What are people views and experiences of thumb brakes? I never use the rear brake. Mainly because the ball of my foot is often on the peg and moving it to use the brake isn't something Ive gotten used to easily. Plus due to the footwear there's less feel than I'd been used to in the past. On scoots you only ever used the rear. For one, the front never worked anyway and if it did it would lock the front easily as all the weight is on rear. So you'd ride with your foot hovering over the rear and footwear was more supple so you had more feel. Then there's the bleeding. It would be a damned sight easier to bleed and keep working with the m/c not sitting next to lava. All my bikes suffer or have suffered from this and the amount of temp mot fails Ive had due to rear brake is lengthy. Are they easy to use and fit? What are the recommendations, pitfalls and things to note?
With your standard road going switch gear, you might struggle to find space for a traditional thumb brake set up. In recent times, I’ve notice some racers, JR being one of them, use what is generically being called a ‘scooter’ brake. https://www.visordown.com/news/product-news/berigner-offer-production-scooter-style-rear-brake-lever, this should give you an idea and would be my preferred route to investigate. Neither options though are cheap. Andy
I should add that Im BSD both sides and your old radial clutch m/c and an rcs on t'other side. So room is becoming forthcoming.
With the emergence of the blipper becoming the norm, having a second lever adjacent to the clutch lever, makes a lot of sense to me. You get better advantage from that lever than the standard thumb brake lever. Andy
I like the idea of a thumb brake and personally would prefer it to a second lever. For track use only though. I was chatting to a guy with an SL at Ducati Day year before last who had one. He was raving about how brilliant it was. Just kissing the lever tightened his lines if ever running wide and epic for wheelie control. I’ve not tried one but interested to hear how you get on if you do fit one.
If you can machine stuff, and want one of the cheap, machine the holder out of alli and add a standard rear brake mc to it and that works. Know a couple who have done that. Cost them about £20!
I know Brad. A simple bracket and away you go. If I had a mill and lathe I would. Fork mount seems the most flexible.
I was getting my suspension rebuilt in Cartagena by pav steska and he was saying don’t waste time lengthening wheelbase (r1 specifically) and was saying a thumb brake was the best way to build more speed, he said they are so good for turn in not just wheelies, said you can just use them to keep the bike turning
