Is there any scientific reason behind it or just as it is?
In contrast, motorcycle chains are often on left!
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It's because the sprockets and chainrings are on the right. If you put the chain on the left, nothing would happen when you peddled.
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In contrast motorcycle chains are often on left!
Motorcycles can vary; in fact with Harleys one can tell a Sportster from an Electra-Glide simply by the fact that Sporty chains (or belts) are on the right, and all the "Big Twins" are on the left.
I'd hazard a guess that it's something to do with stopping and starting from rest. Since the "safety" bicycle was a British invention, and we drive on the left, it makes sense to me that the chain drive would be on the right, as you'd set off with the right pedal first; since the first bicycles didn't have chain guards, there'd be less chance of getting oil on your trousers.
Just a guess.
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It's to keep the muck off your left trouser leg.
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>> >> as you'd set off with the right pedal first;
>>
Why?
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It may be because (thinking laterally) most Folk are "right-handed / right-footed, so when walking usually the right leg is the "driven-wheel" (motoring link! ;-)) and the left leg just follows to aid balance, therefore, with the chain on the right side there is less power lost in transit from foot to coq. ;-)
Billy
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Long ago...in a blacksmith's forge just ouside Birmingham... the first bicycle was being invented.... the blacksmith calls to his apprentice....
" Jethroe, hand me that left handed sprocket I made last week..!"
(...a little time later...)
"Sorry, Mr Boothroyd, I can't find it - but here's that right-handed one you made - 'just in case'.."
"Ok, Jethroe, hand it me then - that'll have to so I s'pose..."
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It`s so that you can attend the chain at the roadside (against a wall) without having to turn the bike around....
Also to facilitate sharpening your sword after having used it without dismounting.
Edited by oilrag on 28/10/2008 at 18:10
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It`s so that you can attend the chain at the roadside (against a wall) without having to turn the bike around....
So are continental bikes different?
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>> It`s so that you can attend the chain at the roadside (against a wall) without >> having to turn the bike around.... So are continental bikes different?
Continental and N American bikes still have the drive chain on the right, but the front and rear brakes are reversed, with the rear brake on the right hand.
I worked out in N America as a bike mechanic for a total of about 9 months. Makes you have to concentrate to not kill yourself / customers when setting it up or test riding. An Irish acquaintance of mine didn't do so well: I believe his poor rentee needed 100+ stitches in her face after using the front brake hard from high speed :-(
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>> Continental and N American bikes still have the drive chain on the right but the front and rear brakes are reversed with the rear brake on the right hand.
Makes you have to concentrate to not kill yourself / customers when settingit up or test riding.
My old 1942 Harley's a bit like that; front brake's on the LEFT handlebar. Reason for it is, hand gearchange and foot clutch, so if you're doing a hill start you hold the bike from rolling back with front brake, not rear one as you would on a "conventional" motorbike.
No chance of it throwing you over the bars though, brakes on that wouldn't stop a clock!
Best fun is taking it for an MOT and watching the new tester scratch his head! :-)
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It may be because (thinking laterally) most Folk are "right-handed / right-footed
I must be strange as I'm right handed and left footed.
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Me too Andy and it's nothing to do with religion either !!
Write with my right hand but kick a ball with my left foot. Otherwise I'm pppperfectly normmmmal.....howlllllllll....
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my G/F can write with both hands = I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!
Billy
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my G/F can write with both hands
I can and regularly do especially if on the 'phone. Neither hand results in high levels of legibilility unfortunately. Maybe the skill is halved or something.
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been trying to think of some smart sounding scientific principle to put forward on this but its not happening....all i can come up with is.... it is because it is
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Since the first chain driven bikes had a fixed gear, having the chain on the right meant that the sprocket could be mounted with a standard screw thread. Could be the reason. Also, why do continental (pedal) bikes have the brake levers switched over compared with UK bikes?
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Also why do continental (pedal) bikes have the brake levers switched over comparedwith UK bikes?
Nothing other than tradition. Bikes sold in the UK have to have the front brake on the right at the point of sale though there is no bar against swapping them over afterwards, which some cyclists do as it gives a straighter run for the cables.
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some cyclists do as it gives a straighter run for the cables.
In the days when gear levers were on the down tube and indexed shifting was a distant dream I always had the front brake on the left so I could change gear with my right hand and brake at the same time. Now I'm too busy slaloming between pedestrians on the pavement to bother with using the brakes.
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I'm pretty sure that my first two proper bikes in the 1950's (A BSA and a Viking racer) both had their front brake on the left - this way you could brake hard with the left hand and change down a few cogs with the right for a quick getaway all at the same time. Its only when I returned to cycling in the late 70's that I found that some bright spark had swapped the levers over. Tandem's of course have the chain connecting the two cranks on the left.
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Since the first chain driven bikes had a fixed gear having the chain on the right meant that the sprocket could be mounted with a standard screw thread.
I'm sure you're right. Eventually a standard would have been agreed to facilitate interchangeability of parts. I can't remember the notation but there is (or used too be) a range of imperial dimension fine-pitch standard cycle threads. Of course, metric threads may now be used universally on cycles. Does anyone on here know?
Edited by L'escargot on 30/10/2008 at 07:50
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I can't remember the notation but there is (or used too be) a range of imperial dimension fine-pitch standard cycle threads. Of course metric threads may now be used universally on cycles. Does anyone on here know?
I should have googled before I said that, not afterwards. D'oh!
tinyurl.com/2vu5dt
Edited by L'escargot on 30/10/2008 at 07:55
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This is just a guess but I reckon it has something to do with the important parts being secured by a normal thread, whereas on the left hand side the pedal is secured by a left handed thread, something which may not have been invented or was considered hard to use when the first bikes were made.
