When I was a kid I had a friend borrow my bike and watched him do this (slamming on the front brakes and being flipped over the handlebars), fortunately he wasn’t injured, but I was mad because the front reflector broke off. In retrospect, it was worth it because I learned the easy way that you definitely should not do that.
Also that the default design of bike brakes is probably less safe for left handed people, since the front brakes are commonly on the left, but it’s important to put more pressure sooner on the back brakes.
Pretty sure you’re right. Except somehow the bike I learned on only had the one brake. Right hand, but back wheel, contrary to the default. Fairly sure it wasn’t from outside the UK, but it had belonged to a relative so maybe they moved it?
When I got a bike with brakes for both wheels, my instincts nearly catapulted me over the handlebars more than once.
Huh. It was seemingly random where I am. Always interesting to see what’s standardized around the world. Smaller/less important markets are full of stuff that are initially designed for specific faraway places.
We had a kids bike in the shop last year that had control for only the rear brake. Then there was a mechanism that activated the front brake proportionally to how hard the rear brake was engaged.
I get the idea, prevent kids from overdoing the front brake, but… When are they going to learn how to ride a bicycle correctly? When they get a larger bicycle and have farther to fall? It didn’t seem like a great idea to me, something marketed for over protective parents.
In some countries bicycles and motorcycles have the front brake on the same side (right side). In Germany and USA I think it is not that way, but I change my bicycles to match my motorbikes - any other system may lead to unintended results.
BTW - you should mostly be braking with your front brakes, I think you have have seen trouble from weight distribution shifting forwards.
When I was a kid I had a friend borrow my bike and watched him do this (slamming on the front brakes and being flipped over the handlebars), fortunately he wasn’t injured, but I was mad because the front reflector broke off. In retrospect, it was worth it because I learned the easy way that you definitely should not do that.
Also that the default design of bike brakes is probably less safe for left handed people, since the front brakes are commonly on the left, but it’s important to put more pressure sooner on the back brakes.
In UK it’s opposite I think
Pretty sure you’re right. Except somehow the bike I learned on only had the one brake. Right hand, but back wheel, contrary to the default. Fairly sure it wasn’t from outside the UK, but it had belonged to a relative so maybe they moved it?
When I got a bike with brakes for both wheels, my instincts nearly catapulted me over the handlebars more than once.
Common for BMX to only have the one, typically on the back for skids (and possibly for stopping kids firing themselves over the bars)
This wasn’t a BMX. It was a child-sized Raleigh that was built like a tank and had solid rubber tyres.
A BMX would have been a lot cooler.
Huh. It was seemingly random where I am. Always interesting to see what’s standardized around the world. Smaller/less important markets are full of stuff that are initially designed for specific faraway places.
Grew up with two bikes which had alternating brake arrangements. To this day, I sweat sometimes when coming to a fast stop
We had a kids bike in the shop last year that had control for only the rear brake. Then there was a mechanism that activated the front brake proportionally to how hard the rear brake was engaged.
I get the idea, prevent kids from overdoing the front brake, but… When are they going to learn how to ride a bicycle correctly? When they get a larger bicycle and have farther to fall? It didn’t seem like a great idea to me, something marketed for over protective parents.
In some countries bicycles and motorcycles have the front brake on the same side (right side). In Germany and USA I think it is not that way, but I change my bicycles to match my motorbikes - any other system may lead to unintended results. BTW - you should mostly be braking with your front brakes, I think you have have seen trouble from weight distribution shifting forwards.
The civilized world has the front brake on the right, front brake on the left is a north America thing.
Front brake is definitely on the left on every bike I’ve ridden, in Finland.