[tscheezy]

I've had some Louise BAT brakes for a little while now. The BAT system allows you to adjust the lever engagement point independently from the lever reach, similar to the system on the Juicys. It works very well indeed. Folks sometimes ask how to remove their Magura Louise levers, so in addition to showing the guts of the Magura BAT system, you can also use this as an explanation for disassembling any Louise and Louise FR lever. The BAT lever carrier is the same as the old, non-BAT carrier. They are interchangeable as far as I can tell.

Here is what the lever looks like installed. The BAT is the red knob, and the hole to the left of it is where you insert the allen to ajust the lever reach.

NOTE: if you don't have a BAT lever system (pre-07 Louise), skip the next paragraph. Also, it is not necessary to take the steps in the following paragraph even if you DO have BAT. It just gets some of the parts out of the way and shows you the bits...

(Optional steps) First off, it helps to gently pull the red BAT knob off the post it on. It is not threaded on there or anything, just held in place by friction. A little rocking while pulling will get it out. Next pry the black rubber gasket off the lever. It is also held in place by friction where it is shoved into the holes in the lever.

Use a 2.5mm allen to back the reach adjust screw ALL the way out (counterclockwise). You will feel some resistance about halfway out. That is normal as the bolt head needs to climb out of a snug well. In this pic you can see the reach adjuster screw ready to come out of the lever and the naked threaded post where the BAT knob was:

On the underside of the lever is a hole (green arrow) that the plastic lever carrier has a tooth that snaps into. This is what holds the carrier in the master cyclinder. Use your 2.5mm allen to gently push against the plastic tooth in the hole and then push the whole lever and carrier towards the centerline of the bike (red arrow):

If you have depressed the tooth enough, and have backed the reach adjuster bolt out far enough, the lever and carrier should slide pretty easily:

Now you can pry the carrier open and remove the lever from it. You need to spread it just enough that the two shafts come clear of the channels they move in:

You can now push the black plastic shaft out of the lever body (shown on the right). The plastic shaft is part of the reach adjustment system and has a "front" and "back". The reach adjuster bolt passes through this shaft and the wider opening needs to face forward upon reassembly to receive the reach adjuster bolt's head. In this pic I spun the black shaft around backwards so you can see the large recess the bolt head nests in.

The silver metal shaft is held in place by leaf-spring tension from the BAT system. It also slides out like the black part, but it takes a bit more force becase the leaf spring makes it want to go cock-eyed once one end pops free.

Here you can see the shaft removed and the leaf spring relaxed:

A 2.5mm allen will back the BAT bolt out of the lever:

Finally an exploded view of all the parts. Assembly is the reverse process.

 

[crisillo]

Sweet pictorial, tscheezy!

 

[blackagness]

Yeah!

Sweet pictorial, tscheezy!

I just finally pulled the trigger on some 06 Louis FR's for a great deal! I guess there not the BAT "or whatever" but it's all good, I've wanted these brakes for a long time. Thanks for the close ups, and the step by step Tcheez. :thumbsup:

 

[FoShizzle]

C'mon tscheezy....what are you doing? You know only the Homers can fully appreciate the work you put into this.

 

[blackagness]

I for one can appreciate you putting your ,mods and instructionals into there appropriated place. :thumbsup:

 

[FoShizzle]

I for one can appreciate you putting your ,mods and instructionals into there appropriated place. :thumbsup:

agreed....the only thing that belongs in the Homer forum are clown crap posts and links to free Krispy Kreme donut coupons

 

[blackagness]

agreed....the only thing that belongs in the Homer forum are clown crap posts and links to free Krispy Kreme donut coupons

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[tscheezy]

I just finally pulled the trigger on some 06 Louis FR's for a great deal! I guess there not the BAT "or whatever" but it's all good, I've wanted these brakes for a long time.

I wonder if Magura will offer a BAT lever kit as an aftermarket upgrade, or if they would be stingy and make you buy a whole new brake set? All you would need is the lever assembly. In fact, you wouldn't need much other than the brake lever itself and a few of the BAT bits since the plastic carrier, shafts, reach adjuster bolts, etc, are all the same.

