Originally Posted by
T-Mar
You need to look at this from the context of the early 1970s. Millions of cyclists who had never used caliper brakes, were buying lightweight bicycles with caliper brakes. They hadn't learned that the front and rear brakes require different modulation for the most effective braking. A rear brake with less mechanical advantage and more flex is easier for a novice to modulate, as it's less sensitive. Basically, it made for an easier (and arguably safer) learning curve for the novice lightweight rider. If you've been raised on caliper brakes, even if they were unequal reach, it's relatively easier to adapt to a different mechanical advantage.
That sums it up pretty well. It was the times. People were used to coaster brakes. When I started working in a shop in 1980, I
still had to teach most people how to brake.
Additionally, there was a persistent and widely held belief that front brakes were dangerous, and that you could flip yourself over the handlebars if you weren't careful. It seems ridiculous now of course, but at the time, a lot of people worried about that.