AltRider DualControl system

11th December 2015

Off-road | Brake pedal | BMW R1200 GS

◄PREVIOUS STORY                     NEXT STORY►

Here's a simple device that makes you wonder what the hell motorcycle manufacturers are doing with their development dollars. As the above heading suggests, the thingy on the right is called the AltRider DualControl system. It's designed for the BMW R1200 GS motorcycle and serves to provide more stable footing and braking action when the rider is standing up.

In other words, BMW's brake pedal is fine when you're seated. But when you're plugging along fully extended and vertical, you can't quite get the angle your foot needs. That slows your reaction time. Then you hit a tree, or fall off a cliff. And then you die.

Alternately, you can fit this pedal extension plate and live to a ripe old age. That's the theory, anyway.

Now, we ain't the world's most accomplished off-roaders. In fact, we generally go off-road only when we overshoot a bend. But we would have thought that BMW, with about fifty thousand years of Paris-Dakar riding under its rubber (not to mention having served the German army in numerous European and African battlefields, would have figured out the optimum pedal angle and developed an adjustable solution of its own (given that every rider isn't necessarily the optimum height, build and weight). That would make the AltRider gadget superfluous.

But what the hell do we know? AltRider is possibly on to something. So maybe you off-roading experts ought to take a closer look. There are three main components to this thingy. The (pedal) enlarger, the (pedal) riser and the brake snake (which, it seems, prevents passing branches and stuff from interfering with the brake action). The components are manufactured from stainless steel. The price is around € 67, plus change. And AltRider's website could use a little refining.

www.altrider.eu

◄PREVIOUS STORY                     NEXT STORY►