Original bikes may have secured their gears/pedals by some kind of coachbolt running through the frame with a normal thread at the end keeping the gears in place.
I think I know what I mean.
Beaten to it by Brit in Germany. Doh.
Edited by krs one on 28/10/2008 at 19:28
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my G/F can write with both hands
For as long as I can remember my left handed Father has almost illegible writing.
When he broke his left wrist he returned to writing with his right hand, which he'd been forced to do during his brief spells in school and produced immaculate writing.
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Choice heavily influenced by a right hand thread on rear sprocket. ( bicycle). Regards Peter
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Its because the extra weight of the transmission counteracts the camber of the road ,I don't believe that so I wouldn't expect anybody else to.But the UK has unlike cars managed to have rhd for bikes made into the world standard .All headsets are still imperial, bottom brackets have one exeption that it is the Italians who have a metric unit and gears are still worked out in inches..
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gears are still worked out in inches..
Slightly off-topic, but definitely motoring.....
... how the hell can the government try to scrap the Imperial system when wheel rims (and therefore tyres) throughout the world are measured in inches?
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>>All headsets are stillimperial bottom brackets have one exeption that it is the Italians who have a metric unit and gears are still worked out in inches..
I think the BB30 system that Cannondale and others (inc. FSA) have introduced is metric. The one and an eighth headset size is slowly being superceded too.
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It's to do with horses. Seriously it is. Bikes were invented at a time when horseriding was commonplace. You always mount a horse from its left. It would be logical to those designing the first bikes to swing their right leg over from the left of the bike. Keeping the oily bits on the other side was the obvious choice if you were to keep your clothes clean during mounting and dismounting.
Is there a prize please ?..........
;-)
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So a horse hase it's chain and sprockets on the right too? I never knew that.
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Heh heh......no but if you want to speed up one way is to give it a tap on its right flank with the crop. Bit like a turbo really.
;-)
Um...prize.....?
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Just thought of another reason why it's horse related. The "canter" command is given with the right leg. Right side = power.
I've convinced myself anyway...
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found it at last! - think i prefer the plethora of abstract reasons though!
>>A free-wheel clutch transmits the drive in one direction only, allowing the pedals to remain at rest at the will of the rider, while the bicycle runs on.<<
>>There are three principal types of free-wheel clutches - roller, ratchet and friction cone. The roller type was the earliest in use, but has fallen into disfavour. A sectional view of a ball-bearing ratchet free-wheel, with outer cover removed, is shown in fig. 11. The ring on which the three pawls and springs are carried is screwed on the end of the hub<<
Basically, to mount the chaingear on the left side you would require a left-hand operating hub, as they do not make left-handed hubs it would mean turning the right-handed free-wheel hub around, this would then mean you would have to pedal backwards to engage the ratchet but this would also mean that the bike would go backwards which would make it hard to ride! easy!!
if you want a boring read its all here:
www.1911encyclopedia.org/Bicycle
Billy
Edited by billy25 on 30/10/2008 at 03:09
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It's to do with horses. Seriously it is. Bikes were invented at a time when horseriding was commonplace. You always mount a horse from its left. It would be logical to those designing the first bikes to swing their right leg over from the left of the bike. Keeping the oily bits on the other side was the obvious choice if you were to keep your clothes clean during mounting and dismounting. Is there a prize please ?.......... ;-)
But when you mount the bike from the left most people lean it towards them. This keeps the left hand side clear, but ensures that you trouser leg catches in the chain on the right as you swing your leg across.
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Only if you've got your saddle too high........
;-)
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Anyway, if you watch Miss Marple getting on her bike, she puts her left foot on the left pedal and sort of scoots the bike a bit to gain momentum and then swings on to the saddle with the bike in the vertical position. This was the technique used by Edwardian bikers presumably to avoid apparel conflict. It may also have been to do with a lack of gears of course.......
Still think I should get the prize......s'defo horses
;-)
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But when you mount the bike from the left most people lean it towards them.
If you cock your right leg over when the bike is moving, which was the modus operandi in my day, you should keep the bike roughly upright or, if anything, leant (leaned?) to the right.
Edited by L'escargot on 30/10/2008 at 09:48
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For what are ....I promise ......my concluding remarks on this debate......
We should also consider the protocols. In further defence of my horse theory, look back at the level of social protocols and mores of the people who invented bicycles. As I previously postulated, it was natural for them to mount from the left as that is the convention when mounting a horse. Not only a convention but it would also have been seen as extremely bad form to do otherwise. This at a time when social conventions were much more rigidly adhered to. In fact horses would still regard it as quite rude if anyone attempted to mount from the right. They do not have any truck with liberalism and would certainly show their displeasure.
I contend that the engineering followed the convention and not the other way round.
I conclude there and commend my findings to the room..........
;-)
Prize ??
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 30/10/2008 at 09:58
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Even penny farthing bicycles were designed to be mounted on/from the left. tinyurl.com/5j2ycm
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 30/10/2008 at 12:38
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Even penny farthing bicycles >>
Oh dont you just love swear filters!
On the continent it is necessary to mount a cycle from the right when departing a pavement though the chainwheel is still on les droite.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 30/10/2008 at 12:39
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.
Edited by L'escargot on 30/10/2008 at 10:42
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Even penny farthing bicycles were designed to be mounted on/from the left.
I thought they were mounted from the rear, by sort of jumping over the little wheel?
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 30/10/2008 at 12:39
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>> Even penny farthing bicycles were designed to be mounted on/from the left.
Click on my link. It says "To mount, the rider had to first place his left foot on the step above the back wheel and push off with his right foot, after gaining speed he stood up on his left leg, slipped forward into the saddle ..."
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 30/10/2008 at 12:39
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Prize?
In the words of Bill Bailey, 'have a biscuit'. ;-)
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