I hope GMBN (and its partner channels) consider a history/origin series on various bikes, bike parts and events! Frankly I'd take any excuse to see Blake send it on a Penny Farthing.
Hey Ryan, check this 2 part series Steve Jones made for the history of Downhill World Cup Downhill Tech That Changed MTB Forever | Pt 1 👉 ua-cam.com/video/fD4Hshg73Ag/v-deo.html World Cup Downhill Tech That Changed MTB Forever | Pt 2 👉 ua-cam.com/video/jZaxjNfKnVM/v-deo.html What would you like to see?
I'm left legged, right handed. I mount the bike from whatever side is easiest at the time. Something worth remembering is that "why" only needs to be applicable to the first few popular bikes. After that it becomes a financial issue, why would Shimano suddenly make a left-sided drivetrain now? The cost of development, the need for new parts to make it compatible and the fact we'd largely complain about backwards compatibility/unnecessary change would make such a thing fail.
This is more the heart of the matter. The only relevant reason now is that there's no compelling reason to change. Either side offers no advantage, since manufacturing isn't a limiting factor. The ergonomics of modern bikes also don't present any challenges to mount from either side.
@@koko-lores fortunately we're not likely to see a crApple bike anytime soon. I dread to think how they'd attempt to make everything proprietary, cock it up royally yet still somehow wind up with die-hard borderline-bootlicker elitist fans.
@GMBN Tech There's just a tiny error. Pedals indeed tighten "to the front of the bike" BUT! That's actually for the same reason BB cups are tighten "to the back of the bike" : to prevent them to over tighten themselves over time. Pedals are tighten to crank arms. Yes, we pedal to the front BUT! while pedaling forward, pedals are in fact rotating backward relative to the crank arms. Hence having a thread tightening "to the front" is preventing them from over-tightening from pedaling forward.
Italian and Swiss makers of frames and bottom brackets did not get the memo, as a result they are threaded “wrong”. Right hand threads on both sides. When a traditional loose ball and cup bottom bracket is under load and turning, the balls are spinning opposite the direction of the spindle rotation. This will result in the drive side cup loosening if you are not careful and if you have an Italian BB. The modern cartridge bottom bracket in use today pretty much resolved the issue though. I have a Chinese made bike that was fabricated wrong. They welded the BB shell on backwards so the left side has left handed threads. I use a cartridge BB and it’s never given me trouble. But it took me awhile to take it apart the first time,
Yes, as mentioned earlier, the direction of the spin of the Earth is clockwise to you if you were in a vehicle above the south pole. Directions are relative to the observer. I wonder if the Coriolis effect has been an influence on the development of all life on the planet over millions of years.
Genuinely the most entertaining, well written, and interesting video on the whole GCN network. Doddy is the most original writer and presenter on the network. Great stuff. My theory - western designers usually draw driven vehicles going from left to right (like western text). Therefore for designers to show the drivetrain, it must be on the right hand side.
1:40 "essentially to prevent them to get loose" - that's what I thought for years, too, but then a friend showed me: attach a pedal only slightly in the cranks, then hold the pedal axis still and BACKpedal (easy because of the freewhell)-> the pedal gets TIGHTENED on the crank! (And the other way round: Loose a attached pedal a bit, hold its axis and pedal forward -> it gets LOOSE.) I was really shocked to have seen this! :-D
Not meaning to point out faults, but actually with the pedals, they are threaded so they don't over tighten and seize themselves on. If you put a pedal halfway on (or on loosely), it will pedal itself off. Remember, when installing you run the crank in reverse with the pedal wrench to tighten, so pedaling forward will loosen.
My question also, so I got Google to look it up. 'Got no answer for "why are motorcycle drive trains on the left?" but I got an answer for "Why are motorcycle kick stands on the left?" The answer I got was that we get on a motorcycle from the left because in days gone by we kick started a machine with our preferred right leg which for most people is stronger. If the drive train is on the right, it would interfere with the kick start so the chain ended up on the left. These days, with electric start, it really doesn't matter. The other answer was that we don't need to get on a horse, a bicycle or a motorcycle from the left it's just that it's the way we've always done it so it's now a tradition.
But *does* the Earth spin counter-clockwise? Only when viewed from the north pole... As for threads, if you really think about the thread direction, a left thread on a left pedal (the way it actually is) would seem to undo it, but the reason is the same as you mentioned on the BB, it's the mechanical precession that tries to unthread the bolt: and that precession exists because if there was a more perfect mesh of the threads, the friction would be too great to screw it in, there has to be some amount of imperfectly meshing gap to make it useable.
Excellent point about the turning of the Earth. If we reorient the globe so we observe South is up, it rotates clockwise. In three dimensions, up/down, left/right, forward backward are only relative to the observer.
True on the pedal threads. But on the earth rotation, consider that the vast majority (70+%, I believe, including 100% of the ancient cultures that made these choices) of population lived and lives in the northern hemisphere. So it is not symmetric and just purely a matter of viewpoint. Not that I know how the earth's spin would matter here, or be known to primitive societies. The spin of the earth causes weather patterns in the northern hemisphere (storms, hurricanes, etc.) to spin counterclockwise when looking down from above in a satellite view, but clockwise when looking up from the ground. No answers here, LOL.
