Reverse Shift (GP Shift)

I suppose so, but I would not be surprised if someone somewhere has a mini-van all prepped out for GP racing. IMO, an Ironhead Hog with a peanut tank would be great in one lap races.

Please Jesus, don't let this be true!!

 

Geez... poor guy gets soundly thrashed for asking a simple question...

I raced for lots of years too, got trophies and the shirt; but one thing I never did was convert any of my bikes to 'GP' shift. Rode a couple of 250GP bikes with that shift pattern and just dealt with it. I just developed my style so that I was in a gear I could stay in beyond the exit (or until I could get my boot under the lever) in left handers.

For some, the GP pattern is easier - and the lad made some valid points regarding missed shifts, etc.

 

What actually is the pattern? All up? All down? Right side? Left side?

 

jayzonk
GP shift is just reverse to normal shifting. First is at the top and you push down to shift up. Keeps your foot above the shifter when leaned over.

My learning curve didn't sucessfully allow me to switch to GP style on my RD Yamaha when I went racing but eventually just got a linkage.

I didn't find it difficult to learn to shift a Triumph with the right side (normal pattern) after a few years on Yamahas.

 

All were extant at one time or another and included tank shifters and suicide and rocker foot clutches. Some old Indians of the mechanical type even had throttles on the left side of the bars. Other combos of things to do whilst riding like pumping oil to the engine. One way oil systems, those damned paper maps that would com unfolded and totally obstruct your vision ans even shit like B&W TVs even before Oprah was on.

Call up some pix of antque bikes of any country and take a look.

Moto-GP bikes especially in the top displacement class and the riders as well are a whole different breed of cat. These are not hybrid machines. They are racebikes pure and not so simple.

 

Hard to believe but they acutally raced that way too! I had a boss whose father deliberately had his Indian set up that way so when some drunken friend asked to borrow his bike, he would toss em the keys and tell em, "Sure, its got left hand throttle." He would always get the keys back ; )

I understand that they had left hand throttles on bikes so coppers could shoot with their right hands. Imagine that happening in todays litigious society?

 

I'll take a swag at it. Not knowing the 1200 shift mechanism I went looking for photo's. I finally found a decent one of the left side. Looks like there is an arm on the shaft at the trans. Most Honda's I know have a splined shifter shaft with a splined arm.

If that is the way it is. Then you may be able to rotate the arm about 150 degrees so it points towards the front of the bike instead of the rear. This will reverse your shifting pattern. Your stock rod between the two pivot points may be long enough to reconnect. I have this thought that it won't though and at that angle it may hit the driveshaft housing at the case. You most likely will have to play with the angle of the arm. More like the 8 O'clock position. All you would have to do is make a new shifter rod with a 1" or so step bend to step around the case and go straight into the arm.

Should be real easy to do. That's if my observation and thinking is correct.

Got a photo of the left side of the engine at shifter area?

 

So when you shift from second to third to fourth to fifth to sixth, you're shifting down? When you're shifting from neutral to first, you're shifting up?

 

Yes! but only in that cofiguration. Upshifting can be up then down and downshifting can be up then down or the other way round downshifting can be down then up or if the configuration is changes it then goes from up to down or down to up depending on which gear you want. If the brake and shift levers get swapped, just the reverse is true unless the gearbox only has three or four gears.

Now the question might be if one were to do this mod on a Goldwing what would happen in reverse?

 

Last time I checked the bike LEOs were still riding side by side not to be confused with sidesaddle since the "don't ask, don't tell thing has not yet hit big around my hood. That as I understand it was to be able to communicate, and has become tradition. One more "tradition" that ain't real smart IMO.

I hope from just this that some folks don't get the idea in thier cabeza's that cops can't ride.. Big mistake...

 

Yeah...I have thought about trying a multi-bend shift rod...but seems it might have a good bit of flex in it due to the length and two 90 degree bends.

I have also been thinking of trying to make a lever attachment that would sit just above the driveshaft coupler...could use two short straight shift rods that way and it looks like there are a couple of bolts that a bracket could be attached to hold the lever mechanism. Might be more work than its worth though...

For the time being...reckon I will ride her as is...at least in stock form Bad Billy shouldn't rag me so bad!

Guess I am a tinker at heart...I have tweaked on every bike i have ever had!

 

This makes me think that the suggestions about finding an Ironhead Sporty or coverting to a tank shift have been rejected?

 

For the rod you could make little gussets for it at the bends or use small tubing. I like your idea of the lever arm attachment. It would take more work. But that's what tinkering is all about. Spending enormous amounts of time and skill to fuck things up. Then fix them.

 

I race lots nowadays. Between rest stops for the potty. And I always win........well most times anyways.

 

The word was tinker not stinker.

 

I don't know what (non-1200) riders have against GP shift but I got mocked in a similar way by people who think they're funny when I asked the question a year ago.
I thought how anybody shifts was their own business.
As it is, 13k miles of commuting and other rides later, I'm still getting it wrong. Especially when riding spirited I just can't get used to the street pattern. Never did get round to visiting a buddy who can surely make up something. I haven't found a solution yet. Please post if you do and ignore the idiots. Ignorance is bliss I suppose...

 

The solution is to buy a 500 cc twostroke GP bike. They shift right, corner superbly and go like stink or you could just trade in your 1200 for one with the auto tranny or learn to ride better before you kill yourself.

Ignorance might be bliss but it's curable.

Yesterday I took a ride on a 1972 Triumph Tiger that has been restored. Some damn fools in England put the bloody shifter on the wrong side. The Queen will hear about this. Mark my words.

 

Dats the way they manufactured them across the pond. I worked for someone that actually road-raced a vintage Triumph with a right hand shift. That like trying to learn Japanese while your driving on the wrong side of the road. I rode quite a few right hand shift Triumphs and did ok if I said to myself, "self, dont use the rear brake cause its the shifter." Didnt ride them in combat conditions though :evil: Also rode/wrenched on an Elvis right hand shift HD that leaked gas into my lap and stabbed the web of my hand with a throttle cable that resembled a coat hanger. Iron Head Sporter,,,What a joke. I would seriously walk before I would own a turd like that :tongue:

 

Lets blame it on Harley-Davidson. It's more fun that way.. The Queen has her own problems with her grandson who I hear is boffing Kim K. I hope the RAF doesn't chalk it off as booty duty.

Those bigass throttle cables were actually good engineering. They lasted a long time because the harleydoods need to keeps revving their engines to keep the bike from stalling.