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Gwylan

Guru
Probably because people get on from the left??

Another conspiracy against the left handed.
 

Jenkins

Legendary Member
Location
Felixstowe
Are all drive chains on the RHS? Why is this?

Felt built some track bikes for the US team for the 2016 Olympics with LHS drive trains
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Alex321

Guru
Location
South Wales
Are all drive chains on the RHS? Why is this?

Generally, yes. There was a variation in the last Olympics, where some of the Japanese track bikes tried it the other way around, I think because of the aerodynamics when all turns are to the left.

But apart from that, I have never seen a normal bike with drive train on the left.
 

grldtnr

Veteran
Only if you ride /drive on the left, I think it's because screw threads are predominantly right handed,, therefore a clockwise rotation will keep things tight, that's why we have left and right threaded pedals, so that they do not inadvertently come undone, also why fixed gear cogs have a left handed lock ring , when applying backwards pressure,this ensures the gear cog does not become loose, more than a major inconvenience should that happen, same applies to bottom bracket threads,the rotational forces can undo right handed clockwise threads.
 
Only if you ride /drive on the left, I think it's because screw threads are predominantly right handed,, therefore a clockwise rotation will keep things tight, that's why we have left and right threaded pedals, so that they do not inadvertently come undone, also why fixed gear cogs have a left handed lock ring , when applying backwards pressure,this ensures the gear cog does not become loose, more than a major inconvenience should that happen, same applies to bottom bracket threads,the rotational forces can undo right handed clockwise threads.

I used to live next door to a bloke who was an engineer in the local counsel roads department
he said that they used to have a problem with people stealing stuff out the the emergency boxes that they had by the roadside - they contained lights and stuff for use if there was a crash - especially near the roundabouts on the A55 in North Wales

They had a meeting to brainstorm how to make them more secure
They needed ot be easy for anyone who worked there to open but not so easy that anyone could do it
because sometime peopel like him might be called out to a problem direct from home
The obvious solution was a special key but that had been tried before and people just lost the key or couldn;t find it in an emergency

The solution they came up with was a simple cross head screw head on the lock
most people would be able to find a key for that - any cross head screwdriver would do
but the screw had a left handed thread
that stopped the thefts - but they did find a lot of VERY tight locks!!

which shows how fixed in people's mind right handed screw threads are
 
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