Wildest LHD setup I remember getting to production was an Eastern dirt jumper from the early 2000's that had left hand drive AND a disc brake on the left side.
Isn't it great that things are a often certain way for a reason. Engineering necessity/tradition and usually time are all factors, although sometimes it's just to be different. great video!
Excellent and informative presentation, Doddy! You really brought up some interesting stuff here. Love your tech explainations and agree with the other commentator that a series dealing with the history of bikes would be really compelling. You and your fellow presenters make GMBN not only informative, but entertaining.....
The reason to have a left hand drive on a BMX bike is because if the rider grinds on the right side pegs the sprocket and chain won't get damaged as easily. In the later 90s I used a left hand drive system because the front chainring was 44t and was always in the way. Doing a double peg grind on a rail often times was a one peg and sprocket grind, so we put guards on the sprockets. BMX bikes were 40 or so pounds back then...lol Now we have 9t hub drivers so we run 25 or 28 tooth front chainrings. This means they are not nearly as much in the way as they used to be. So I just run the normal right side drive on my BMX bike now.
Motorbikes from Britain usually have a left hand drive train. Like japanese and indian Bike wich are decendents from british bikes. On the continent the german an italian motorbikes have a right hand drive train by chain or cardan. But sometimes they also go to the left.
My BMX is LHD purely because ride right foot forward, LHD saved me so many ripped shoes and bruised heels. Doing tail whips and other tricks where your feet come off you tend to land on crank arms and with a sprocket and chain there can be a right heel basher and the amount i saved on shoes after getting LHD was well worth it.
No need for a video, it's because most people are right handed and when you're turning left your outer (right) hand is pushing down on the bar so you don't slide out, which means when you're turning right your weaker/non dominant left arm needs to do that same job. Naturally being slightly weaker it makes turning right feel awkward
@lexusstefan927 um nope, nothing to do with it, we all have a natural and goofy way to spin and put your feet. For me I spin or turn right easier, and have my left foot forward. It has nothing to do with left or right handed. Stand facing forward, jump and spin, what way do you spin? What leg to you naturally lead with, and are you left or right handed? There are combinations of all out there riding
If you stand up facing forward, jump and spin, that's your natural direction to turn, it's to do with parts of the brain that control balance and coordination .
@@lexusstefan927 Hmmm. Lefthander here. I also find turning left more comfortable. I thought that was just me and my lefthandedness, but apparently not. Despite being left handed for most things, I bat right handed for cricket and baseball where it's a two handed grip, but left handed for single handed bats and also fencing left handed. To add to the weirdness, archery and shotguns left handed despite two hands being involved and to cap it all, catch a ball pretty much ambidextrously, although I throw a ball right handed.
@@chrisplatten2293 I'm left handed, but find turning right more comfortable (I put my right foot forward when riding). I could try switching my forward foot before left corners to make turning easier, will probably take some getting used to.
In the northern hemisphere water go down the drain anticlockwise and if you been locked up u walk counter clockwise around the exercise yard in the northern hemisphere I understand its opsite in the southern hemisphere so that rules out the earth's rotation dictating which hand we are
Well done Doddy, another interesting video. This answers and clears up a lot of points we we're discussing recently with my cycling crazy relations. Keep em coming!
Felt built a left hand transmission of the US track team. The point is that there is less moment of inertia in the left hand turns, thus reducing total energy for the same speed and position in the turns.
I suppose Whitworth had a hand in this as he produced the first standard thread design, but they were probably already mainly right handed, he just standardised it. Spiral staircases in castles were clockwise ascending, such that attackers climbing the steps would have to use their sword in their left hand whilst the defenders could use their right hand.
Cutting right handed threats on simple lathes is also easier since the lead screw needs to run in reverse compared to normal powerfeeding fir cutting left hand threats. For right handed ones, one can just use the normal gears used for powerfeeding.
For a laugh, we used to swap our bmx drivetrain onto the left side, and then ride/pedal it backwards. Those were the days. (riding backwards is hard...)
It's got nothing to do with what happens if the bearings seize up. It's all so things don't loosen themselves under ordinary use (due to mechanical precession).
Really enjoying your recent content Doddy, very interesting. I once read a theory regarding why Brits have the front brake on the right but rest of the world on the left. Something to do with driving on the left and making right turns accross traffic (and vice versa), the theory being that while hand signalling your turn you still had control of the rear brake. Any chance of deep diving into that? Keep it up.
Some street and park BMX riders who are regular footed (right pedal forward when cranks are parallel) prefer a left hand-side transmission for the same reasons of avoidance protection, because they do most of their peg grinds on the right hand side of the bike.
I am left-handed, but I do a couple of things right-handed. When I first picked up a guitar, it was right-handed and play as such. I use right-handed scissors. I use a knife or a saw with my left hand, but when I eat with a fork and a knife, I use the knife with my right hand and the fork with the left (as well as the spoon). Thinking of legs, I would kick a ball with my right foot and I'm left foot forward when it comes to bikes.
