Threaded's Eclectic Blog

I've been around a few shops and looked at a good few cyclocross bikes, but they all felt wrong. Wanting something lighter, more modern, where I don't find sourcing spares a nightmare. Final straw is I can't get decent tires for it now (English clubman size, the shops only have things for wheelchairs). Anyways tried loads of bikes but none felt right, yet could not work out what was wrong, so took my trusty old steel thing from the '70s to see if they could measure it all up and see if they could find something a similar size.

At the shop with my old bike side by side with a new one it was obvious what was wrong with all the new bikes: the brakes were the wrong way round!

Yeps, every single shop I've been in had the back brake on the right hand side. Which explains why they felt so wrong. Inquired of the assistant and he agreed it seemed wrong but they were only allowed to sell them that way around.

But surely, it's a little suicidal for a cyclocross bike to have the front brake on the left hand side?

Labels: cycling