Reverse shift pattern myth

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baz said:
gripper said:
I believe that a lot of racers of modern machinery reverse the shift pattern to one up 5 down to enable them to change up when leant over coming out of a bend without trapping their foot under the lever.
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That's interesting never heard that before,I have four bikes on the road two have left gear change 1 down 4 up triumph t160 and BMW r100 the other two have 1 up 3 down bsa road rocket,and my commando,I recently sold a bsa b44 with right hand change 1 down 3 up ,I don't have a preference at all, I just wondered why others do?
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gp shifting
https://www.designcorse.com/blogs/news/gp-shift-pattern
 
I was just thinking today that it would have been so cool if the US government had made the law that shifting had to be on the right instead of the left so that the Japanese had to do the changing instead of the Brits!!
 
To me right shift is smoother, lots of left shift bikes clunk into first gear and you can feel it when shifting through the gears my Norton is so smooth with the right shift and just feel light clicks when changing, even my moden Triumph make a clunk when putting it into first gear and what about Harlies with forward controls they make such a loud clunk when put into gear.

Ashley
 
Doesn't that clunk get louder if the clutch is dragging ? Perhaps you need to see if the pressure plate is running skewed ?
 
The law that mandated all foot shifters to be on the left actually states that both foot and hand brakes must be on the same side. Usually takes me about 10 minutes of riding to acclimate when switching from the SS clone to the ZX-14.

I don't think anyone anywhere has ever engineered a gearbox slicker than the old AMC.

We always called the transmissions with up for low and down for the rest "stompboxes".
 
The weirdest shift pattern I came across was on a friend's early 1950's Velocette LE (the policeman's "Noddy bike") It had a hand-operated shift lever on the RH side of the frame fairing, and it worked like an H-pattern car shift lever, with different lever positions for each gear. Later LE models that the city police used had a conventional motorcycle foot shift. I think it was one-up/two down, as it was only a 3-speed box. I never rode one.

As I remember from my biker days (1958 - 1968) all British bikes were one-up, three down except Triumph. My first "bike" was a Vespa scooter with a left side twist-grip shift for a 3-speed box.
 
ashman said:
To me right shift is smoother, lots of left shift bikes clunk into first gear and you can feel it when shifting through the gears my Norton is so smooth with the right shift and just feel light clicks when changing, even my moden Triumph make a clunk when putting it into first gear and what about Harlies with forward controls they make such a loud clunk when put into gear.

Ashley
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I don't think what side the shift is on has much to do with it. It's the gearbox. My MK3 shits like butter all the time too and it's never been apart deeper than the outer cover, 'transfer-to-the-otherside-spindle and all. My '97 and '01 Hinkley's both clunk however.
 
The only time the shift becomes a problem is when you have not adjusted to it. A friend of mine is an A-grader who is sponsored to race a variety of bikes - he never has a problem. One lap and he is completely with it. I raced a Suzuki two-stroke - took me a little time to adjust - it is just a matter of thinking about what you are doing for a while.
 
"it is just a matter of thinking about what you are doing for a while."
no doubt that would help a bit
 
I passed my bike test in 72 on a hand shift LE Velocette of course taking your right hand off the bars for gear change means no throttle or front brake momentarily. Brilliant little bike but tame, shaft drive water cooled 200cc side valve flat twin. 0-45mph in about 15 minutes (downhill)
 
I'm one of the casualties. My first bike was British and I had ridden nothing but British bikes when my buddy offered me a ride on his Honda 305. He said "The front brake is weak". Well, yes, it was nonexistent and my braking effort only down shifted. Bent the forks on a concrete wall.

I've ridden nothing but LH shifts for decades now. I'm sure I could adapt again but I'd be careful for a few miles.
 
No problem until the first panic stop.....
Left and right is easier to sort than one up or one down.
I put all three of my bike to one up to increase my
life expectancy. Id prefer them to be one down
but it was easier this way. As long as the are the same
is what matters.
 
No problem until the first panic stop.....
Left and right is easier to sort than one up or one down.
I put all three of my bike to one up to increase my
life expectancy. Id prefer them to be one down
but it was easier this way. As long as the are the same
is what matters.
 
One up, rest down suits me better. When you ride a motorcycle it is more natural to push to go forward faster and pull back to slow down.
 
I once scattered 800-dollars worth of kauri timber down Highway 1 somewhere north of Whangerei because my default escape was to the right (from driving in the US). I did fine driving on the left side of the road until the panic moment occurred and then the "thinking about it" thing didn't work too well for me!
 
My brother-in-law drove for 3 months in Europe. At the end of his holiday, he drove into a petrol station, then drove out straight into the oncoming traffic. It is the automatic responses which are the problem. If you are conscious of them, it helps.
 
Danno:

Do you mean that the front brake (handlebar) lever has been moved to the left side by legal mandate? All my old English bikes had a right-side front brake lever (on handlebar) with right-side transmission foot shift. The back brake was foot operated with the pedal on the left side. The lever on the left handlebar was the clutch.

Never having ridden anything except British bikes, I'd never even considered a bike would have back brake pedal and shift lever on the same side. The only rig I had with two pedals on the left was a sidecar rig with an individual pedal for the sidecar brake.
 
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