Does being righthanded make you a better rider?

[Chrislost]

Try eating with your knife and fork on the opposite hand to normal.

I'm right handed and hold the fork in my left, yet the fork requires more dexterity doesn't it ?

I think it's a learnt skill, rather than being born left or right, so doesn't matter.

i do this too, i sometimes throw balls with my left but they hardly ever make it the whole way.
thats practice thing tho.
if i try and write with my left hand and a pen then i have to hold it up to a mirror to read it!

[Drew]

if i try and write with my left hand and a pen then i have to hold it up to a mirror to read it!

There is a clynical term for that, although the name escapes me.

It's quite close to autysm, and I'm not taking the piss. Some thing to do with the different hemispheres of what's in your squash.

Any quacks on KB?

[Lissa]

There is a clynical term for that, although the name escapes me.

It's quite close to autysm, and I'm not taking the piss. Some thing to do with the different hemispheres of what's in your squash.

Any quacks on KB?

I think you mean Dyslexia, and I dont think it is anything like Autysm? heehee

[Drew]

I think you mean Dyslexia, and I dont think it is anything like Autysm? heehee

Nope, I'm Dyslexic, and it aint that.

[cowpoos]

Yes....maybe riding comes down to the artistic and creative parts of a person...left handed!!

I'd like to know that ratio too.
I feel another poll coming on..but I got no idea how to start one.

so you wank with your left or your right hand?

[Drew]

so you wank with your left or your right hand?

Please refer to my first post in this thread.

[Lissa]

Nope, I'm Dyslexic, and it aint that.

Oh well there goes my medical career then.

[vifferman]

No.
Once you've got your technique down, good, smooth riding is a right-brained activity, and therefore favours the sinister members of the Biker Clan.

[MVnut]

Don't know about a right brained, left handed activity. I don't consciously think about riding when I want to go fast, just ask Frosty. Actually autopilot is the only way to go. By the way, OAB is fooking fast, so I guess right-handers rule.

[Edbear]

By the way, OAB is fooking fast, so I guess right-handers rule.

Yeah, he wouldn't be nearly so fast if he tried usin' his left.... Even I could probably, just about, keep up if he did...

I know a pretty quick lefty on bikes, though the fact that Classic_Z is a bit mental may help him there...

[90s]

Consider that when they first started making cars (in US and Europe) they were (and still are) left hand drive - you change gear with your right hand, being the average persons more dexterious one. But the Brits and their Commonwealth are RH drive and change gear with their left. Like a piano or guitar player you train your hands to do what is required

At work my mouse is on my right, at home it is on my left - reduces wrist strain and works just as well both ways after a bit of training.

Agree with you - esp as a lefthander who plays guitar right handed (so I can use any guitar laying about ... and see Hendrix and most great guitarists are actually left handed ... )

but

early cars did not use control as laid out as now and certainly did not give more control to the 'right' hand on a regular basis. It was fairly far into to car deisgn that a driver left-or-right side with gear change as now became common (or the dominant paradigm)

Final thought on this topic - although as a lefty I am pro lefty the stats do show that lefties life expectancy is lower on avaergae than righties - by quite a margin. One of the conventional explanations is that we suffer more accidents controling things in a right-handed world (ie. work-place accidents, presumably with buzz-saws not computer mice). I find it hard to accept this explanation, but thems the facts m'lud.

[Jeaves]

its the smudging when writing that is the real drag.....i hate it.

[phantom]

I'd hate to think I would ride even worse if I was left handed.

[breakaway]

Makes no difference. I'm right handed, but due to an injury I trained myself to use the mouse with my left hand, and now I can use the mouse better with my left. Also, I do certain tasks (eating for e.g.) with my left hand.

[Sanx]

"Handedness" has more to do with hand-eye co-ordination than anything else. If people are right-handed, then they tend to be physically stronger on that side, but that's mainly because they use that side more than the other.

When riding a bike, flying a plane, driving etc - you're not looking at your hands or feet. You see something, and react, but it's not the same co-ordination that allows you to throw and catch a ball, play pool or write. Riding and driving has more to do with the sort of co-ordination that allows you to do hand-stands. Especially when you take away factors like traffic - i.e. track riding - you're reacting more to the forces on your body than you are to what you see.

That being said, the motor skills can be learned. After a while, they become instinctive and no longer get handled by the conscious part of the brain. At that point, it no longer makes the slightest difference what hand you use to do what - you end up using one hand to do one thing because that's the way you've learned it. Think about tying your shoelaces; there's a fair amount of dexterity involved, but the chances are you haven't consciously thought about it since you were about five years old. You can probably do it with your eyes shut in absolute darkness. What hand is dominant ceases to be of importance. Each hand 'knows' its role and carries it out without thought.