My wife lost most of the use of her right hand due to a nerve issue. I setup up her bike for left hand control. I found a double cable lever pull that I can set up well enough. But the only option I found for left handed operation was a grip shift used "improperly". Now that there is only one shifter. It doesn't seem like a lot to ask from big derailleur for a left hand rear for the south paws and people with access issues.
I think it depends on where you look from that the earth turns, if you are looking down from the north pole, sure it turns counter clockwise, but if you are looking up from the south pole the it is turning clockwise.
How about this for a thought. Being left handed and left dominant I Mount from the right, ugh! I live in the UK where we drive on the left. When I stop in traffic with clip in pedals I release the right pedal meaning that I tilt slightly into the traffic but not by much. However the advantage is that if there was a loss of balance when stopping, it can happen, my right foot is un-clipped and I am less likely to ‘topple’ completely into the traffic. I am still alive to tell this tale.
Anatomically speaking it makes sense to tighten screws clockwise as you have more power in supination movement (M. biceps brachii is involved) compared to pronation. Maybe this also played a role 🤷🏼.
The Archimedes Screw is named after him but is noted in various Middle Eastern cultures from centuries before his time. Archy saw it in Egypt and somehow got the naming rights.
Right hand threads are standard because they are the easiest to machine on a lathe. Moving the cutting bit from right to left (counter clockwise rotation of the stock) places the cutting action right in front of the machinest and he does not have to contort himself and has a good sight line.
Trucks and cars have gone away from it, but if you're old enough to have worked on early 60's VW's or Chryslers you'd recall the left side wheel studs/lugs were reverse threaded.
I typically like all of Doddy's videos. They are all very educational. This one is educational, entertaining and just simply hilarious. Very well done. Best wishes from North Carolina.
One hand is specialized for precise manipulation and articulation. The other hand is specialized for stability and control. If you were to carry a full cup of hot coffee across a room, which hand would you use? Each hand has its own specific job to do. That's why ambidexterity is not common and why da Vinci was always spilling his tea.
In BMX there are what is called Right side drive and Left side drive, left foot forward riders use right side drive (common drive side) while the right foot forward riders use the left side drive
Another reason for the chain to be on the right side, may be that the stand (when present) is always on the left side, and this again is because most people mount from the left.
umm no... do an little experiment yourself and spin a ball on the floor counter clockwise. While it is spinning move around it and you will see that regardless of from what angle you look at it that it will still be spinning counter clockwise.
The earth isn't spinning on a table. Look at the earth from the south pole and it spins clockwise. North is only "up" because we draw most of our maps that way.
Wow, I've always been interested in symmetries, and why people do things right vs. left. Great video and I even learned a few things in the comments here. Here's another one for you ... On aircraft carriers, the tower is now always on the right / starboard side of the ship / landing runway. This was not true for the first few that were built, until they noticed that the ships with towers on the left were more likely to get a tower impact than those with the tower on the right. More generally, it was realized that the natural response of right-handed people when something goes wrong is to fall to the left. BTW, so this means cars should drive on the left, but anyway... So putting the tower on the right meant that if something goes wrong, it will be more likely for the plane to crash off towards the left side, vs. into the tower, etc. Both are bad of course, but avoiding the tower is more important than staying dry. And that design decision did not have any real history behind it, so they could have chosen whatever was safest and most effective. They chose randomly in the early days until noticing this. And I have read a similar design process for bike pedal threads. They originally just made them right handed on both sides, but noticed the left side would undo itself, and eventually solved it by just making the left side left handed. As pointed out in the comments, the video explanation of this is backwards, even though the resulting answer is accurate. I can see how this feature (right-handed people favor falling towards their left) would tend to protect the drivetrain in bike crashes as well, even if it's not the reason for that design standard.
One of my bikes is a Moulton. Now, I've ridden Rohloff Moultons abroad, but wouldn't fancy taking a derailleur equipped Moulton abroad because of the increased risk of damaging the derailleur on a kerb or bank. I did wonder is small wheeled bikes abroad had a left hand drive train but, apparently not.
At the end when Doddy was talking about people being right handed etc I was hoping for a reference to the protein Sonic Hedgehog - named after the game character and a controlling factor in embryo development of the nervous system and all body organs, such as making sure our heart is on the right side etc. Many proteins have what they call 'chirality', which means they are shaped with a right side and left side. That chirality has a lot to do with the way an embryo forms.
I think if I were to make the groove to a helix by hand, it would be easier to do a right-handed groove. Like if I'm holding an item on my left hand, it would be easier to saw / file on top of the piece, and with my hand pointing slightly towards left.
It had never occurred to me that in most of the world that drives on the right it must feel strange for right handed riders to have to throw their left leg over the saddle when mounting their bike beside a busy road. I just practiced getting on my bike on what for me is the 'wrong' side and it didn't go well at all. A dropper seat did make it a tiny bit easier though.
Being a lefty I’ve never found it an issue except in cross racing . Where I mount dirty side and if carrying during racing the drive chain is on my back.
