Yet another hand brake thread, hopefully with a new twist

[strykerAKAmack]

Are you saying "at the setting I have the lever set at" that you adjusted the hand lever such that it bottoms out before the ABS can kick in?
and you are doing this because you do not have the reach ( on your hand) to set the lever out further?

Correct .

 

[Terraplane8Bob]

I, too, have missed having a handbrake on my 2011 RS-S after over 50 years of two-wheeling. I've followed the posts about both commercial and home-brew handbrakes and after a lot of thought I assembled the attached rig. I bought a master cylinder from Coleman Racing with an external threaded body for easy adjustment. The mounting plate is a heavy duty aluminum corner brace sourced from a modular furniture manufacturer that I milled out one side of using a milling bit in a drill press. Being aluminum, it was simple to cut the mounting hole for the master cylinder using a standard hole saw, again using a drill press. The actual brake lever / fluid reservoir was sourced on EBay from a Suzuki V-Strom which had dual front discs. The brake line was a common ATV item. I fabricated a "pusher" plate to bolt to the master cylinder rod with two Heim Joints on either side of the centrally mounted master cylinder rod. The two Heim Joints sandwiched the stock foot brake lever and were secured with a 14MM shoulder bolt. The Heim Joints accommodate any slight mis-alignment easily. I chose to through-drill the existing panel where CanAm had placed two bosses apparently with the same thought in mind that I had. Tapping the two blind holes was not a task I wanted to tackle, plus the fact that through-bolting would be more secure. I bolted the completed assembly to the existing panel, bled the master cylinder and took it down the road for a trial. It worked great the first time out ! I noticed a slight flexing of the existing plate and may try to reinforce it in some way, but for the paltry sum of about $150 and a lot of head-scratching, I have a perfectly functioning solution to my problem. It simply uses the existing system without disturbing the plumbing and offers another way to operate the foot brake safely and effectively. I noticed that I instinctively hold the trike at rest with the foot brake, but in many instances I use the handbrake just like I used to do on my two-wheeler. I'm really glad I spent the time to do it !

 

[PistonBlown]

I did the DIY handbrake conversion on my RS2011 (same approach as @Terraplane8Bob) and it worked very well. I briefly considered the ISCI system before going down the DIY route . The cost here of the ISCI system was stupidly high (3x US pricing once shipping, taxes etc).

What I like about the approach is that the footbrake remains functional so no issues that your 'interfering with the safety systems' etc. I used the XS650 master cylinder that others had recommended and it had plenty enough grunt make the brakes work just fine.

I removed it from my RS when I sold it a couple of months ago and had planned to fit it to my F3 but haven't got around to working out how yet. the braking system is obviously different on the F3 with the ufit system etc. If I get it sorted soon I'll post some pics.