Off weekend - Moto to MTB brakes?

Not an American, but I absolutely can't ride a MTB with the left lever being the front brake.

😱

Yeah, my Dad did that to all my bikes as a kid and grew up thinking that's how it was. It wasn't until I bought my first bike with my paper route money and money I earned doing all my Grandpa's yard work when I was 9 or 10 and realized they didn't come that way lol. He taught me how to take the grips off and flip them and put it back together. I didn't even get a motorcycle until a couple of years later and was glad he did it. I still do it to all my bikes to this day, and have done it to any bikes I get for my nephew and nieces. 

I never have swapped mine, takes about 5 minutes to adjust

Never have switched, and don't even think about it. My brain has 2 different channels, motorcycle and bicycle. I can go back and forth all day and never get even the slightest bit confused. Don't know why but it's not even a slight issue for me.  I have MTB buddies that switch them, I make a note to NEVER ride their bikes 🤪like... ever. It'd be a guaranteed crash 😄 

How did it even get to be that way?  Been riding bicycles for 50 years and dirt bikes for over 30, never knew it was a thing to have the front brake on the left side.

They're different enough in my head that I have never switched them and it's never been an issue

just bought a new E-MTB recently and shop owner knows I'm a dirt bike guy too. Offered to swap the brakes for me. Supposedly USA is only major country in the world that has front brake on right on bicycles? Told him to leave it and it hasn't been an issue. I had a right shift Bultaco in early 70s and no issues with that either, so I guess the brain can adapt easier on some people than others.

While I dont mtb near as much as I moto, I have no problem with the brakes being different, my brain just know when im on a mtb, if I did switch them I think I would start having problems lol, but i will say I gotta run flats on a mtb. Clipless pedals mess me all up for some reason 

No, I have my bike brakes setup per the bike standard (rear brake on the right side; front brake on the left side). I can jump back and forth with no issue. Ride both for long enough and your muscle memory will take over. 

I tried a rear hand brake on my moto and could not get used to it. I still kept using the foot brake. 

As far as I know it's standard in Australia to have the front brake on a pushy on the RHS, which is clearly the correct way.

Just like we drive on the correct side of the road, our water goes down the drain rotating the correct way and we have cyclones which is the correct term for big fucking storm.

We also use the metric system where 10mm = 1cm, 100cm = 1 meter, 1000 meters = 1km and so on and so forth...so when we reach for a spanner (correct term for wrench), we don't need to stand on our heads drinking a glass of water trying to figure out what 1/8th of a 16th of a 1/4 of a 12th of an inch is.

I swap because I have a collarbone plate on my right and that arm will fall asleep sometimes. I'd rather lose feel of my front brake than my rear brake on an MTB. All my bikes are flipped "moto". 

I also run a 1/2" wrap of yellow or red tape around the bar next to the right hand grip, just to remind myself. 

I ride an e-mtb and I find myself trying to tap the rear brake by my right pedal and then remember it’s up by the grip. It didn’t take long to have one finger on the front and rear brake lever at all times.

We run moto style brakes in Australia, right side front. 
And I have crashed not once but twice in the USA on borrowed bikes. When a wheelie gets a little too high and I grabbed the back brake (left) and the front wheel stopped spinning. Quite embarrassing. 
and when I have borrowed bikes while MTB’ing it is so unnatural to grab a bike handful on the right side, when it is the back brake.

SRAM brakes are the best in this situation because they can be ran left or right, shimano is a bit less user friendly. 

However like most have said, I have spoken with a few people that have grown up opposite and they have no issues swapping between moto and mtb. 

While it doesn’t really fuck with me to have the front on the left, I swap every bike I own to “moto” because I’m not a psychopath. 

Over 40yrs. of left-handed rear brake on bicycle here.

If you think that’s hard you should try riding a right foot shifting motorcycle with GP style shifting 

no.  but i left foot brake in sim and right foot brake in a car. 

Your first crash from forgetting will always happen before that. 

I rode Bicycles one way - RH Rear, and MCs, of Course, RH front, from the 60s to around 2003/4.

I'd get on one, know what I was on, and, ride. Never a problem. 

But, my riders on my DH and XC teams, even being in OZ, had MC style. So, them , or many others taking my own bikes for a test ride, would tend to Eat S**t! And well me, trying their bikes, would do the same....... 🥵

That, combined with my destroying my hand mid season 03 , necessitating a change over  and, as well, having to put the shifter on the LH side.  ( That was Weird - having to learn the opposite 'throw' and making a custom paddle extension for the Low Gear shift of  the Rapid Fire Levers) while I pursued an OZ Masters  Title.

To this day, when I first get onto a pushy, I chant 'Left Rear / Right Front', in my tiny little brain, just to make sure I don't grab the wrong lever, at the first corner.

On my Midnight Fat Old Bastard Fitness rides, I have my LH forefinger glued to the rear brake lever, at first.

Mind you, since around 2003, I've had the LHRB and Clutch lever  on my Dirt Bikes, ( and a thumb brake on my Track Day bikes) so I'm completely tuned to LH side rear brakes, but, I still am wary when I first jump on a Bicycle. 

I have thought about it….but like others have said, its a non issue for me….been Mtn. Biking regularly since late 80”s…been riding with clip in pedals for ever also….just get used to what you know..

Never had an issue 

Nope

Nope. I never had an issue with forgetting which side was which, lol. I have several friends who had theirs switched to "moto" style. 

I wish my e-dirt bike had rear foot brake. Same issue as mtb. Smh why the current e-bikes don’t have foot rear brakes. (There’s a reason it’s better to do a dirt bike e-conversion.)

MTB and moto are so different in my brain that I never think about it. 

We recently went downhill MTB riding at Whistler, and the bike rental shop asked if we wanted a regular or moto-style brake setup when renting our bikes, so it's definitely a thing. Whistler was epic by the way. 

Gotta switch them brakes to moto spec... 

Got my wifey a nice e bike a couple years ago... left the brakes stock.... crashed my effn brains out on it when I pounded the "rear" brake... 30 mph to pavement is notttt a good time... lolll

I ride both pretty frequently...and I've never switched the brakes...I go into dirt bike mode or MTB mode mentally and its never an issue...I did get confused once sitting on a surron...it was like my brain couldn't decide if I was on a bicycle or a dirt bike...took a minute to get that straightened out...

Never had an issue with it...which honestly surprises me.  

I never switch them. To me, the rear brake should be on the right side, whether it’s at my feet or my hands. 
I did ride my buddies stark once and he had the rear brake on the left handlebar. I could not get used of that!