Then again, individual Magura parts tend to be ridiculously expensive.

 

[EndoRando]

Very nicely done Philip. I just picked up two sets of Louise brakes and was considering swapping out to Dangerboy levers. I was really curious just how involved the process would be, and wala, here appears your thread detailing the disassembly. Nice job, thanks.

Rando

 

[EvilBkr]

Very nicely done Philip. I just picked up two sets of Louise brakes and was considering swapping out to Dangerboy levers. I was really curious just how involved the process would be, and wala, here appears your thread detailing the disassembly. Nice job, thanks.

Rando

I have a set of Dangerboys on my Louise FR's...awesome levers that improve an already great brake. The only problem that I can see is that Dangerboy doesn't accomodate the the BAT adjustment :sad: On the other and you can probably modify the levers to work with the BAT system...Or Dangerboy could release a BAT style lever pre-machined (hint, hint).

 

[blackagness]

I have a set of Dangerboys on my Louise FR's...awesome levers that improve an already great brake. The only problem that I can see is that Dangerboy doesn't accomodate the the BAT adjustment :sad: On the other and you can probably modify the levers to work with the BAT system...Or Dangerboy could release a BAT style lever pre-machined (hint, hint).

I was wondering about that... Also, that will be a shame when they don't offer the parts to convert my 06's to the BAT? It seems it would be so simple.

 

[crisillo]

I was wondering about that... Also, that will be a shame when they don't offer the parts to convert my 06's to the BAT? It seems it would be so simple.

So, BA, you just got the brakes and are already thinking about customizing/upgrading them.. now that's UGI

 

[blackagness]

So, BA, you just got the brakes and are already thinking about customizing/upgrading them.. now that's UGI

I haven't "even" recieved them yet.

 

[crisillo]

I haven't "even" recieved them yet.

Even greater UGI! :lol:

 

[Homebrew]

Cool! Nice job on the pictorial. However, I wonder how many tree impacts that BAT knob would take.

 

[tscheezy]

You could probably make your own BAT conversion for legacy Louises. You would need to drill and thread a hole in the face of the lever, and make some sort leaf spring, but otherwise the mechanism is extremely simple. The BAT levers are made a bit thicker at the point where the threaded hole is, to offer more material for the threads to be cut into. I have about a half dozen sets of Louises now, and never really felt any burning need for engagement point adjustment with them though, so it would be a totally ghetto, boredom induced project...

 

[tscheezy]

I wonder how many tree impacts that BAT knob would take.

The point where the BAT screw passes through the lever is reinforced, and the screw itself is a stubby steel thing. The little BAT knob is plastic and could get mushed up, but Magura would in all likelihood send you a pile of replacements. Overall, I think you would have to get pretty unlucky to damage the piece to the point where it was "broken". Then again I am not the sort of person that ghost rides my bike off dirt jumps, and ymmv.

 

[Warp]

Nice work, Tscheezy!!

Just in time now my BAT's showed up!

Agreed, the red knob LOOKS fragile but it isn't. Not at all and worst case scenario, the lever would break before the little knob.

I'm far more concerned about the carbon levers, than the BAT knob.

TS... I assume the master cylinder is held in place by a snap ring or something as you don't have to physically lock it like on my Julies (where you need to put an allen wrench into a hole provided so the master cylinder doesn't get shot out of the brake lever).

COOOL!!!! :thumbsup:

 

[tscheezy]

TS... I assume the master cylinder is held in place by a snap ring or something as you don't have to physically lock it like on my Julies (where you need to put an allen wrench into a hole provided so the master cylinder doesn't get shot out of the brake lever).

Um... I have no idea. Nothing has ever shot out of my brakes, and I have had the levers off a few times now. I never looked very hard at the master cylinder piston, honestly.

 

[Warp]

Um... I have no idea. Nothing has ever shot out of my brakes, and I have had the levers off a few times now. I never looked very hard at the master cylinder piston, honestly.

Thank, TS... I took a very light look yesterday and the thing should be held in place. It was the julies that was an older, not very friendly design.

Now I also got to know how the BAT works like, it just didn't clicked in from the pics (I'm becoming slow as I grow old). Yesterday I took a good look at them...