Freeplay is the distance the brake lever travels before the brake is engaged. It's advisable to have a little freeplay in the rear brake lever for a two reasons:

1) If there's little to no freeplay and you apply the rear brake hard then it's possible for the brake cylinder piston to get pushed in too far so that it sticks on the rear master cylinder's set screw. This can cause the rear brake to lock up.

If the rear brake locks up on a K100RS4V, K1 or K1100 and you keep riding then the brake rotor will get extremely hot. Since the brake rotor passes very close to the rubber boot between the swing arm and final drive that rubber boot will catch fire! Yes, actual flaming burning rubber.

2) It allows you to light up the brake light without braking. This is handy if you are engine braking with a vehicle behind you or want a tailgater to back off.

 

How To Adjust:

There's a set screw of sorts that controls when the brake lever engages the brake cylinder piston. I usually adjust the rear brake so that there's about 1/2-3/4" of freeplay.

1) Put an Allen wrench in that screw and undo the locknut.

2) Adjust the screw to get desired amount of freeplay.

3) Check the amount of freeplay and adjust the screw as necessary.

4) Tighten the locknut.

© 2022 Drake Smith - Please do not use or reproduce this elsewhere.  Feel free to link to it though.