So, we're on vacation and we're riding with some friends (who happen to ride Polaris'). We're in the Nevada desert on a fairly smooth dirt road, doing maybe 20-25 mph when I notice I'm unconsciously giving it more 'thumb' to keep my speed up. We have a tail wind but we're outrunning it. My wife is pulling away and I've got the 'thumb' to the 'bar' and I just can't keep up. I let off a bit and it really slows down. Now the wind catches up with me and I can smell - BRAKES!

I stop. The whole crowd stops. First thing I notice is the (worthless) foot brake pedal is rock solid at the top. I can't depress it at all. So the problem is, the back brake is locking up. I check out the linkage from the pedal back toward the brake mechanism. I pull out the owner's manual for some help. The manual talks about a cable that runs from the pedal to the brake. There is no cable. There's a hard link with an adjustment nut on it. Being the mechanical wizard I am [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img], I deduce that if I simply back the adjustment nut off a bit, life will be good again. I break out the 'complete' Arctic Cat tool kit that comes with the machine and look for the appropriate wrench. Well guess what??? There is no wrench in that kit that fits the nut that I have to back off in order to continue our journey. I'm stuck.

But, as luck would have it, the Polaris tool kit did have a wrench that fit MY brake adjustment nut. How embarrassing is that? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img] So we adjusted the brake and off we went. I suffered the appropriate amount of ribbing as a result of this little unplanned break along the trail.

And yes Bear, I now have the appropriate wrench in my pack to handle this in the future. In fact, when I get the chance, I'm going to bring out all my tools and check the sizes of all the nuts and bolts that may go askew on a ride, and make sure I have a wrench for every one of them!!!

Just thought I'd pass this story along in the hopes it may help someone else, before they get into a bind. I'm sure glad it was summer when this happened.

 

Glad it was an easy fix and didn't screw up your vacation. Have you heard of Mr. Murphy? He's the guy that causes this kind of problem, usually when riding with another brand (Oh, the shame of it all!). I also carry a 6" and 8" crescent wrench to cover any nuts or bolts sizes I missed and a small pair of vise grips.

 

Any idea how it tightened up??

 

Yeah Bear, the crescent wrench(s) are the next thing on the list.

tta583, my only guess is that is was somewhat loose to begin with, and the constant banging, bumping, and stuff you subject your machine to just slowly tightened it up. I was really paranoid for the next couple days after this happened. I kept lightly stepping on the brake pedal to see if it was locking up again. And, I right away checked my wife's brake adjustment to make sure her's wasn't next. Hers was fine. My bike must have been a Monday or Friday build. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]