Great video/topic! Riding both motorcycles and bicycles... always kinda wished that both industries merged into the same 'handing: pref. RH for brake disks and LH for drive. At least I understand a bit further the hurdles of that... :-) Cheers
Mentioning the Lathe, and naturally cutting right hand threads with the spindle and feed direction, Lathes are all left handed. It catches out every Apprentice picking out left handed and right handed tooling, as right hand tools all point left.
@@willbaren i think it´s the opposite, the left leg is normally the strongest. For instance it´s more commonly to use your left leg to push of a high jump or long jump. So i think that if you are leaning to the left (ie. skating, skiing, running) it´s easier to do a left turn. It feels "safer" to do a left turn in my opinion.
Procession is also the reason for the pedal threads' direction - hold a pedal by the axle and turn the crank forward. Without "procession", the pedals will come loose... Inside the pedals are also left handed threads to be found, i.e. the nut keeping the bearings aligned on the pedal axle, on some pedal systems (again, procession, counter intuitive...).
You mean precession. Procession refers to the movement of a group of people or objects in a formal and organized manner, often for ceremonial or religious purposes.
@@Alistair_Spence Thanks again, I take it. But also, please realise that any person ready to learn is dependent on people like you, teaching/correcting with a kind attitude. So, right back at you ;)
Probably unrelated to right-handedness of people or animals, there is a fundamental "right-handedness" to all forms of life: the so-called chirality of molecules. For example the DNA double-helix is right-handed, and so are many other biomolecules like glucose or proteins. They all have left-handed mirror images - molecules with the same properties, that however are completely incompatible with all forms of life. At some point during the very formation of life itself, just by random chance, one side was chosen.
Motorcycles have left hand drivetrains because the first motorcycles had both pedals and engines, and had one drivetrain on each side! And when motorcycles eventually ditched pedals in favour of being motor-only, they stuck with the left hand drive.
“Why are drivetrains on the right hand side of the bike?" [five minutes later] “Well, the octopus has a favourite tentacle with which to eat his dinner...”
It's because most people are right handed and right handed people put more power into their pedal stroke with their right leg. It's the reason why bottom brackets always flog out on the right hand side first.
i just think of this as there are so much more right handed people than left handed. thus most of the industries prefer to cater to the majority, and left handed people has just to adapt. one best example are guitars its market is flooded in right hand orientation. although most right handed orientation are just based on standard like screws, car driving side. i still think, that majority of people are right handed so there is that.
Heck, current automobiles have wheels set a certain distance apart because that is the same spacing that was used on Roman chariots. You typed the script for this video on a QWERTY keyboard, designed specifically to slow us down, because early typewriters jammed up when early typists typed too fast. We shake hands with our right hands to show that we don't have a sword in our best hand. Lots of very minor things are based on habits from thousands of years ago.
I hope GMBN (and its partner channels) consider a history/origin series on various bikes, bike parts and events! Frankly I'd take any excuse to see Blake send it on a Penny Farthing.
I would love to see the Farting you talk about too. 😅
Hey Ryan, check this 2 part series Steve Jones made for the history of Downhill
World Cup Downhill Tech That Changed MTB Forever | Pt 1 👉 ua-cam.com/video/fD4Hshg73Ag/v-deo.html
World Cup Downhill Tech That Changed MTB Forever | Pt 2 👉 ua-cam.com/video/jZaxjNfKnVM/v-deo.html
What would you like to see?
Get Sam Pilgrim while you are at it and let him do a jump on a unicycle.
I think I've just seen Doddy waving a sword about on top of a double decker.
You didn’t imagine it. It really did happen.
England ftw
Doddy has been absolutely killing it with the tech videos lately!
this is the most entertaining video I have watched EVER. props, legit examples with demonstrations, fun. absolutely amazing!
WoW ! - how long have you been on UA-cam 😆
Wow you must of been watching some boring stuff then
I'm left legged, right handed. I mount the bike from whatever side is easiest at the time.
Something worth remembering is that "why" only needs to be applicable to the first few popular bikes. After that it becomes a financial issue, why would Shimano suddenly make a left-sided drivetrain now? The cost of development, the need for new parts to make it compatible and the fact we'd largely complain about backwards compatibility/unnecessary change would make such a thing fail.
This is more the heart of the matter. The only relevant reason now is that there's no compelling reason to change. Either side offers no advantage, since manufacturing isn't a limiting factor. The ergonomics of modern bikes also don't present any challenges to mount from either side.
Exactly. It is about money and time.
I can think of a phone/computer company who would do it just to be different and sell new parts for everything
@@koko-lores fortunately we're not likely to see a crApple bike anytime soon. I dread to think how they'd attempt to make everything proprietary, cock it up royally yet still somehow wind up with die-hard borderline-bootlicker elitist fans.
@@andrewince8824 That's Apple's forte.
@GMBN Tech
There's just a tiny error. Pedals indeed tighten "to the front of the bike" BUT! That's actually for the same reason BB cups are tighten "to the back of the bike" : to prevent them to over tighten themselves over time.
Pedals are tighten to crank arms. Yes, we pedal to the front BUT! while pedaling forward, pedals are in fact rotating backward relative to the crank arms. Hence having a thread tightening "to the front" is preventing them from over-tightening from pedaling forward.
