Austrian Mountains and English Brake Levers

The hills are alive!
Last of the Autumn rides - in Austria
After making best use of the fabulous weather in Austria it’s time to head home. The day has arrived to get the train back to Munich and the flight back to Heathrow.
Waiting for a train in Bad Hofgastein
Oh well, never mind, back in time to join a Wednesday ride in the Chiltern Hills. The English hills might not be quite so ‘alive’ as the Austrian Mountains but the Chilterns can cause a bit of pain and suffering. The climbs can still be pretty steep although mercifully somewhat shorter.
Marlow to Chinnor and back

We started with a coffee in Bergers before heading off to Chinnor and a nice Lunch at the village centre. On the way we took in Sprigs Holly Lane, now that is a lively hill!
Not so high but can be steep
View from the ridge
For the run home it was a climb up Aston Hill on the A40 and then on past the Turville Windmill and down to Fingest. The beeches were Golden, the sun was often hidden by cloud, but nice to be home. And very nice to be out on the bike.
Stony ground
Which Lever Operates which brake?
Now, I confess that I am easily confused. This is a bit daft, but I found I had to keep looking down when operating the lever to see which brake was moving. Quite by chance I noticed that my bike in Austria has a different brake configuration to my UK bikes. In the UK the right hand operates the front brake and the left hand the rear. As I automatically use the front brake more than the rear its the front brake blocks that wear out most often. On my Austrian bike I found that I was changing the rear blocks most often and that's because the brakes are the other way round. The right lever operates the rear brake. I also do a lot more fast descents over there.
Think I will have to swap the Austrian bike over. After all, a Motor Bike always has a right hand front brake. Not sure why its different in Europe though, maybe its something to do with hand signalling and when turning Left in Austria, across traffic, its considered to be safer to operate the rear brake?

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