WHY YOU NEED To Adjust Your Rear Brake Lever

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How the rear brake lever is positioned on your dirt bike is crucial for your overall body position. Check from our todays video why and make sure your lever is set properly.
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Motocross Advice (motocrossadvic...​​​) is the Number 1 online resource about dirt bike gear, dirt bike parts and dirt bike riding development. The founder and author Martin Varrand has had a professional motocross career and for the past 10 years he has been focussed on helping other riders to make better buying decisions and provide professional coaching & training.
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#Motocross #Technique #BodyPosition

[@jeanmorkel4192]

Very good explanation, I noticed it with my bike and will adjust the lever. It certainly does have an effect on my body position. Good work Martin!

[@mixtips637]

I just use engine braking and front brake sooo This is why I'm probably still in d class

[@EarthSurferUSA]

Let me give you 2 tips, of which I wish I would have used back in my racing days. 1) I bet you don't race often. Go every weekend, and race as many classes as you can. I raced only one class, and my buddies started getting good because they were on the track 3 times more than I was. 2) When you get tired, think of ways to ride so you don't use much energy, (like JMB and Lechien did), before you bust your butt at a gym to get more endurance, but not figure out how to use energy. That takes a lot of riding to get good at, and it feels sooo great to ride with the bike so effortlessly, like you and the bike are one piece of flowing poetry. I finally got that feeling when older riding whooped out sand trails in Michigan, (a decade after I stopped racing MX). If I would have felt that way on MX tracks, I would have won a lot more races---and become pro. I am sure of it.

[@CptSlow89]

Also it can affect your braking performance. I did to my vfr750 and get much better and faster rear brake performance.

[@EarthSurferUSA]

I see some pro racers, (Mike Alessi and Ken Roczen for examples I know of.), running their brake pedal very high. So high they can get their toe under if for some leverage the brake is not designed for, (so they need a "reverse stop" so the pedal can't pull the guts out of the hydraulic cylinder.). They made it sound like being able to get your toe under the pedal is the reason, but I think it is just so you can use the brake better when your butt is far back for hard braking, (and they must be off the brake totally by the time they move their body up and sit for the corner). The number one function of the brake is braking, and if they could not use it better set up high when braking, they never would have discovered you can get your toe under it. But they never explained how the toe jam thing works either, so it probably makes as much sense as everybody riding with a freestyle ape hanger bar position, (rotated forward and tall in the clamps). "Look, I can get clearance for freestyle tricks, but my corner speed stinks with out a berm." I am going to try the high pedal position for aggressive trail riding, but I don't need to brake hard from 60mph like these guys do for almost every turn, so I will probably find it is a worthless for me as a high bar set up is for everybody but a freestyle rider.

[@MotocrossAdvice]

PRO riders can have "weird" set up some times for us, "Sunday" riders. That's because they spend 10h/week on the bike and always pushing small things to get them more comfortable on the bike. The other thing as you mentioned, if you are riding with the speed they are, having to change your body positions so fast and braking down with incredible short distances, you do what ever makes more sense to you. This example you took is of course a radical one. It might never work for you (but always worth testing) - my example in the video is the best version for most riders. Thank you for your comment!

[@TheReelFishinator]

I just want a video of how the rear brake foot lever all goes together on older kx250. It’s loose and brakes don’t even engage. It’s my first bike but learning on a big bike with no rear brakes I have to admit is scary 😂 I’ll give it to myself for not selling it and going to a 125 cause she’s scary lol. I’m only 135lbs soaking wet lol

[@EarthSurferUSA]

I don't try to keep up to 450cc 4-strokes MX bikes,(with my 2019 YZ250 2-stroke), on a fast 4-stroke track where you start scrubbing speed from 60mph, and I say my stock brakes are so strong, I hardly get any feedback from the lever/pedal, so it is hard to gauge how much I am using it,----before it loses traction from over braking. I would rather my brakes be about half as strong, so I can then again relate my lever/pedal pressure (information through the senses), to how hard I am braking. I can't go to a smaller diameter front disk very easily. So what do I do to get "feedback braking" back? Mechanically seize a caliper piston? Put an air bubble in the brake line?

[@EarthSurferUSA]

Bar/lever set up. Guess what happened when the racers from the 80's and early 90's started retiring, and consumers started doing something else? Freestyle exploded as the new generations started riding. It amazes/scares me that the entire industry has adopted a freestyle bar set up for riding/racing, with ape hanger bar set up (for freestyle trick clearance), and horizontal levers like a street machine, both making it harder to keep your elbows up, (especially when on the gas, as a high lever does not allow you to re-grip the throttle.), and harder to find the best front end control in the corners. I can rail a berm on my Sportster Harley too, with a set up worse than what the industry is using today. It scares me because there is no real rational reasoning for it, (other than for freestyle), and the entire industry had adopted it like a flock of non-thinking sheep. We used to do what worked the best in MX, and now we just do things because everybody else does it that way today. That is not 'thinking".

[@EarthSurferUSA]

Laugh all you want with my low, 80's (age of reason in the sport), old fashioned bar set up. That will be me on the inside off camber, taking your line out of the berm you had to wait for.

[@Blocanbentlyyahu]

I’m too tall for motocross bikes my lever sits too high for me because my legs are so damn long

[@EarthSurferUSA]

Your body positioning is probably wrong, because MX bikes have never been taller than they are today. You can adjust the pedal height. If you are not using the brake, the balls of your feet should be on the peg, not the arches. That way, a protrusion out of the ground, (bump, jump face, roots, rocks), can not suck your toe under the foot peg when your toe is pointing down, (and that hurts man). You are probably sitting down, with your butt forward, which is what you want when you sit down for a corner only, but if your ar4ches are on the pegs, especially if you are tall, your toes will be pointing down. On the balls of your feet on the pegs, if your foot hits something, it knocks your foot off the peg instead of sucking your toes under it. With proper riding technique and bike set up, I think you will find your body fits the bikes quite well. I am 5'9" and had to lower my 2019 YZ250 2-stroke, because the bike was way too tall, (compared to my normal height 250mx bikes I rode and raced in the 80's and 90's.).

[@lucashurst4191]

nice borat accent

[@MotocrossAdvice]

Thanks a lot for the kind comment, he is my big idol!