Italian and Swiss makers of frames and bottom brackets did not get the memo, as a result they are threaded “wrong”. Right hand threads on both sides. When a traditional loose ball and cup bottom bracket is under load and turning, the balls are spinning opposite the direction of the spindle rotation. This will result in the drive side cup loosening if you are not careful and if you have an Italian BB. The modern cartridge bottom bracket in use today pretty much resolved the issue though. I have a Chinese made bike that was fabricated wrong. They welded the BB shell on backwards so the left side has left handed threads. I use a cartridge BB and it’s never given me trouble. But it took me awhile to take it apart the first time,
@8:05 But hang on, here in the Southern hemisphere, the Earth rotates clockwise (I think).
It all depends on the frame of reference.
Yes, as mentioned earlier, the direction of the spin of the Earth is clockwise to you if you were in a vehicle above the south pole. Directions are relative to the observer. I wonder if the Coriolis effect has been an influence on the development of all life on the planet over millions of years.
Genuinely the most entertaining, well written, and interesting video on the whole GCN network. Doddy is the most original writer and presenter on the network. Great stuff.
My theory - western designers usually draw driven vehicles going from left to right (like western text). Therefore for designers to show the drivetrain, it must be on the right hand side.
1:40 "essentially to prevent them to get loose" - that's what I thought for years, too, but then a friend showed me: attach a pedal only slightly in the cranks, then hold the pedal axis still and BACKpedal (easy because of the freewhell)-> the pedal gets TIGHTENED on the crank! (And the other way round: Loose a attached pedal a bit, hold its axis and pedal forward -> it gets LOOSE.) I was really shocked to have seen this! :-D
Not meaning to point out faults, but actually with the pedals, they are threaded so they don't over tighten and seize themselves on. If you put a pedal halfway on (or on loosely), it will pedal itself off. Remember, when installing you run the crank in reverse with the pedal wrench to tighten, so pedaling forward will loosen.
You didn't mention, that most motorbikes have the transmission on the left side and the exhaust on the right side.
My question also, so I got Google to look it up. 'Got no answer for "why are motorcycle drive trains on the left?" but I got an answer for "Why are motorcycle kick stands on the left?" The answer I got was that we get on a motorcycle from the left because in days gone by we kick started a machine with our preferred right leg which for most people is stronger. If the drive train is on the right, it would interfere with the kick start so the chain ended up on the left. These days, with electric start, it really doesn't matter. The other answer was that we don't need to get on a horse, a bicycle or a motorcycle from the left it's just that it's the way we've always done it so it's now a tradition.
This is amazingly entertaining and a very nice departure from the usual. Please keep this up, wonderful stuff.
thanks for the awesome feedback! It's a video we have been thinking about making for a couple of years now
But *does* the Earth spin counter-clockwise? Only when viewed from the north pole... As for threads, if you really think about the thread direction, a left thread on a left pedal (the way it actually is) would seem to undo it, but the reason is the same as you mentioned on the BB, it's the mechanical precession that tries to unthread the bolt: and that precession exists because if there was a more perfect mesh of the threads, the friction would be too great to screw it in, there has to be some amount of imperfectly meshing gap to make it useable.
Excellent point about the turning of the Earth. If we reorient the globe so we observe South is up, it rotates clockwise. In three dimensions, up/down, left/right, forward backward are only relative to the observer.
True on the pedal threads. But on the earth rotation, consider that the vast majority (70+%, I believe, including 100% of the ancient cultures that made these choices) of population lived and lives in the northern hemisphere. So it is not symmetric and just purely a matter of viewpoint. Not that I know how the earth's spin would matter here, or be known to primitive societies. The spin of the earth causes weather patterns in the northern hemisphere (storms, hurricanes, etc.) to spin counterclockwise when looking down from above in a satellite view, but clockwise when looking up from the ground. No answers here, LOL.
Wildest LHD setup I remember getting to production was an Eastern dirt jumper from the early 2000's that had left hand drive AND a disc brake on the left side.
Oh yea! 😳
Isn't it great that things are a often certain way for a reason. Engineering necessity/tradition and usually time are all factors, although sometimes it's just to be different. great video!
As bad the bicycle industry has always been at standardizing anything, I'm half surprised that everyone at least agreed on having the same drive side.
and it's even the same in the UK and the rest of the world..
The industry is great at standardizing. It creates new standards almost daily 😊
Mountain Bike Philosophy and History, loved the odd topic and the elaboration, keep it up
Great video, Doddy! Proof you are about the best bike /journalist/ on UA-cam. Bravo
Excellent and informative presentation, Doddy! You really brought up some interesting stuff here. Love your tech explainations and agree with the other commentator that a series dealing with the history of bikes would be really compelling. You and your fellow presenters make GMBN not only informative, but entertaining.....
The reason to have a left hand drive on a BMX bike is because if the rider grinds on the right side pegs the sprocket and chain won't get damaged as easily.
