Is my brake pedal bent?

[RobF 114]

I bought my 2005 used in 2014. It had suffered a couple driveway tip-overs and had the scratched bodywork to prove it. No big deal.

 

The other day, I was installing a set of BLS lowering blocks and the brake pedal alignment caught my untrained eyeball. I had always thought of the VFR's rear brake pedal placement as somewhat  "discreet" as in "tucked out of the way", but now I was wondering if my bike was something of a sad outlier and rather than having a "discreetly positioned" pedal, maybe the pedal was just "bent".

 

Here is a photo:

 

               

 

Is my brake pedal bent in toward the bike, or is the misalignment between the plane of the footpeg bracket and the tread lines of the pedal normal?

 

 

[34468Randy 57]

I would like to be able to answer with certainty but mine has been bent in towards the bike for so long, I don't remember what the positioning actually was.  But it does look to be bent inwards a bit

[gig 125]

normal, i thought the same thing with mine, and has never been dropped. "on that side anyway"

[Marooncobra 34]

Mine is the same but I have heated it with a torch and bent it out for a more 90 degree angle

[RobF 114]

Thank you, Sirs.

[FJ12Ryder 275]

FWIW my '99 is much straighter than that. It is almost perpendicular to the foot peg.

[VFRpilotDave 1]

On 10/10/2018 at 4:23 AM, Marooncobra said:

Mine is the same but I have heated it with a torch and bent it out for a more 90 degree angle

Hey MaroonCobra, what was your technique for bending out the rear brake?

 

[MaxSwell 863]

I have bent back several aluminum levers. I use a closed-end wrench, insert the lever into the wrench and carefully and slowly bend back toward where it belongs. I've never broken one in the prosess and have never had a bent one break on subsequent tip-overs. I imagine there is a too-far point but I've never gotten there. I did the work while the levers were on the bike as opposed to removing then bending. YMMV. 

[dgordon 121]

Definitely it should be parallel, not on that angle.  I have an '07.  

[Marooncobra 34]

On 12/6/2018 at 5:07 PM, VFRpilotDave said:

Hey MaroonCobra, what was your technique for bending out the rear brake?

 

Sorry, only just seen your post. I removed the brake pedal from the bike and put the end that clamps onto the master cylinder in a vice. I then used a blow torch to heat up the pedal and used a Ring spanner. I just made sure I didn’t apply too much heat!!!

[VFRpilotDave 1]

Thanks for the pedal bending tip! I will try it out in the next few weeks. 

[VFRpilotDave 1]

Thanks also, MaxSwell!