Minor mods from a new BCS 739 owner

[Mathias NY]

Hello! We bought our new BCS 739 this past spring with the tiller and Berta flail mower. It has been a very nice machine so far, but I wanted to share a couple of minor improvements that have made it easier to work with.

The first is a basically just a shim to make the red handle for the safety clutch easier to grab. I found that it had an extra 3/4" of travel beyond what was needed to pull the cable to the clutch. A short section of 1" PVC pipe did the trick. I cut about a 90 degree section out of it, with a hand saw, and was able to snap it over the pipe for the handlebars. It was snug enough to stay in place without any additional help. For those of us with smaller hands, this made the handle a lot easier to grab.



The second improvement was to shorten the threaded rod that hold the battery in place. As you can see from the pictures, the rod was catching on the control levers. For the most part it wasn't a big problem, but it did have a tendency to pop the lever out of its socket when the handlebars were angled. Trimming the extra length off has eliminated the trouble.



That's all I had to share. Thanks for looking.

 

[jrpeterson05]

Thanks Mathias, I am going to try out that PVC shim. I just got a 739 about a month ago, it was used but only had about an hour on it.

I am in the process of putting steering brakes on mine. I just got a notification that the brake levers arrived at my house and the final part I needed from Earthtools will arrive tomorrow. Hopefully everything comes together and it works well. I will post some photos after I'm done.

 

[Mathias NY]

Jr - I'm looking forward to your post when you get the brakes working. I've been considering adding them as well, but weren't sure if they would be convenient enough.

 

[TimberXX]

How much was the brake kit for the 739?

 

[jrpeterson05]

I was able to finish installing the brakes a couple days ago. I have never had brakes before so I don't have anything to compare them too but they seem to work fine. I do have to squeeze the brake lever quite hard to get it to turn. The only lever I found that would fit is quite short, I wish there were longer levers but I couldn't find anything else that would fit the handlebars.

I think I spend around $45 for these brakes, I had to get the brake levers online, I got some cable from a local bike shop and then the screw clamp that connects the cable to the brakes from earthtools. I just wanted to say thanks to NibbanaFarm for the help and photos he posted on the brakes he installed. I don't have any photos right now but I will post some shortly.

 

[jrpeterson05]

Here are pictures for the brakes that I added to my 739.

 

[NibbanaFarm]

Nice idea on the pvc pipe Mathias. I'm going to add that to mine. There's a bit too much play in that cable I guess. It takes a big squeeze to grab that thing.

Looks like you got just about exactly the setup I have for the brakes jrpeterson. Let me know when you locate some longer levers. I think there must be some motorcycle levers that would work but I haven't really had time to pursue them. I agree, that it takes a very strong hand to engage the brake with those short levers.