Kestrel, sorry but you inspired me. I think they are flat out backwards and people who are 'used' to them have just been brainwashed into thinking its natural. I work at a small Ivy school in the Northeast and coach baseball. Most of my players are 10x smarter than me and are all very logical individuals. Today at practice I asked 5 of them, individually to turn it on. I said "This light turns on by twisting the head. Turn it on. All 5 of them turned it to the right. I then asked my girlfriend, 4 good friends, and my parents. Everyone so far has turned the head to the right with me saying only that same statement. That's a small sample size (12) but a 100% ratio of people turning it to the right. All of them of course, non flashaholics, just smart normal people.
When I told my girlfriend how most turn to the right she replied, "Well that's because this lights made in China. They do things differently over there." I told her that I thought 4Sevens was at least designed by Americans. I think in the end it's laziness on the part of manufacturing. Sure, I can understand that when you are looking at the emitter the head should turn right because its essentially being screwed into the body. But guess what? No one does that. When you are using a keychain light you are using one hand, and you shouldn't be pointing the light at your face.
Additionally, given that 70-90% of the worlds population is right handed, and keychain lights are overwhelmingly twisty in nature, it is doubly confusing. When you hold a light in your right hand, and want to manipulate the head with two fingers, it is very unnatural to instinctively turn the head to the left. If you took your thumb and pointer finger and were screwing in a screw, or a lightbulb, or a bottle cap, or anything else in the world that we screw in, you screw it to the right.
So when people say "Its just muscle memory, go practice," well, no. It's not just muscle memory, it's bad design. There is no coincidence that Apple Computer is currently the most valuable company in the world, and they are also the company who has revolutionized the idea of making things simple, and intuitive. Intuitive being the keyword.
Obviously no one who picks up and HDS is just going to 'figure it out.' But the whole point of twisties is their simplicity. A well designed twisty would be intuitive, and simple, and would twist to the right when you are pointing it downrange and trying to actually illuminate something.
