Another brake pedal mod (freebie)

[jendesigner]

Originally Posted by danimal2

Really? You can fit your whole foot comfortably on the floorboard? I'm not cracking wise here. It's a legitimate question. What size shoe/boot do you wear?

Most of us can't. That's why they're able to sell us fancy schmancy $180 brake pedals. Or why we buy Drifter pedals. Or try our own shade tree stuff like my mod here. The brake pedal takes up at least 1/4 of the floorboard when in it's stock position unless you have really tiny feet. It's lessened if you spline it up, but then it's difficult to get to.



I rode it again tonight and without making any changes it was more comfortable. Maybe just because I'm getting used to it. I think with the two bends in it, it'll work pretty good. It's not going to take much.

Dan I've been following this thread close, I plan on buying the Drifter pedal soon, not only do I not get to use the whole floorboard I don't like how far back the pedal is. I'm used to where my pedal is on my Vol with my forward contols, I'm not tall but I fell cramped on the Nomad right now, changing a few things for me to help that. Question: I'm getting the black drifter pedal, will the stock pad from the Nomad fit this pedal. Here is the link (btw, I like the black plus it's cheaper :-) http://www.scootworks.com/shop.cgi/p...02005273.16658

[danimal2]

That's great. Hope you'll let us know how you like it and maybe take some photos? The couple of photos on Gadget's page that I put in the thread don't show the relationship between the floorboard and pedal (photos are without floorboard installed).

I can't say with any degree of certainty if the stock pedal pad will fit the Scootworks drifter pedal. In the photos it looks as though it will, but it's just a guess. The screw hole looks to be in the correct location.



I know what you mean about feeling crowded. It's the first thing I noticed when I bought mine. Couldn't figure out why they had floorboards that you couldn't fit your foot on. Might as well have pegs.

I put the bend in mine this morning. It was surprisingly malleable. It bent really easy. Just put an inch into it. I need to get off to work. I'll have to try it out later. Oh yeah, the chrome didn't crack. I put it in the vise between a couple pieces of aluminum and it bent no problem and left no marks on the chrome.

Update:

Rode it again tonight after making the small bends in it and it's a keeper. I really like it. Just that minor adjustment combined with my getting used to taking a different stab at the pedal seems to have done the trick. I'm gonna run with it.

Again....not exactly the fancy store bought one, but perfectly adequate and still FREE!

Before putting the bends to it.



After. Still have about the same amount of floorboard and it's more aligned with your foot/floorboard.

[skiman]

Scootworks is out of business as far as I know, went by the store it is all cleared out.

[tonik]

Originally Posted by danimal2

Here's what I ended up doing.....

First I admire your resourcefulness and creativity. I can do this stuff pretty well but I don't have the vision to see it. I rely upon people like you. And second, thank you for the time and effort posting this. It got my feeble creative juices going.

I am on an 06 1600. What I did was loosen up the rear brake fluid reservoir and move/bend it a bit to get it up a little and a little closer to the engine. Then I dropped the brake pedal arm a notch lower and bent it so it is much closer to the engine...it ended up under the reservoir. Not the pad, that is beside the reservoir but the whole arm is under the reservoir. Overall I ended up moving it about an inch and a half closer to the engine and that got me to where I wanted to be. I can flat foot the floorboard with my toe pointed out just a little and I can go straight up and then over to the pedal very easily.

But more importantly I can get my heal on the floorboard and my toe on my highway pegs without hitting the side of thebrake pedal...and that is my preferred highway/long distance place for my foot. I am insanely happy right now.

Again, thank you very much.

[dale55]

Originally Posted by danimal2

I have been looking at the beautiful scoot works brake pedal or possibly buying a Drifter pedal and started brain storming today while driving around at work. Thought I could come up with something that may not be as pretty, but not altogether ugly and still as functional as the other possibilities. I have a hard time justifying $180 for a brake pedal.

I had used gadget's trick to spline the pedal up a notch, but it put it right over my foot and it took two very deliberate motions to get on the pedal. This had me concerned and I needed something else before I got myself hurt. Not to take away from that mod. It's free and better than the stock setup.

The problem it seemed was more an issue of how wide the pedal was whether it be in the stock position or a notch higher. I thought about just cutting it down and doing away with the rubber pad, but figured that would look terrible.

Here's what I ended up doing.

This is a view from the pilot's seat. You can see almost the entire floorboard is free and clear now.



I cut the pedal in half. Moved the cut off piece to the top and welded it back on. The screw hole that keeps the pad on still ends up in the proper location to put the pad back on and install the screw. I suck at welding and just have a $100 Chinese flux core welder, but you can't even see the weld when it's done. Whether it looks good or not, it's hidden unless you literally crawl under the bike to look for it. It's also not a structural or critical weld. That factory weld stays where it is so even if your weld breaks it won't affect your ability to stop.

Here's a quick diagram of the thing. This honestly took me 30 minutes to do, including the welding. The hardest part was getting that friggin spring back on the brake pedal. probably 10 minutes just for that.



Couple more angles. I splined it back to it's stock location and it ended up being just right. I think this is going to work out pretty good. It feels real good when you go for the brake. It's right there. Much quicker to get to and I got my floorboard back. Other than the lines in the rubber pad running the wrong way it doesn't look half bad.

Oh yeah..............did I mention it's FREE!

Great job! I been thinking about doing something with the brake pedal myself, and i like free!

Thanks for the tip.

[danimal2]

Originally Posted by tonik

First I admire your resourcefulness and creativity. I can do this stuff pretty well but I don't have the vision to see it. I rely upon people like you. And second, thank you for the time and effort posting this. It got my feeble creative juices going.

I am on an 06 1600. What I did was loosen up the rear brake fluid reservoir and move/bend it a bit to get it up a little and a little closer to the engine. Then I dropped the brake pedal arm a notch lower and bent it so it is much closer to the engine...it ended up under the reservoir. Not the pad, that is beside the reservoir but the whole arm is under the reservoir. Overall I ended up moving it about an inch and a half closer to the engine and that got me to where I wanted to be. I can flat foot the floorboard with my toe pointed out just a little and I can go straight up and then over to the pedal very easily.

But more importantly I can get my heal on the floorboard and my toe on my highway pegs without hitting the side of thebrake pedal...and that is my preferred highway/long distance place for my foot. I am insanely happy right now.

Again, thank you very much.

Thanks to you.

It sounds like you found a better easier way to do what I was trying to accomplish. Thanks for posting it, and wish like heck I had noticed there was an easier way to do it "sans welding". Especially nice for the guys that want to change things up, but don't have access to a welder.

Anyway............sounds like we were both able to do what we were looking to do and our final foot position on the floorboard sounds almost identical.

You should put up a photo or two if it's not too much trouble.

I for one would love to see what/how you did it, or at least the final result.