DCT Left Hand Rear Brake Lever ?

Myke Rocks said:

Everything here tries to make it look difficult.
To start with, you need a suitable handlebar left hand master cylinder. This is the difficult part. It is likely that a clutch master cylinder will do, but the probability is that the bore will be too great for a brake. Therefore, one will need a clutch master cylinder complete and a matching front brake master cylinder. (Ideally off a crashed identical bike)
The clutch master cylinder will have to be sleeved to take the piston from the brake master cylinder, with 2 o rings on outside to seal it. Having pressed in the sleeve and rebuilt the clutch master cylinder as a brake master cylinder, it is then piped to the existing rear brake master cylinder.
The remote reservoir for this is discarded. A new inlet connection is machined or brazed up to take connection from the new handlebar master cylinder.
The rear brake may now be operated either from the handlebars or by the original rear brake pedal. Either will work it. They are in series.

Myke

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Cheers Myke, thats definitely the ideal plan. That part on the previous page, from the Stunt Bike company would eliminate the need to machine or braze a connection into the rear master cylinder as its a bolt on part.

The rear brake lever from the new XADV seems the best solution for a new handlebar master cylinder.

if you need 2 to reduce the price, count me in!

crotchrocket said:

Thanks for the responses guys! I too don't like that handbrake lever, but theres no need for it to be on the handlebar anyway in my opinion. you could mount a ratchet lever anywhere really and just buy an appropriate length cable to suit.

JJH, a bit of outside thinking there was excellent ! Got me searching and I found this billet adaptor to plumb a second brake lever into an existing rear master cylinder! Below is a pic of the AT one and the second picture of a universal adaptor in what looks like a very similar MS !! That would save the whole threading/taping of bungs etc into the MS.

http://thesicshop.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_58_213_331&products_id=1020

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crotchrocket, have you made any progress? The X-ADV master cylinder with the billet adaptor looks like the easiest option.

No i haven't to be honest. It would be a very beneficial mod for me. There is now a chap that makes a kit for it, but it replaces the foot brake lever entirely. The kit is €600

I sent an email to the sicshop. Here's the response:

As long as it has a typical Honda foot brake master cylinder like past Honda motorcycles, you should be able to use the tear drop style tap in fitting to add a hand lever master to the system

On Sun, Jul 1, 2018 at 8:04 AM Gerry Hudson <thesicshop@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Gerry Hudson
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I'm interested in a Honda Africa Twin with the DCT transmission. Do you
have the parts that would be necessary to add a left hand rear brake to this
bike? Not for stunts but to make off-road work easier and safer. Thanks.

Gerry Hudson

I think you were right on target. The X-ADV left hand master cylinder, the tap in fitting and suitable brake line should do the job. I would need to check with a local Honda shop to see if X-ADV parts are available here in the US. I suppose a properly sized aftermarket master cylinder might work as well.

I’ve had my DCT for 2 years now, I had a bit of trouble at first with slow speed u turns and tight right and left, now I have no problem, you need to retrain your brain to have a sensitive throttle control.
Not easy after 30 odd years of covering sloppy throttle control with the clutch, but easier than putting on a rear brake on handle bar

I’m interested in this, as is my brother, but I’d want it to look and work as if it was OEM. As far as i know, the X-Adv left rear brake master cylinder would work, the more difficult part would be replacing the existing AT park brake, for something that looks and works right.

Ideally an aftermarket manufacturer would come out with a kit, which if it was done well, would be pretty popular with dct owners.

An oem looking solution would be x-adv master cylinder and lever and vfr1200x parking brake lever, the only problem I can see with this solution is the price of the parts, which would be about £800, (minus any discount you could negotiate), plus labour if you can’t do it yourself.

Having ridden an x-adv, I can appreciate the the benefits of a handlebar mounted rear brake lever, but you’d have to really want it, to pay that sort of cash. As the vrf1200x parking brake system cost about £500, an alternative would no doubt be much cheaper. Can’t really understand why Honda didn’t fit this system as original design, as there’s no real reason not to (if riders don’t grab the rear brake on a x-adv, thinking it’s the clutch, then there’s no reason why they’d do it on an AT, or vfrx). If your new to dct, then learning to use the handlebar brake is just part of the half hour or so it takes to get used to it.

Ofcourse, there is also the option of just doing away with the foot pedal rear brake and just having the handlebar operated one, you would just need to lengthen the brake light switch wires to reach the handlebars.