Originally Posted by
nomadmax
He's talking about having the right hand brake lever operate the front brake like Euro bike racers have been doing since the 60s, maybe even further back than that. I'm not familiar with Shimano shifters but it's nothing more than running the front brake cable to the right lever with Campy. Even though I ride motorcycles, I keep my right lever as the rear brake because I'm right hand dominant and the rear doesn't have as much mechanical advantage as the front (longer cable run).
With the way Shimano works, I don't think braking hard and sweeping the cogs into a lower gear is really a viable option (if the right lever were set up to be the front brake). One or the other functions would be compromised given that the brake lever serves two functions (braking and downshifting). With the front brake lever on the left it would lend itself better to braking with the front (left side) and down shifting (right side) at the same time.
All that said, that's just what I think and doesn't make it a fact. I don't have time to get an inter-net arguing degree and battle it out until one of us gets a gold medal
I understand "moto" style, I ride dirt bikes also. Fun Fact: All bikes are assembled that way in Japan, and builders WILL NOT assemble them any other way. Shimano instructions do not specify one way or the other.
What I don't understand is how often are you coming to an emergency stop that you would set your bike up just for that. I don't know which brake is the "important one", and I don't understand why one would bother with shifting at all in an emergency situation. You need to pedal for a shift to take place, and how do you pedal while emergency braking. Granted, everyone can set up their own bikes however they want, the reasoning just doesn't make any sense....to me.