Easy Left-Hand Rear Brake For Txt 50 Boy

[d2w]

Hi,

I thought I'd pass on my experience with modifying my son's 2006 Txt 50 Boy for a left-hand rear brake. The Boy comes with an auto-clutch as well as conventional left-hand manual clutch and right-foot rear brake controls. My son was used to the controls of his OSET which had a left-hand rear brake and no foot brake. And I have a Rekluse auto-clutch on my GG EC300 with a left-hand rear brake (and no foot brake) and I absolutely love the feeling and control, so it was inevitable that I'd mod the Boy similarly.

I'm happy to report that the modification is very very easy; simply build a hose which connects the left-hand master cylinder to the rear brake slave, and remove the OEM equip that's no longer used (clutch hose, brake hose, brake master cylinder, brake reservoir, brake pedal). You'll need a M10x1 bolt to block-off the now unused clutch input. I choose to leave the clutch pushrod in place. My parts cost was $90 CDN and it required a Saturday morning.

Both the clutch reservoir/lever and the rear brake use DOT 4 brake fluid so there's no issue of compromising seal integrity. It did take a bit of effort to bleed the system; I used a brake bleeding tool called a Mighty-Vac.

Once the system is bleed and the pads rebedded the left-hand lever provides great control and is more than adequate to lock-up the rear wheel when required. Basically the volumes of the master and slave cylinders seem well matched.

I do plan to eventually get Evan back to using a conventional right-foot rear brake and clutch, but for now the new mod is a more natural progression from his OSET. Note that Evan rides the bike more like an enduro and is not (yet) trying to loft the front wheel over obstacles so he can get by without the clutch override.

So far the Boy and the boy have been great!

Regards.

Dale