So about 8 weeks ago, I had terrible accident with my snow blower and badly damaged my left hand. The plastic surgeon did a wonderful job with what he had to work with, which was atleast 15 fractures and partilly amputated finger, skin still attached. The hope is that, minus 1/3+ of my middle finger, my hand/fingers will be workable in 4-12 months. I will not wait 12 months to ride, but am wondering if soley using my foot brake will wear out certain parts faster than using the hand and foot brake about equal?
TIA

A few hand pics if interested:
X-ray after surgery

Hand 4 days after surgery

Hand 4 weeks out


The pins were about 2" long, and were taken out at 6 weeks.
The screw will stay in forever.
I start PT this week..

 

Sorry about your accident, I hope for the best for you! But back to you question using the foot brake will shorten life of rear pads. Maybe someone smarter than me can figure out a way to redirect braking action fully to foot brake. We have altered braking from left to right for one of our customers with a partially paralized left am,but it was on a 500 6x6 which had twin hand brake master cylinders. Brake Cables can be made to help with this problem and possible relocation to right side of master cylinder. Best wishes for a speedy recovery! opt

 

All the best in your recovery , as for your question if your rear brake works as good as mine no way would I solely count on it . You will need the breaking force of the front also ( my rear using foot alone is useless ) . Maybe look into installing a right hand break lever but I would not rely on your foot brake alone .

 

agree with getting a right hand reservoir. the foot pedal does not allow the fine amounts of pressure required during some obstacles.
on all the polaris's ive ridden they are either all or nothing on the foot brake.

 

Maybe the opposite side like OPT suggests! When I had my mishap with the wife's quad over Thanksgiving and the throttle got stuck, I had the front and rear brake down all the way an there was NO STOPPING power.

I only bring that up b/c riding with all your faculities is dangerous enough. I hit the kill switch after the BAMM into the deck. Happened so fast! You may NOT have wanted to hear this, sorry! I just want to add some other thoughts to your thread. I really hope you have a fast recovery and be safe whichever you may do!

Regards,

R'

 

Ouch, that looks like it may have hurt a little. The good thing is that you can save time trimming finger nails now.
Hope you can get back to riding, but when you crush the bones compared to just cutting them off adds considerable
healing time.
Turn the snowblower off b4 sticking hand in to clean it out.

 

Man, Speeddrive, how to rub it in... JK I know a sense of humor has always helped me through some hard times. I hope you recover quickly, Tdawg. I also would not trust the rear brake pedal alone. Maybe your local dealer could give you some input on what to do.

 

Riding normal with ebs I do not have to use the brakes much. As for the rear brakes I personally do not put much faith in them. Using rear it will of course wear faster than using all 4. If you opt for that just keep a good eye on them and get them checked well before hand as they have a history of not working. One would think with a bit of tinkering you would be able to move the brake to the right handlebar. May have to go with one of a motorcycle or sport type machine.

 

I know, I know, it probably sounds worse than I was meaning it to.
I shouldn't knock a guy when he is down. I have done my share of (what was I thinking) stuff.

As far as the rear brake goes, I would use it and not worry about it. You may end up replacing rear brake pads
but that is a small price to pay after what you have been through. Slow down and use the engine braking.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

But let me be the first to welcome you to the "shorter finger club". Lost the tip of the ring finger down to that first joint. (just below the fingernail) In time, you will get used to it.

Had to laugh about mine. About 3 months after the surgery, was closing a door and the wind caught it. Slammed the door shut, hard. Never had a chance to move my hand off the door jamb. Looked at it, and if I still had that fingertip, it would have been slammed in the door.