Another VX-1 Roadworthy & First Mods

In a VX1 I always thought front brake on the left came as standard, but you say you needed to swap the brakes for this to be the case?

Yes....it had to be swapped.

Just make sure that you inform your insurance company if you make changes to the bike's brakes, as failure to disclose any modifications to your insurance company can invalidate your insurance.

If the brake swap was discovered during an accident investigation, regardless of who was at fault, or whether it was even influenced by the brake swap or not, you could technically end up being prosecuted for riding an uninsured vehicle on a public highway!

Alan

And an unrelated question. What happens when you turn the key counter clockwise without pushing it in? So, on my bike, clockwise is bike on, push clockwise is helmet compartment, push anticlockwise is glove box. There's one more option, but can't figure out what it does. I suppose this question, I should be not lazy and look it up in the manual, but again, it didn't occur to me until yesterday.

Steering lock. You need the bars pointing in the right direction though.

I don't know if that is the same for motorcycles.

Motorcylces is the correct keyword here: traditionally motorcycles need a clutch, and that lever is always on the left, not matter if in the UK, the US, mainland Europe or Japan. So for the front brake there is no other possibility but the right handle. Even combined braking systems in modern ABS bikes tend to be tied to the RH brake lever alone, not the foot brake.

I don't know if that is the same for motorcycles.

Even combined braking systems in modern ABS bikes tend to be tied to the RH brake lever alone, not the foot brake.

are you sure about that? The bikes I've had with combined braking have used the rear brake and one front calliper with the foot brake and the other front calliper with the right lever.

are you sure about that? The bikes I've had with combined braking have used the rear brake and one front calliper with the foot brake and the other front calliper with the right lever.

Interesting question! I would not completely rule out such a setup, and it would make a lot of sense to make the footbrake the main one as it frees up the right hand to completely concentrate on the throttle grip and proper bracing during heavy braking.
But even with that setup the singular front brake is on the right lever.

Interesting question! I would not completely rule out such a setup, and it would make a lot of sense to make the footbrake the main one as it frees up the right hand to completely concentrate on the throttle grip and proper bracing during heavy braking.

That IS the setup, actually. Many people don't like it because you can't trail brake with just the rear brake. In the case of single front brakes, I've seen a setup with a 3 piston front calliper. The front lever works two pistons and the foot brake works one front piston and the rear brake.

But even with that setup the singular front brake is on the right lever.

of course.

However, getting back to the Vectrix, it's pretty much impossible to go from full regen to then grabbing the right lever. I think it's dangerous, and that's why I swapped. Now I have full regen with the right hand and modulate the front brake as needed with the left. To me, it's a no brainer. Riding a motorbike is such a different experience that I've never found it confusing. It would be like riding a bike and wondering where the steering wheel is.

Ah, I finally dug up the VX1 manual and lo and behold: RH brake lever is for the front, LH for the rear brake. That is why you had to reverse the two due to the special regen function of the VX1 throttle grip. I had always assumed that they were reversed out of the factory, possibly due to reading too much on VisForVoltage :-)

I completely agree concering no possibility for single rear braking with combined systems, that can suck big time. In slippery road conditions I will generally be a lot slower than normal but also solely use the rear brake/regen if I can help it, as front brake could immediately wipe me out if it should lock... Then again combined systems must always be combined with ABS, but I wonder if that could stop the front wheel from slipping in borderline road conditions?

Ah, I finally dug up the VX1 manual and lo and behold: RH brake lever is for the front, LH for the rear brake. That is why you had to reverse the two due to the special regen function of the VX1 throttle grip. I had always assumed that they were reversed out of the factory, possibly due to reading too much on VisForVoltage :-)

I thought that was pretty obvious from what was being discussed.

I completely agree concering no possibility for single rear braking with combined systems, that can suck big time. In slippery road conditions I will generally be a lot slower than normal but also solely use the rear brake/regen if I can help it, as front brake could immediately wipe me out if it should lock... Then again combined systems must always be combined with ABS, but I wonder if that could stop the front wheel from slipping in borderline road conditions?

Wet or dry, I've only ever locked a front brake once in 43 years of riding, and I always use the front brake to stop on a motorbike. As I already said, on the Vectrix the front brake (left lever for me) is very rarely used.

There are combined braking systems that don't have ABS...including some scooters (left lever does rear brake and some front brake), so I don't know what you mean there.

The only time I wish the front brake wasn't attached to the rear with combined braking is on dirt and when doing a U-Turn.

I have locked the front wheel three times already, in now 40 years: once on a place that was iced up, so the front wheel slipped sideways, caught solid ground again and sent me high side to the ground. The second time was the necessity for sudden heavy braking in a roundabout which ended in a low sider. And the third time was due to tires with ricidulous traction on whet roads and the slightly too weak front struts used on the erider/efun Thunder, and a blind driver that suddenly sverved into my lane...

I ride all year in all weather, so at times I have had to make do with black ice, as slippery as it gets. I do not even contemplate using the front brake in such conditions as I would land on my nose the second I did that. Similarly I am very careful with front brake usage on snow or dirt or whet leaves.
In all other road conditions of course the front brake does most of the mechanical work, with regen doing doing almost all rear braking.

A combined braking system without ABS-backup is such an outragously dangerous thing that it should never have been allowed - full stop (pun intended).

I have locked the front wheel three times already, in now 40 years: once on a place that was iced up, so the front wheel slipped sideways, caught solid ground again and sent me high side to the ground. The second time was the necessity for sudden heavy braking in a roundabout which ended in a low sider. And the third time was due to tires with ricidulous traction on whet roads and the slightly too weak front struts used on the erider/efun Thunder, and a blind driver that suddenly sverved into my lane...

I ride all year in all weather, so at times I have had to make do with black ice, as slippery as it gets. I do not even contemplate using the front brake in such conditions as I would land on my nose the second I did that. Similarly I am very careful with front brake usage on snow or dirt or whet leaves.
In all other road conditions of course the front brake does most of the mechanical work, with regen doing doing almost all rear braking.

I ride all weather too, but things don't get as cold in Melbourne Australia as it does where you are!

Then again combined systems must always be combined with ABS, but I wonder if that could stop the front wheel from slipping in borderline road conditions?

Two of the bikes I've owned with combined brakes didn't have ABS....I never had a problem, but I never encountered black ice!