It’s been almost 2 years since I added an ASV Clutch Lever to my 690 and I can honestly say since that day I have loved the feel and the smoothness of that lever and couldn’t wait to do the same for my right hand.
What got me to pull the trigger (pun fully intended) was a small little email from the AMA about my birthday and I just happened to notice that they mentioned ASV as a sponsor and that I would get a discount. Intrigued, I checked into it and 25% off was absolutely true!
When the box came 2 years ago I mentioned how cool it was that the clutch lever was encased in foam like a fine tool.
Not so much this year. Maybe we’re saving the planet and that’s a good thing but this year it was just nice cardboard. I did like the dual QR codes though!
The lever I ordered was the same as I had ordered for the clutch, just in alternating colors. One of the two little bags had the pivot bolt assembly. I was just a little worried to see the other bag was labelled but empty.
I took a deep breath and looked under the fascia of the box innards and there it was!
I scanned the QR code for the install instructions and I guess since I am “old” I then sent the link to my tablet so I didn’t have to try to read them on my phone. If you would like, I just uploaded them to my server so you can just click this: “ASV KTM 690 brake lever install instructions“.
For the record, I had an old Ebay lever that came on the bike. It was ok and never really gave me any problems but it wasn’t nearly as slick as an ASV. (that’s both in feel and precision)
HOW TO INSTALL AN ASV BRAKE LEVER ON A KTM 690
STEP 1: Pull the old lever off the bike.
If you have the stock lever or are using the stock pivot bolt you’ll need a 19mm socket to loosen the nut on the underside.
Once it’s lose it should unscrew pretty easily. Remove it and set it aside. We’re not going to use it again.
STEP 2: Carefully loosen the brake sender bracket. It’s the next thing under the nut and there’s 2 little pins that hold it in the right place that we don’t want to break.
With that off I cleaned up everything and noticed that the little plastic bracket had 2 pins but 1 was already broken – I didn’t do it, I swear!
You can give the pivot bolt a light tap and then pull it out with a pair of needle nose pliers.
I then cleaned everything in the brake housing as best I could.
Here’s both levers, side by side. You can see that the ASV is visibly shorter than these “shorty” levers.
STEP 3: Assemble!
I lubed everything with a healthy amount of white lithium, put in my new plunger rod making sure it was seated in the right place and loaded that up with grease.
With the new lever in place, make sure the plunger rod is in the lever cup and then you can wiggle to align the pivot bolt into place. It was a little bit of a push when I had everything lined up. Once again – precision!
Check to make sure everything is correct from the top side and then next from the underside we’re going to carefully put the brake sender bracket (with it’s 2 pins) in place.
Next, there’s a spacer bushing from ASV that goes snugly onto the bolt and finally the 11mm nylock. Give it a little torque, check to see that the lever moves and doesn’t bind, you don’t need a bunch of torque on this – just snug is fine.
It’s important that from the top to the bottom it’s in that order – bracket, bushing, and then nut.
Triple double check that everything is still ok, and then go out and do some nose wheelies! I do not have that talent but I certainly encourage you to do so if that’s something you can do.
I like my lever feel to be pretty firm – but that’s more about the brake bleed. I adjusted the lever action so that at full pressure it’s still going to clear my other two fingers on the grips. I did the same to my clutch side too. This is looking up from the underside.
From the top side they look pretty cool – but yeah, I’m the only one who’s going to even see them.
UPDATE:
My brake lever feels fabulous and is just so smoooooooooooth! I took the bike to the store and noticed the brake light was on the whole time. Even while I had no pressure on the lever or pedal.
I knew exactly what the issue was.
In the ASV instructions they even mention it.
I know I had a Brake Light Barrel when I took it apart. I saw it. It was nicely sitting in it’s little hole in the perch. Somehow it must have fallen out when I was putting the new lever back in. I spent an hour looking for it on the driveway and garage floor. It’s falling leaf season in the Bay Area and I have nothing but trees around the house. I looked and looked and looked but it was gone!
So, I set out to make one. I looked for some round piece of hard plastic to start with. Coming up empty, I found a wooden dowel. I could put an M5 bolt nicely into the hole in the perch so I used that as my width. For the length it was all a wild guess. I used the pokey end of my calipers to measure the depth of the hole. My first guess was around 9mm long.
I sanded down the wooden dowel to around 5mm, then cut it off at 9mm and put it all back together. It worked but the brake light came on kind of late in the overall throw of the lever – like only with a firm squeeze – and that just didn’t feel right.
ITS BACKWARDS
The switch works kind of opposite on how your brain might think. At rest, the lever presses the switch button IN and that turns OFF the brake light leaving only the tail light circuit ON. When the lever is pulled and then pressure on the switch is LESSENED, the switch then allows the brake light to turn ON.
See, you thought it was the other way too!
So what was happening with my 9mm length was that I had to pull hard on my lever to get to the point where pressure was taken off the switch – and hence to turn on the brake lights. My barrel was too long.
I texted the moto buddies – specifically Charles as if anyone in the group knew – it would be him.
Minutes later… Yes, just a 22 minutes later, Charles replied!
You DO NOT have friends better than my friends. Sorry, not sorry!
He sent two images of the barrel he just pulled out and mic’d. Here’s the width:
And here’s the length:
With that I went back to my wooden dowel and cut a slice at 5mm
I put that new length in and the brake light comes on right at the first pull of the lever. Perfect!
Thanks Charles!
- Oh, and that reminds me. I need to get a new set of digital calipers. Mine broke a few years ago and for as often as I pull out these simple plastic ones I should be using something better!
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, had a big cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and is currently building a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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