I had decided I was going to attempt to lower my brake lever, so that when my feet are flat on the pegs, I'm NOT applying the rear brakes. I went ahead and ordered another lever from eBay. I bought it for $15 (shipped), so I figure I have nothing to lose it I mess it up.

So, my brake lever arrived a couple days ago. I had this Friday off, and I decided to work on the brake lever mod (instead of taking the sleds out for one last ride).

I took pictures along the way, so if anyone else wants to copy my mod, it should be real easy to follow what I did.

Here are few pictures of my prep work. First one is just the new pedal. Then there are a few of the cardboard template, so I could get an idea of how much metal needed to be removed to give the correct amount of drop.

 

So here I laid the template over the pedal, to see how much of a difference it was going to make. Then I marked the cut location, and used an angle grinder to remove the metal. I closed the "V" cuts, then did a test fit on the bike.

 

Okay... next, I notched the cuts to help with weld penetration. One more final fit, where I tweaked the angle of the lever pedal to make sure it was just right. I hit both sides with the welder (Please don't make fun of my welds. I'm not a professional welder... I don't even play one on TV).

I found this wonderful paint at Lowes that matches (almost) perfectly! I was amazed at how close it is to the Kawi color and texture. Simply amazing!

 

And finishing up... Here's the old and new (modded) together. Mod on top... old lever on the bottom.

Then there are the before and after shots. I tried very hard to match the angle of both pictures to show the difference. In the pictures it doesn't look like a lot. In reality, it dropped the lever about 1/2 inch, which worked perfect for what I wanted.

I did some riding to test it out, made a couple adjustments at the rear cylinder clevis, and it's just perfect now. Well worth the couple hours I spent fiddling with it.

 

Congratulations!
You also gave me some ideas.

 

Well done! Very nice work. Welds look 3x better than anything I do with my harbor freight special welder Thanks for posting. I adjusted mine way down with the clevis, but this is a good way to get even more drop if needed.
Dan

 

thats rad you did this. a lot of riding to me is being one with the bike, and little things like this make a world of difference. hope it helps, let us know how it works out.

 

My clevis adjusts far enough to prevent this...

Does yours not adjust that far?

 

+1, for free,too.

 

My clevis didn't do it for me! Obviously, I went that route first. I had it cranked as far as it would go, and it wasn't near far enough... hence the mod.

I rode some off-road today, and it was *wonderful* to only be applying the rear brake when I wanted to, instead of every time I stood up.