In the later 90s I used a left hand drive system because the front chainring was 44t and was always in the way. Doing a double peg grind on a rail often times was a one peg and sprocket grind, so we put guards on the sprockets. BMX bikes were 40 or so pounds back then...lol
Now we have 9t hub drivers so we run 25 or 28 tooth front chainrings. This means they are not nearly as much in the way as they used to be. So I just run the normal right side drive on my BMX bike now.
I had always felt somewhat silly mounting my bike from the elevated brickwork bordering my driveway. Little did I know I'm just rolling old-school.
Motorbikes from Britain usually have a left hand drive train. Like japanese and indian Bike wich are decendents from british bikes. On the continent the german an italian motorbikes have a right hand drive train by chain or cardan. But sometimes they also go to the left.
My BMX is LHD purely because ride right foot forward, LHD saved me so many ripped shoes and bruised heels. Doing tail whips and other tricks where your feet come off you tend to land on crank arms and with a sprocket and chain there can be a right heel basher and the amount i saved on shoes after getting LHD was well worth it.
would love a video on why most people are much more comfortable turning left on bikes, especially when its loose or slippery
No need for a video, it's because most people are right handed and when you're turning left your outer (right) hand is pushing down on the bar so you don't slide out, which means when you're turning right your weaker/non dominant left arm needs to do that same job. Naturally being slightly weaker it makes turning right feel awkward
@lexusstefan927 um nope, nothing to do with it, we all have a natural and goofy way to spin and put your feet. For me I spin or turn right easier, and have my left foot forward. It has nothing to do with left or right handed. Stand facing forward, jump and spin, what way do you spin? What leg to you naturally lead with, and are you left or right handed? There are combinations of all out there riding
If you stand up facing forward, jump and spin, that's your natural direction to turn, it's to do with parts of the brain that control balance and coordination .
@@lexusstefan927 Hmmm. Lefthander here. I also find turning left more comfortable. I thought that was just me and my lefthandedness, but apparently not. Despite being left handed for most things, I bat right handed for cricket and baseball where it's a two handed grip, but left handed for single handed bats and also fencing left handed. To add to the weirdness, archery and shotguns left handed despite two hands being involved and to cap it all, catch a ball pretty much ambidextrously, although I throw a ball right handed.
@@chrisplatten2293 I'm left handed, but find turning right more comfortable (I put my right foot forward when riding). I could try switching my forward foot before left corners to make turning easier, will probably take some getting used to.
Hi Doddy , The right hand thread is a standard , the only places a left hand thread is used is where a right hand thread will come loose .
Motorcycle chains are usually on the left side.
In the northern hemisphere water go down the drain anticlockwise and if you been locked up u walk counter clockwise around the exercise yard in the northern hemisphere I understand its opsite in the southern hemisphere so that rules out the earth's rotation dictating which hand we are
Well done Doddy, another interesting video. This answers and clears up a lot of points we we're discussing recently with my cycling crazy relations. Keep em coming!
Felt built a left hand transmission of the US track team. The point is that there is less moment of inertia in the left hand turns, thus reducing total energy for the same speed and position in the turns.
Not many people would know that.
I suppose Whitworth had a hand in this as he produced the first standard thread design, but they were probably already mainly right handed, he just standardised it.
Spiral staircases in castles were clockwise ascending, such that attackers climbing the steps would have to use their sword in their left hand whilst the defenders could use their right hand.
The part of the castle staircase is a myth, there is no evidence for it.
Not many people would know that.
Cutting right handed threats on simple lathes is also easier since the lead screw needs to run in reverse compared to normal powerfeeding fir cutting left hand threats. For right handed ones, one can just use the normal gears used for powerfeeding.
For a laugh, we used to swap our bmx drivetrain onto the left side, and then ride/pedal it backwards. Those were the days. (riding backwards is hard...)
I wasn't expecting to see Doddy riding a tall bike with a wooden sword today but I'm sure glad I did!
Was expecting some technical details about how bikes are constructed, not a journey through world history. Amazing, love it.
Excellent! @3:44 Doddy horsing around on a bike to demonstrate putting the drive train on the right side of the bike is the right thing to do!
It's got nothing to do with what happens if the bearings seize up. It's all so things don't loosen themselves under ordinary use (due to mechanical precession).
Really enjoying your recent content Doddy, very interesting.
I once read a theory regarding why Brits have the front brake on the right but rest of the world on the left. Something to do with driving on the left and making right turns accross traffic (and vice versa), the theory being that while hand signalling your turn you still had control of the rear brake.
Any chance of deep diving into that?
Keep it up.
Aircraft are boarded on the port (left)side as well. I didn't know the left mounting of horses.
You didn't mention tandem timing chains! 😊
Some street and park BMX riders who are regular footed (right pedal forward when cranks are parallel) prefer a left hand-side transmission for the same reasons of avoidance protection, because they do most of their peg grinds on the right hand side of the bike.
Excellent production on this piece. Well done guys.
I am left-handed, but I do a couple of things right-handed. When I first picked up a guitar, it was right-handed and play as such. I use right-handed scissors. I use a knife or a saw with my left hand, but when I eat with a fork and a knife, I use the knife with my right hand and the fork with the left (as well as the spoon). Thinking of legs, I would kick a ball with my right foot and I'm left foot forward when it comes to bikes.
