Lowered Footpegs RD03/04 and Transalp

[ladder106]

After sitting on and actually riding (thanks RallyPanAm and Jonah Street) a few real rally bikes, I realized that my foot pegs were set much too high.

My handlebar/seat relationship was good but any time I stood up, the bars were too low and I was working too hard going repeatedly from sitting to standing. I saw a German site that was selling lowered pegs but they were very dear and now with the US/Euro relationship in the bin, I thought I could build my own.

Here's how it turned out:

First the right side peg was lowered by welding an extension and reinforcing gusset to the original peg support:



....and the left side was done by adding a plate to the peg/sidestand mount plate and reattaching the peg (the sidestand switch was removed)




The left rear TA bashplate mount was removed from the frame to make room for the linkage....TA modders beware!

The brake lever was cut off and a new lever fabricated that would go over the right peg rather than under. A tube was welded to the original pivot to space the new lever farther out and the end of the pedal was enlarged. A new shifter was fabricated and the old one cut off the attachment point. A short extension was welded to the original lever location. Here are the new parts...apologies for the poor lighting.



Here is the right side complete. The shadows do strange things here but the basic concept is visible:


And here is the left side compete. A link was built using rod ends (right and left hand thread) so that the position of the shift lever can be rather finely adjusted. The lever pivots on a bushing that was machined to fit over the lower plate attachment bolt. The extra holes can be used to vary the leverage/travel between the lever and shifter:


On the whole, this works very well. My sitting position is the same but standing is easier and my elbows are now slightly bent while standing and I'm not leaning forward over the bars any more. Moreover, it's less work standing up and my knees are much more relaxed when sitting.

As a side note: my bike (a AT converted Transalp....or a "Transalp with a cooler T shirt" as my son calls it) has XR forks and a raised rear suspension so it's easy to get away with much lower pegs. I think that even standard suspension bikes could use this since the pegs are now even with the bottom frame tube. I don't think my feet will get brushed off even in deep ruts...but we'll see.

[AIRWOLF]

Nice job Ray.

[davsato]

thats a good neat job ray

i always laugh when my sportsbike riding mates spend a fortune on rearsets raising the footrests for more clearance, they look confused when i tell them i could lower my varadero pegs 2" and still be able to lean over more than them!