Continental brakes - Wrong way round

[Smokin Joe]

I think they've standardized to indicators on the left now. We have a Suzuki and a Nissan, both left.

IIRC Marinas also used to have them on the right.

 

[Slick]

I seem to remember that my dad's Austin Princess in the 70s had an indicator stalk on the right and a high beam and horn stalk on the left. May have been the missing link between right and left indicators.

Hideous car. Especially for a new driver.

Was it 2 tone mauve with a brown roof?

 

[Slick]

Worse than that. It was Sand Glow (aka babyshit yellow) with a brown roof.

 

[raleighnut]

Motorcycles have indicators not hand signals.

Only relatively recently.

 

[Drago]

My 2005 Kia had the indicator on the right. It was a decent car until it spontaneously combusted and gave itself a viking funeral while Mrs D was driving it one day. I think the Korean brands were the last gasp for right handed indicator stalks.

 

[lazyfatgit]

Maybe it's a European built thing with the indicator stalks. My recent Toyota, Mazda and Mitsubishi cars all have indicators on right. Company Skoda and Merc van have indicator stalk on left.

On the bike I like the front brake on the right. Have ridden hire bikes in Europe without any major issues.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I had this conversation with a number of people after coming to Germanyeople like trying the Xtracycle out and the comment of "The brakes are backwards" came pretty frequently. I still haven't swapped them despite replacing brakes and cables several times: I've only lived here for eighteen years after all, it's early days.

That doesn't explain why I built my other bikes the 'British' way around, of course.

The Bakfiets is probably the other way around but in practice the brakes on that are like a damp sponge and the front one is advisory at best, so stopping means hauling on both brakes like a cowboy trying to slow a runaway horse...

 

[JtB]

My Bianchi has the front brake on the left and my Carlton has the front brake on the right, but it’s not just bike brakes. I seem to remeber sinks used to have the cold tap on the left but now they have the cold tap on the right.