 We broke our Raptor's
stock reverse lever switch several months ago where the small
plastic mounting bracket holds it to the frame. We had been making
do, since we found out that the assembly was $56 from Yamaha. It
was never terribly convenient and was worse now that the bracket
was broken. We had a hard time justifying that much money for a
little piece of plastic - then we spotted the new DR. D
handlebar-mounted reverse lever. Former Team Yamaha rider Doug
Dubach at Dubach Racing Development has designed the solution to
our problem. The new reverse lever mounts on your handlebars for
quick access. It replaces the mounting bracket on the front brake
master cylinder and gives you thumb access to reverse.
Installation
First
remove the front fenders from the Raptor. With the fenders removed
you can remove the stock switch from its mounting position and then
let the cable hang freely. Next mount the new reverse lever to the
front master cylinder on the handlebars and route the cable down
and along the left side of the oil cooler.
With the work done on top you can move down below.
We found it easiest to stand the Raptor up on end and remove the
skid plate. With the skid plate removed you have easy access to
disconnect the factory cable assembly and completely remove it.
Attach the new cable and check your free play. In our case we found
the cable too tight, even with it disconnected at the lever. This
would give us no free play. We had to bend the frame attachment
point a little with some vice grips. We could then adjust the new
reverse lever so that we had the recommended 1.8 mm of free
play. Summary The DR. D reverse lever solved the problem of the cheap plastic bracket and at the same time gave us much more convenient access to reverse. Just pull the lever in with your thumb, shift into reverse, and off you go. For $68.95 this is a well engineered product and a good buy. Especially if your stock reverse switch is already broken!
Dubach Racing Development
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