front brake on the right. I think Italy also uses this convention. Not sure about other countries.
Early US motorcycles may have just followed the British standard.
That’s the great thing about standards. There’s so many to choose from. 
(old quote)
couple reasons:
- (most) motorcycles have a clutch, the lever for which is on the left
- motorcycles have cases where it’s safer/more advantageous to use the rear brake alone, so the rear brake is a pedal on the right side so the rider can apply it without changing his/her grip on the bars.
edited to add: also, in those low-speed maneuvers, the rider will often need to “slip” the clutch quite a bit. trying to exercise clutch control with one hand, brake and throttle with the other, and work the bars from side to side sounds like it would be quite difficult.
Brake = right foot & right hand.
Clutch & shift = Left hand.
Some motorcycles years ago had the shift on the other side and some had a different shift pattern.
Major push to standardize a while back and now almost all are the same.
Aircraft learned that different positions for engine controls often were killers in emergency condition.
When is a startled, fright, emergency, fast reaction time necessary, the human usually will revert to the longest, strongest habitual move.
If you have thousands of hours doing things the same way in the same locations, and things go sideways in a ‘new to you machine’ and there is a requirement to do an unnatural move or there is no time to think of it, habit comes into play.
Stunt bicycles had only a front hand brake and the pedals are direct drive and no gears or coaster devices at all.
Old school bicycles had only rear coaster brakes and then front brakes were added and then both front & rear became hand brakes.
In countries where bicycles are a major adult, daily mode of travel, are the bikes that have only one hand brake and a coaster brake different from country to country with different left or right driving lanes for cars?
In general. hand signals from bicycles seen IRL and in videos from all over the world seems to me to have very few people using any bicycle hand signalling at all.
YMMV
I took a vacation to the mountains last summer, and my mountain bike was in the shop for a warranty frame replacement that took way too long. So I borrowed a friend’s bike to take with me, and his had the motorcycle-style configuration of brakes. It was like that when he bought it, and since he used to ride motorcycles, he left it.
But for me, I’ve never ridden a motorcycle, and I’d be using this in the rocky mountains where it could matter a lot. Every time I got on it, I would remind myself which was which, and think about it frequently while riding, just so I’d not need to react quickly and get it backwards.
Cyclocross bikes, a specialized form of racing have the rear brake on the left & the front on the right; ‘reversed’ from normal bikes.
That is, I believe, because, unlike just flicking a lever in a car, you need to remove one of your hands from the bars, thereby giving up some control, not the best time to do such given you need extra control to make a turn.
I have the front brake on the right and have done so since the 80s due to Sheldon.
Agree completely with your fine explanation.
As to the snip: xkcd: Standards has you covered.
Never read the “Sheldon” article, but when I bought my first real mountain bike in '86 the first thing I did was swap the brakes. I’ve been riding motorcycles for 40+ years, front brake’s always on the right. No way I was going with a backwards (to me) setup. :eek:
Obviously a regional thing. I’ve never seen a bicycle that doesn’t have the front brake on the right hand.
I have road and mountain bikes with the front brake on the left, and a cyclocross bike with the front brake on the right. I don’t have a problem switching between them.
The reason cyclocross bikes are set up differently is that in a cross race there is frequent mounting and dismounting of the bike due to course obstacles, and these are flying dismounts. The technique for dismounting is such that your left hand stays on the bars during the dismounts and you don’t need (or want) the power of a front brake while doing this.
We have recently become aware that riding a bike in England and Wales (Scotland/NI may be different) with no front brake is actually an offence. In this case the rider was sentenced for a more serious charge (There is no death by dangerous cycling offence).
The Pedal Cycles (and Use) Regulations 1983 make clear that every pedal bike needs two braking systems - so bikes without front brakes aren’t suitable for UK roads.
Ditto, never heard of this before.
Motorbikes are a lot heavier than bicycles, so there’s a lot more chance of tipping over if you apply too much front brake on a bicycle. I’d prefer to have more control using my right (dominant) hand when braking with the front wheel on a motorbike and back wheel on a bicycle. Usually I’ll apply 80/20% brakes, with the majority being on the front wheel on a bike and the back wheel on a bicycle.
Saying that, on a cruise my left hand will often be either resting on the tank or my lap, and I’ll just use my right hand for speed control and shallow counter steering. With this setup you can use your left to adjust your visor, scratch an itch, wave at other bikers or ‘thanks’ to an obliging motorist.
I don’t think this is true. A motorcycle + rider has a lower center of mass than a bicycle + rider. So it should be able to brake harder (greater deceleration) with the front brake than a bicycle.
scr4, I think you’re agreeing with JustinC.
I think that is what JustinC was saying. And it is very true: I can easily fly over the handlebars on my bicycles compared to my motorcycles. It also varies among motorcycles: I had a cruiser style motorcycle that I could probably have yanked the front brake as hard as possible and it wouldn’t have flipped but I have a sport bike that you definitely need to be careful of.
Now the oddity that I didn’t know existed: I live in the NW and have one road bike, one cross and two mountain bikes. All have the front brake on the left hand side. I didn’t realize they were flipped elsewhere in the country! You learn something new every day.
And although I ride motorcycles as well as bicycles, this has never been a problem for me. I think it is just 40 years of experience on both with this swapped configuration.
Wait, I ride a bike in a drive-on-right country (USA) and I signal with my left hand, because I use the same signals when riding a bike that I do when driving with broken turn signals (hasn’t come up for a long time, but that’s how I learned it).
People signal with their right hands when riding bicycles? (I agree that most don’t signal at all and some signal with both).
I think the people here saying that where they are, the front brake is on the right, are in other countries, not the US.