Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Ghetto brake pedal repair

Bent my brake pedal all out of shape in a minor crash last fall. Bending it back into shape after the crash seemed to have created a couple of small hairline cracks in the marshmallow-soft metal. My fear was that I might jam the brakes on quickly and snap it off.

Yes, I could replace the pedal with an OEM part for about €70, or upgrade to the beefy Rally Raid pedal or the one made by CleanSpeed Racing. Those are both nice pieces. But the damage didn't look too serious, and I think a sturdy repair job may do the trick.

For less than the price of a latte, I bought a long piece of aluminum flat bar, and scrounged some machine bolts and nylock nuts. I spent about 15 minutes to cut the flat bar, then bend and shape it to piggy back alongside the original piece. After drilling three holes for some nuts and bolts, the test fit seemed to be quite strong. I slopped a bunch of JB Weld all over it and let it cure for a day. Definitely stronger than the original piece now.




In case you're wondering, that's a Touratech spring loaded folding tip.

Better than new.