brake / clutch levers

[gish]

hi all , does anyone know if there is any levers for the clutch and brake that are closer to the hand grip , for smaller hands , there is a girl rider in our group who has a 53 panhead and has small hands , its a real reach for her to pull them in , the standard panhead ones run away from the grip [ if you understand ] any help would be great thanks

[VPH-D]

There used to be a lever called "easy grip" that had a different bend than stock. I think it was designed for women. My
daughter had one on the clutch lever side of 77 XL, and liked it.
VPH-D

[RUBONE]

The dogleg lever allowing closer grip was available from the aftermarket for many years, however they fit the -65 lever perch and not the early ones. I have never seen an offset lever for a -41 perch. The later perches will work with any of the early cables!
Robbie

[awander]

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong, but:

-if you install a lever that starts out closer to the grip, there will be less lever travel available.

-if, instead, you just loosen up the brake and clutch cables so that the stock lever "flops around" some, then it will be really easy to pull it closer to the grip(to a similar position where a non-stock lever would start out) to the point whee it started to pull on the cable.

[Kuda]

I don't know of anything that will work in the stock housing, but there are a bunch of aftermarket and later model levers with housings that'll work. I can't recall off the top of my head which brand it was, but there was a very popular dogleg lever that came out in the late 60's early 70's (Barnett?). Not as exagerated as the late model HD's are now (curved to fit grip and very doglegged) but they were a LOT better than stock for small hands. You would of course have to get the housing/pivot as well as the lever tho'...

Having said that, I don't think just loosing the adjustment will do it. Even with almost no tension, the lever will always end up fully extended, and possibly out of (convenient) reach of a small hand. And brakes are just the sorta thing you want to be *very* convenient, in my humble opinon...

-Kuda
'49 panchop

[awander]

I see what you are saying, Kuda, but it would have to be a "very" small hand not to be able to reach the lever. I was reading it more that it was hard to pull the lever when it was way out there, and the hand was stretched to it;s max.

You could thread a small coil spring over the exposed part of the cable, to keep the lever in closer to the bars.

[john HD]

how about going to a foot clutch hand shift? the brake lever should be easy after that.

john

[VPH-D]

If you look in the V-Twin book, the levers are called contour levers. Just put on that style and go...
VPH-D

[caschnd1]

I wouldn't recommend loosening the cables. I've seen a couple of things happen: 1) The end of the cables can flop around in the ferrel and get cocked slightly crooked. Then you start pulling on the cable and it puts too much stress on the end and pops it off the cable. 2) If it's really loose, the cable could pop out of the ferrel completely leaving you with no brake/clutch. You'll likely lose the ferrel too because it will fall out of the lever when the cable pops loose.

Go with VPH-D's recommendation and find levers that will do the job while maintaining proper cable tension.

-Craig

[gish]

thanks guys , i think i will look at the contour levers from v-twin , i really appreciate your input ....thanks