Brammo Owners Forum
Brammo Empulse Discussion => Brammo Empulse => Topic started by: flar on October 08, 2013, 03:18:17 PM
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I mentioned this before and someone at Brammo mentioned that they are looking at redesigning it, but I'm a little bothered by the bracket that protects the brake lever lines from your right foot.
Until last night it was just a comfort thing, I felt like my legs were not symmetrically placed on both sides of the bike while I was covering the levers. If I moved my feet back to a "balls of feet on the pedals" position on the highway then it was only barely noticeable, but still not exactly symmetric.
Last night I discovered another issue. I usually wear tight fitting armor pants over my regular clothes, but occasionally I go out on shorter trips in jeans if I'm not going to be riding aggressively or in bad traffic. When I got home I went to put my foot down and found that my pant leg had gotten hooked on that bracket. I nearly dropped it (for the second time that night due to the S85 error), but managed to get my leg unhooked just in time.
In retrospect, I think it was part of a 1-2 sucker punch earlier when the S85 error caused me to be taken off-guard while leaning into a low-speed parking lot turn. I remember wondering why I wasn't getting power (thinking it was my right hand not cooperating, but later realizing it was because the controller had shut down). I also remember wondering why I wasn't getting my foot down and thinking it was because it happened so quickly that I didn't have time to react, but in retrospect, I did try and my foot didn't get down and I'm pretty sure it was the same feeling I had when I stopped at home - my leg was trapped.
I'd *really* love to see this bracket/brake lever mount redesigned. Both for comfort, and to not have an edge that can grab a pant leg. The comfort issue would require designing a new lever action for the brake cylinder, but pant leg issues could be solved by simply having the bracket not be open at the top (i.e. connect over to the frame so that nothing can slide behind it)...
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I ride a lot like you: with full riding gear 90% of the time, but occasionally in jeans if it's a short distance or I'm going out with my girlfriend. I can't say I've ever gotten any clothing stuck on the bracket, though.
That bracket is probably designed so when the rider is opening their knee that their heel can grip into the body of the bike. So the bracket becomes an anchoring point (see banner pic). Not sure if that means it can't be redesigned to reduce that problem, though.
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The problem with getting a pant leg caught wouldn't modify anything that would relate to keeping a heel locked in - it would be more along the lines of making sure that it connected back to the frame so that nothing could slide between it and the frame.