Amazing - an actual fact-based, well-informed bicycle video that is interesting and entertaining at the same time! Excellent!
My wife lost most of the use of her right hand due to a nerve issue. I setup up her bike for left hand control. I found a double cable lever pull that I can set up well enough. But the only option I found for left handed operation was a grip shift used "improperly". Now that there is only one shifter. It doesn't seem like a lot to ask from big derailleur for a left hand rear for the south paws and people with access issues.
Thanks Doddy for another very interesting GMBN episode! It seems it all worked out!
I think it depends on where you look from that the earth turns, if you are looking down from the north pole, sure it turns counter clockwise, but if you are looking up from the south pole the it is turning clockwise.
How about this for a thought. Being left handed and left dominant I Mount from the right, ugh! I live in the UK where we drive on the left. When I stop in traffic with clip in pedals I release the right pedal meaning that I tilt slightly into the traffic but not by much. However the advantage is that if there was a loss of balance when stopping, it can happen, my right foot is un-clipped and I am less likely to ‘topple’ completely into the traffic. I am still alive to tell this tale.
3:17 is it only me, or do you guys also can see a reference to Sir D. Attenborough? 😀
Anatomically speaking it makes sense to tighten screws clockwise as you have more power in supination movement (M. biceps brachii is involved) compared to pronation. Maybe this also played a role 🤷🏼.
The Archimedes Screw is named after him but is noted in various Middle Eastern cultures from centuries before his time. Archy saw it in Egypt and somehow got the naming rights.
Right hand threads are standard because they are the easiest to machine on a lathe. Moving the cutting bit from right to left (counter clockwise rotation of the stock) places the cutting action right in front of the machinest and he does not have to contort himself and has a good sight line.
Trucks and cars have gone away from it, but if you're old enough to have worked on early 60's VW's or Chryslers you'd recall the left side wheel studs/lugs were reverse threaded.
Still the case with Fuso trucks and Hino (Toyota) trucks. Left side is a left side thread
I typically like all of Doddy's videos. They are all very educational. This one is educational, entertaining and just simply hilarious. Very well done. Best wishes from North Carolina.
learning new stuff every day...thanks guys
One hand is specialized for precise manipulation and articulation. The other hand is specialized for stability and control. If you were to carry a full cup of hot coffee across a room, which hand would you use? Each hand has its own specific job to do. That's why ambidexterity is not common and why da Vinci was always spilling his tea.
He was such a gossip girl!
That was really interesting! Thank-you for the wonderful presentation.
Today my mind was blown and I’m better for it. Enjoyed this one.
Another great video by Doddy nearly as good as the Shimano XT tribute one keep up the good work.
In BMX there are what is called Right side drive and Left side drive, left foot forward riders use right side drive (common drive side) while the right foot forward riders use the left side drive
Very entertaining Doddy, keep up the good work.
4:42 i feel so much better knowing even gmbn tech brakes squeal 😂
Another reason for the chain to be on the right side, may be that the stand (when present) is always on the left side, and this again is because most people mount from the left.
The earth turning counter clockwise is all about perspective.
umm no... do an little experiment yourself and spin a ball on the floor counter clockwise. While it is spinning move around it and you will see that regardless of from what angle you look at it that it will still be spinning counter clockwise.
The earth isn't spinning on a table. Look at the earth from the south pole and it spins clockwise. North is only "up" because we draw most of our maps that way.
You could tell Doddy had a good time on this one. Greay video guys
Great topic selection.
Yeah I run my bmx drive train on the left to keep it out of the way when grinding regular (right side)
Wow, I've always been interested in symmetries, and why people do things right vs. left. Great video and I even learned a few things in the comments here. Here's another one for you ...
On aircraft carriers, the tower is now always on the right / starboard side of the ship / landing runway. This was not true for the first few that were built, until they noticed that the ships with towers on the left were more likely to get a tower impact than those with the tower on the right. More generally, it was realized that the natural response of right-handed people when something goes wrong is to fall to the left. BTW, so this means cars should drive on the left, but anyway...
So putting the tower on the right meant that if something goes wrong, it will be more likely for the plane to crash off towards the left side, vs. into the tower, etc. Both are bad of course, but avoiding the tower is more important than staying dry. And that design decision did not have any real history behind it, so they could have chosen whatever was safest and most effective. They chose randomly in the early days until noticing this.
And I have read a similar design process for bike pedal threads. They originally just made them right handed on both sides, but noticed the left side would undo itself, and eventually solved it by just making the left side left handed. As pointed out in the comments, the video explanation of this is backwards, even though the resulting answer is accurate.
I can see how this feature (right-handed people favor falling towards their left) would tend to protect the drivetrain in bike crashes as well, even if it's not the reason for that design standard.
The best answer to a question no one asked!
Doddy's back with an absolute banger!
