Re: Which side for the front brake lever?

I don't know anyone who mounts the bicycle from either side. Everyone
I know mounts only from the left because in Ireland we ride on the
left of the road; it is simply safer to keep the bike between yourself
and traffic while your attention is on mounting. Presumably elsewhere,
where they ride on the right of the road, they mount from the right. I
see no reason mounting-side should have any influence on the relative
dexterity of the left and right hands.

I ride in the USA, and I mount the bike from the left, but I know people, especially at the velodrome, who mount from either side. Sometimes, if I stop on a street (usually to pick up a coin - why do people throw money away?), I will mount from the curb side (right).

I always clip my left foot in before the right, and when I stop, I put my right foot down. It seems to me that riders in California are about evenly split between those who put their right foot down and those who put their left foot down. To me, it makes sense to put the right foot down, because there are curbs to stand on much of the time, and the bike is leaning away from traffic (this works in right hand driving countries).

On rare occasions, I have been unable to remove my right foot from the pedals. I usually manage to fall down, even if I get the left foot out, because I'm so used to stopping with the right foot down. I don't know what I'm going to do if I come to ride in the British Isles!!! (Probably fall down a lot.)

As a left-handed person, I've had to learn to accommodate to many things in a right-handed world. I never thought about switching the brake lever operation on my bikes. It'd sure be a nasty trick to play on someone who borrowed your bike, or bought it.
.

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