Top 3 Clutch and Brake Lever Tips for Dirt Bikes

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Here are 3 tips for your brake and clutch levers. With doing these tips, I haven’t broken a lever off all the way… maybe ever. Yes, I dump my bikes over all the time, and the worst that happens is they levers will brake off at the designated stress point the most levers (stock one’s anyway) have.

1 - Move the levers in. This means they won’t be the first thing to contact the ground, your bars will do that. Doing this will keep your levers lasting much longer. If you are running full wrap around hand guards, then this isn’t that important. If you are like me though, and don’t feel comfortable with the full wrap grips because of the risk of breaking your arm/wrist by getting it caught in the bar, then you will really benefit from this tip. Some part of the world pretty much require that you use a full wrap around grip, but my area isn’t one of those, so I don’t use them very often.

2 - Get the correct elevation. You are looking for something that feels natural when you are sitting and even more important, feels natural when you are standing up. You don’t want your wrist cocked at some strange angle. Avoid extreme angles here. No too high, not too low. The video shows vernally what I’m talking about.

3 - Don’t tighten them too tight. You want the levers to be able to rotate around the bars up or down when you take a “digger”. It’s amazing how much of a different this makes in how long your levers will last.

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[Kuhliifa]

I think the tips you have five are great. Exactly what I do besides how tight you get your front break leaver. I have been racing motocross my whole life and you cannot finish a race with a broken throttle tube and I have broken throttle mounts and tubes from my front break leaver hitting my throttle, so I make sure those bolts are tight

[Travis_]

I used to put plumbers tape under the mounts on my motocross bike to allow the levers to turn when I hit the deck.

[supergarball]

That’s pretty much how I set them up too. One thing you should mention to do before is to make sure your handle bar is setup correctly (rotation front to back) because you’d have to re-do your levers if not. On another note, it’s been exactly a year I’ve been watching your channel. Keep up the good work, love it.

[rzyam]

I love the comments about the wrap around hand guards. Here in Colorado, most people I know run the full wraps. I wouldn't ride without them. I can't count the number of times they've saved my hands and fingers from trees. As for breaking wrists when falling down, perhaps it is possible. For those who ride very fast in open terrain or race on a track, I wouldn't recommend them, as that possibility of going over the bars is much higher, at least in my opinion, than for those of us riding extreme technical trails, or fast through the woods. I'm 60 and have been riding since age 12. Never known anyone who broke a wrist using full wrap hand guards.

[norseman]

Is anyone old enough to remember the DeHandler levers using Roger DeCoster & Bob Hannah’s name. They were 3 finger clutch and 2 finger Brake lever and we used to put Teflon tape under the perches also

[EddiNice]

Wol Kyle, when did you get the Husqvarna TE300i?

[punkin]

I trim a bit of the donut off so it cant interfere with lever pull.

[coreymccaslin]

An old moto trick for keep
Levers In tip top shape is using white Teflon plumbers tape on your bar. Can tighten the clamps pretty snug and the lever will still rotate freely when you have that silly tip over.

[mattinthehat]

I was looking for a clutch adjustment video. Just picked up a used '21 CRF 250F and the clutch is grabbing within 1/16th inch of clutch lever all the way out and the bike is tough to shift. Love the intro on this video!

[andrejskamla]

Nice. 4th tip could be how far from the bar should the clutch/brake lever be... You know what I mean 😀😀 your videos are amazing. Your videos made my bike decision easy. I am 16 and I bought beta rr 300 2015. I added some upgrades and I love that bike.

[bbjuneau]

What are your thoughts about folding levers?

[detroitpyro]

I have small hands how do I move the clutch lever closer to the hand grip. It's way out there and I cannot reach it lol. Also it engages when it's fully in the far away position how do I get it to engage when it's half way let out vs all the way out??

[bruceb]

Merry Christmas to you Kyle and all the Dirt Bike Channel followers.

[Jrob]

You should slide the levers in as far as possible because when your elbows are up and out (as they should be) your fingers naturally point in toward the front fender, thus the riding triangle.

[AussieDazza]

A tip from me - wrap teflon plumbers tape on your bars and clamp over it. The teflon lets your lever mounts spin, preventing broken levers.

[douglassfwilson]

On trials bikes we wrap teflon tape under the lever clamps.

[rodrigomontemayor]

Hi, could you tell what brand is the tool on your left hand.. looks really useful

[ironthumb]

I put Teflon tape around the handlebars so I can tighten down the bolts all the way and they will move if I crash..I tried not tightening the bolts all the way but found that sometimes they would vibrate too lose and fall out

[UlisesGlez]

Merry Christmas Kyle! I did that to my bikes years ago and I'm happy to say it's a lot more comfortable to ride like that.

[tomthebattleaxe]

I currently have a broken pinkie from not running wrap around guards. Never again...