Staff Stuff

Staff Stuff

This getting-old thing is, well, getting old. The normal effects of age, combined with the aftermath of far too many crashes over more than 50 years of riding and racing, have left me with, among other unwelcome gifts, ankles that don’t quite articulate like they once did.

That can be a problem when I’m riding off-road. Like most riders, I sit far forward on dirtbikes to get as much weight as possible on the front end for crisp turning, and I like the rear-brake pedal adjusted so I don’t have to lift my entire leg off the footpeg to apply the brake. But when standing on the pegs to keep my weight rearward going down steep hills, my ankle won’t rotate forward far enough to easily apply the rear brake if the pedal is adjusted for the sitting position. %&*#@*.

Thankfully, I’ve found a decent remedy for this problem by bolting on a set of Pivot Pegz (www.pivotpegz.neV, $149). These are direct-replacement footpegs that, as their name indicates, pivot forward and backward on shafts built onto their bases. The pivoting action not only eases the task of applying the rear brake from both a sitting and standing position, it keeps boots firmly planted on the entire cleated surface of the pegs as the rider moves back and forth on the bike. The pegs can pivot about 15 degrees forward and backward, and they use a hefty spring to keep them in the “neutral” position until rider movement causes them to rotate.

Installation on my Husqvarna TE510 took just a few minutes, and that should hold true with any bike; you simply unbolt the old, bolt on the new. The pegs are beautifully made, far more so than the Husky originals, and fit perfectly.

I’m really pleased with the results, even though the Pivot Pegz have not entirely resolved my brake-pedal problem. But they have made it possible for me to find a reasonable compromise between a pedal position that is either too high or too low. I now can rock my right foot backward a little more easily to access the pedal when sitting, yet I can rotate it forward far enough to apply rear brake when standing. I still have to strain a bit to modulate the pedal when I’m up on the pegs, but now I can more easily accomplish what was difficult before.

Acclimating to the weirdness of having your footpegs rock back-and-forth beneath your boots takes a little time, depending upon the individual rider and his or her style of riding. I got used to them in the first half-hour of trail riding, which Pivot Pegz says is about average for most enduro/cross-country/playbike riders, though some require as much as a full day. The company also claims that a lot of motocross riders never make the transition and usually remove the pegs after a short while. I like them, however, and have no plans to take them off any time soon.

Pivot Pegz are available to fit just about any modern off-road or dual-purpose bikes, including most Japanese models dating back to the late 1980s or early 1990s. There even are applications for off-road bikes from smaller companies, including Aprilia, Beta, BMW, Gas Gas, Husaberg, TM, Sherco and, of course, Husqvarna.

Paul Dean