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Comment by userbinator | Hacker News Reader

bicycles facing left: 75 %

bicycles facing right: 25 %

That's unexpected. For some reason I'd think more would be facing right than left, and if I were to draw one it would probably be facing right too. I don't know why but it seems to feel more "natural". I just Googled images for "bicycle" and 32 out of the first 40 were facing right.

I noticed all the renders were facing right as well, even if the original drawing wasn't.

I wonder if the dominance of right-hand-traffic countries is related.

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I would draw it facing left and I think that's because of the way I learned to mount a bike: the bike-stand is on the left side so you need to have your last foot on the ground on the left side in order to pull it up.

Nice explanation! I'd also paint it that way and thought this was because bikes on advertisement materials are usually shown that way around.

This. It's the way you approach a bike to mount so that's the way it looks inviting in advertisements too. I'm not sure if "stand fixed to left side" is a rhs traffic thing or something global?

Same with horses, boats and airplanes... and yes, I think in all these cases it's the global convention.

Including England, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, etc?

Yes, this is my guess too. Are all bikes mounted from the left even in areas with left traffic? Haven't thought about that before.

I believe this goes all the way back to horse-mounting - mounting from the left is easier, as your primary hand weapon (sword, mace, club, whatever) is likely to hang at your left side, where you can easily reach it with your right hand; this makes mounting from the right considerably harder, as the weapon gets betwween . (It would probably reverse for left-handed fighters; this had very little impact on today's bike mounting and kickstands, however)

>the bike-stand is on the left side

Obviously that's just if the bike is positioned facing left.

Nothing inherent about it, you could just as well mount a bike facing right, and it would be on the other side.

A bike stand is only attached to one side of the bike. So it's always on either the left or the right, no matter which direction the bike is facing.

That's compared to the bike -- I meant compared to the road.

Compared to the bike yes, the stand is on a specific side (e.g. left) -- but how/why would that affect whether you draw the bike facing to the right or left?

Most photos of bicycles are facing right to showcase the drive side - all the drive-train components like chainrings, derailleurs etc.

This is definitely the case in photos. When I draw a bike it's always pointing to the right, because that's how most pictures I see/take are.

Most traffic signs and signs on bicycle roads have bicycles facing left, maybe that's why?

https://rowerowapila.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/wp_000139.j...

I'm going with this one as well.

Most other reasons I could think of would suggest opposite results than the distribution from these drawings.

Next suspicion would go to some "hidden" variable common to the individuals that drew the sketches.

Movie convention... the cowboy rides the horse to the right when leaving, and to the left when arriving.

It’s a video game convention as well.

Tangentially related:

Which Way Did He Go? Lateral Character Movement in Film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys8-a0yD-MM

Maybe because we read left to right. Pointed to the right looks like progress. "Good" charts go "up and to the right."

My guess would be that people draw left to right, and also start drawing the part that is simplest. If you look at some of the drawings it seems that people get confused about how the gears and the rear wheel connect to the rest of the bike, while the front wheel and handlebars are more often correct.

I think I'd draw it facing left because I'd draw the front wheel first, and since I'm used to writing left-right, the back wheel would go to the right of it.

Hmm, facing left would look more natural to me, but indeed, Google images shows most bicycles facing right.

OTOH, most cars seem to face left.

My guess is, it's to do with left-to-right reading/writing.

but that would suggest opposite results no? write from left to right > bike going from left to right (facing right)

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