Can anyone splain this gear shift lever?

[Guest]

Got the GK home yesterday... long, crazy story, as posted in the GS Stories thread. Anyway, among other things, it has this odd gear shift lever:



I've scoured all sorts of sites and found nothing... what is it called? How do I use it? What is the point? Do I want to keep this?

[chef1366]

You shift with the front of your foot and down shift with your heel.
I'd keep it if it works. Someone did some nice mods on this bike. Running boards, highway pegs and a confort shifter.
Is that some kind of fairing in the pic?
Now that's a Cruiser.

[NICK!]

Thats a Heel Toe shifter that is popular with the dresser crowd. Your foot is always on top of this lever, takes some getting use to but works just fine. They always seem to be on bikes with floor boards where you don't have a foot peg to pivot your foot when using a regular shift lever. Not sure what it would be like to shift a floorboard bike with a regular shift lever.

[Grandpa]

You shift with the front of your foot and down shift with your heel.

Is that some kind of fairing in the pic?

I used to ride a Moto Guzzi 850 Eldorado Police model with heel-and-toe shifter. I upshifted by hitting the back of the shifter with the heel of my boot, and downshifted by hitting the front of the shifter with the toe of the boot. The runningboards on the Guzzi made the long-distance ride quite comfortable. On the GK they may take away from cornering clearance.

The fairing in the pic is the stock fairing/lowers on the GK.

[MissFabulous]

You shift with the front of your foot and down shift with your heel.
I'd keep it if it works. Someone did some nice mods on this bike. Running boards, highway pegs and a confort shifter.
Is that some kind of fairing in the pic?
Now that's a Cruiser.

Yep, and it's being sold to dpep along with the luggage, which made winning the auction for $335 irresistable since I knew he wanted the luggage and fairing. I'll be taking it off over the next couple days to make it an organ donor to Don and basically converting it to a custom G over the winter. I need it to be lighter weight and more newbie friendly!

26K miles... it runs but has sat for two years so it's going need need the usual suspects... carb cleaning, rusty bolts, a gaskets here and there, battery, etc.

So with this comfort shifter, how do I find neutral? Click with my heel a bunch of times (if I don't know what gear it is in) then once with the front of my foot? Is it still 1-up? Battery is shot so I can't test with the indicator lights.

Thanks!

[chef1366]

Granpa got it right and I was A*s backwards(as usual) Referring to toe to heel up-shifting and down-shifting.
Neutral will be in the same spot, halfway between first and second. Find first with your heel and tap the front with your toe to find neutral.

[courier11sec]

Downshift toe, upshift heel. Tap away with your toe until it's in first, then give it a gentle half click with your heel for neutral.

[MissFabulous]

Thanks! That splains why I couldn't get it into neutral last night (this morning) and doesn't sound like it will be hard to get used to.

[SqDancerLynn1]

I have the Markland floorboards on my current 850. It has the heal/toe shifter MANNY years ago I had a GS1000E always had holes in my socks from shifting with the heal of my shoe. Could power shift with the best of them But with my prosthetic leg heal/toe works great

[Clone]

But, heel-toe shifters work better when your pivot point is the footpeg, I don't see how with the floorboad below the pivot point it could be comfortable to use?

[dig dug mx6]

I used to ride a Moto Guzzi 850 Eldorado Police model with heel-and-toe shifter. I upshifted by hitting the back of the shifter with the heel of my boot, and downshifted by hitting the front of the shifter with the toe of the boot. The runningboards on the Guzzi made the long-distance ride quite comfortable. On the GK they may take away from cornering clearance.

The fairing in the pic is the stock fairing/lowers on the GK.

With my Moto Guzzi Eldo it's backwards toe down shifts up heal down down shifts. I have been told that GP style shifting. If I switch linkage and make a custom bracket I can get the standard style shifting, but I kind of like it. I'll tell you going form the GS to the Guzzi takes some thought. More that just shifting too.