Linked Brakes

[Mike W]

Hey all, we are about to purchase our freewheeler! Absolutely love this forum and all the help it has been in making our decision! I am a right leg amp so am unable to use the foot brake. Being as the freewheelers come with the linked brakes, does any one know if its possible to make a modification to the proportioning system so that when you pull on the front brake you get more braking power to the rear tires? This would be a far less evasive way to make this work for me than having to modify things with aftermarket options.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[FuzzyWuzHe]

I would think it's possible .. I think the way it's set up stock is that when you hit the rear brake you get some front too. Little replumbing might make it work as you would like.

- - - Updated - - -

And, Welcome to the Gang.

[screwball]

I'm thinking from memory, my manuals are at home in California, and I'm not. The foot break operates 2 of the 6 cylinders in the front break, and all 4 in the rear break. The lever on the bars operate the remaining 4 cylinders on the front and none on the rear. I'm thinking of reservoir capacity of the front break, it would now have to operate 6 cylinders instead of just 4. Otherwise it would just be a plumbing job.

Good Luck! We had Polaris Quads for a while. The break lever operated all breaks like you want. Really liked that, may have to look into your idea conversion. Old age sometimes makes it hard to lift my right ankle up to the break pedal.

[Keystone]

Welcome to TT!

Screwball covered it. You would want to have it modified to suit your needs for both brakes to function properly.

[Jack Klarich]

I know this is an old thread
If u could find an adjustable metering valve to work like street rodders used I think that could work

[rodekyll]

I'd think it possible to get all the brakes working proportionately from the front lever, but it won't be an O'Rileys-level fix. You might have to redesign the system to be able to keep the m/c-to-calipers ratio in a manageable place and still have effective brakes in a reasonable 'linked' proportion. It's a safety thing. You might want to farm it out to an outfit that specializes in adaptive technologies and mods.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[rodekyll]

I've been thinking on this since I also have mobility problems. I solved mine by building a trike that has no foot controls. I tossed the transmission so I don't need to shift or use the clutch. That allowed me to put the rear brake pump on the left handlebar and clear my floorboards completely. You can't do that, BUT.....

How about chasing this in the other direction? If the goal is to not use your right foot, maybe ditch the left side shifter for an electric or air-fired unit (like a Pingel -- I've used the electric one with good results) that you can control with a handlebar switch. You'd still need the clutch to roll off and stop with, but once rolling the shifter interrupts the coil power for a moment, unloading the transmission for the 'power shift' effect of the Pingel. So you don't have to fuss with trying to operate throttle, shifter, and clutch with only two hands.

Then move the rear brake stuff to the left foot. The advantage is that you don't redesign the brakes - just reposition the control - and the pingel is a bolt-on, available with a wire harness kit that does the mod for the coil cutout as well as shifter buttons for a lot of the bigger road machines.

Just a thought.

[Mike W]

Brought it in to a local custom bike shop last fall. They disconnected the brake line from the pedal, added a double banjo at the front brake reservoir and ran a second line to the rear brakes. Now the front break lever runs both the front and back. Was a bit concerned that the reservoir would be to small to run both, but it's been working great so far!