Excellent, well researched information
One of my bikes is a Moulton. Now, I've ridden Rohloff Moultons abroad, but wouldn't fancy taking a derailleur equipped Moulton abroad because of the increased risk of damaging the derailleur on a kerb or bank. I did wonder is small wheeled bikes abroad had a left hand drive train but, apparently not.
Tandems have a left side drive to connect rider and stoker.
At the end when Doddy was talking about people being right handed etc I was hoping for a reference to the protein Sonic Hedgehog - named after the game character and a controlling factor in embryo development of the nervous system and all body organs, such as making sure our heart is on the right side etc. Many proteins have what they call 'chirality', which means they are shaped with a right side and left side. That chirality has a lot to do with the way an embryo forms.
My heart is on the left side
I think if I were to make the groove to a helix by hand, it would be easier to do a right-handed groove. Like if I'm holding an item on my left hand, it would be easier to saw / file on top of the piece, and with my hand pointing slightly towards left.
It had never occurred to me that in most of the world that drives on the right it must feel strange for right handed riders to have to throw their left leg over the saddle when mounting their bike beside a busy road. I just practiced getting on my bike on what for me is the 'wrong' side and it didn't go well at all. A dropper seat did make it a tiny bit easier though.
Being a lefty I’ve never found it an issue except in cross racing . Where I mount dirty side and if carrying during racing the drive chain is on my back.
LOVE those forks!~ the white color is giving me butterflies! lol
Great video/topic! Riding both motorcycles and bicycles... always kinda wished that both industries merged into the same 'handing: pref. RH for brake disks and LH for drive. At least I understand a bit further the hurdles of that... :-) Cheers
Mentioning the Lathe, and naturally cutting right hand threads with the spindle and feed direction, Lathes are all left handed. It catches out every Apprentice picking out left handed and right handed tooling, as right hand tools all point left.
‘The earth spins counter clock wise’? Doddy, surely that depends on whether you’re looking at the earth from above the north or the South Pole?
That has just blew my mind 😂😂😂😂
Amazing video, as always 👊🏻
Very clever video. Congrats.
Please make more videos like this.
Nice one! Question: Why do most races in circles go counterclockwise. As far as I know it goes at least back to Ancient Rome.
In such a race the usually stronger right leg is on the outside of the curve and so most people can go faster than when they run clockwise.
@@willbaren i think it´s the opposite, the left leg is normally the strongest. For instance it´s more commonly to use your left leg to push of a high jump or long jump. So i think that if you are leaning to the left (ie. skating, skiing, running) it´s easier to do a left turn. It feels "safer" to do a left turn in my opinion.
Procession is also the reason for the pedal threads' direction - hold a pedal by the axle and turn the crank forward. Without "procession", the pedals will come loose...
Inside the pedals are also left handed threads to be found, i.e. the nut keeping the bearings aligned on the pedal axle, on some pedal systems (again, procession, counter intuitive...).
You mean precession. Procession refers to the movement of a group of people or objects in a formal and organized manner, often for ceremonial or religious purposes.
@@Alistair_Spence Indeed I did, thanks for taking the time, and thus kindly making my English better 🙂
@@BennoSattler seems to me like your english is pretty good. Respect.
@@Alistair_Spence Thanks again, I take it. But also, please realise that any person ready to learn is dependent on people like you, teaching/correcting with a kind attitude. So, right back at you ;)
Probably unrelated to right-handedness of people or animals, there is a fundamental "right-handedness" to all forms of life: the so-called chirality of molecules. For example the DNA double-helix is right-handed, and so are many other biomolecules like glucose or proteins. They all have left-handed mirror images - molecules with the same properties, that however are completely incompatible with all forms of life. At some point during the very formation of life itself, just by random chance, one side was chosen.
Huge VSauce vibes from this video
Went deep in this one.
Fantastic video!
Yo, this video is well put together.
1:40 if the pedal shaft seizes it will actually unscrew from the crank arms, not tighten
Motorcycles have left hand drivetrains because the first motorcycles had both pedals and engines, and had one drivetrain on each side! And when motorcycles eventually ditched pedals in favour of being motor-only, they stuck with the left hand drive.
“Why are drivetrains on the right hand side of the bike?"
[five minutes later]
“Well, the octopus has a favourite tentacle with which to eat his dinner...”
Great video
It's because most people are right handed and right handed people put more power into their pedal stroke with their right leg. It's the reason why bottom brackets always flog out on the right hand side first.
Great video!
i just think of this as there are so much more right handed people than left handed. thus most of the industries prefer to cater to the majority, and left handed people has just to adapt.
one best example are guitars its market is flooded in right hand orientation.
although most right handed orientation are just based on standard like screws, car driving side. i still think, that majority of people are right handed so there is that.
Amazing content.
Heck, current automobiles have wheels set a certain distance apart because that is the same spacing that was used on Roman chariots. You typed the script for this video on a QWERTY keyboard, designed specifically to slow us down, because early typewriters jammed up when early typists typed too fast. We shake hands with our right hands to show that we don't have a sword in our best hand. Lots of very minor things are based on habits from thousands of years ago.
This was a deep one.
I usually mount my bike from behind.
That's a good method, sometimes when I get it wrong the bike mounts me.
Fascinating! Thank you!