How About...
Lowering the rear brake pedal height?
I was in a beginner Motocross class a week ago and the instructor was talking about how people would tell him that they were constantly locking up their rear brakes and didn't know why or what to do about it... He ended up showing how assuming the attack position (leaning forward) or sitting, causes the front of the foot to naturally depress downward oftentimes (for a beginner like me anyway) causing one to inadvertantly put extra pressure on the pedal.
Would lowering the pedal height a 1/4 of an inch or so reduce the natural muscle tension in that position? effectively getting you farther away from locking up the rear? I know you don't want to go overboard on adjusting it, but it just seems odd to me to reduce the performance of a bike part (hacksawing the rear pad) perhaps in prelude to a time where you might want that extra stopping force to prevent fatigue (looooooong downhill?)
I'm the consummate newb, so I may be way off base...
Feanor