Technical question on brakes 2012 R1200GS

[x5ram]

I am a disabled rider having lost my right arm and part of my right foot in an accident a long time ago.
I currently have the front brake lever mounted backwards on the left handlebar and use it as a thumb brake.
For various reasons, I would like to swap the brakes around so the foot brake would operate in place of the lever and the "thumb" brake would operate the rear brake.
Previously I have just changed the cables around to achieve this. As the GS has ABS, is there a way of changing the connections at the ABS control?

 

[Roymondo]

Short answer is "No" unfortunately.

Slightly longer answer is that, while it is true that operating the front brake lever causes both front and rear brakes to be applied, and that the rear brake pedal causes only the rear brake to be applied, it's not simply achieved by the way the ABS module is connected up. The front master cylinder displaces a lot more fluid than the rear one (on account of it having a few more pistons to move). For this reason alone, simply swapping the connections around is unlikely to work.

 

[Schtum]

Have you spoken to the NABD...?

Their page on adaptions, gives some idea of what's possible.... http://www.nabd.org.uk/adaptions/javaindex.htm

 

[Bendy toy]

One option might be a cable system from the rear brake lever to operate the front master cylinder. The master cylinder has a braided hose connection so does not "have" to be on the handlebars. It could be moved to somewhere more convenient. For example fit a small battery and put the master cylinder in the free'd up space. A Ballistic battery (for example) could be mounted elsewhere on the bike to make space. They may well be cheaper options.

This would maintain the standard master cylinder feeding fluid as it always does just physically moved to allow the foot brake cable to operate it.

 

[Nick V]

I'm not sure if what I'm about to offer is a bone, or if there's meat on it. But the fellow who does the exhausts for my bikes, Trajaan Grobler (TG for short) is paraplegic, and still rides a Yamaha R1 at Gauteng-province track days like a demon. He's had to relocate the rear brake and gearshift to the handlebars.

He's got a lot of personal experience in tweaking bikes in this way. You may want to try contacting him via the Tornado Developments Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tornado.developments?fref=ts

On a tangent: a salute to you!
If more people had this kind of courage and determination, the world would be a better place.

 

[x5ram]

Thanks for the advice guys.
It sounds as though I just need a larger master cylinder for the back.
I also have a Harley Davidson Fatboy and both brakes are linked to the foot brake using the original rear master cylinder. In 6 years it has always worked fine.
It seems like BMW like to make things complicated. I do wonder whether the straight swap would give sufficient pressure to operate all the callipers. Perhaps just increasing the bore might work.