Gear Shift Lever and my big feet

I have big feet and always have trouble shifting on my 500. Anyone have some ideas as to what I can do (short of just welding on an extension) to improve the situation?

 

Length

I have had to deal with this in the past and after trying several things, only making the shifter longer worked well enough to make me happy.

 

How big of feet are we talking? My size 16s make using the rear break a pain in the arse... shifter sometimes too.

 

My feet are 10's and I have a problem.

 

If you're wearing touring boots which tend to be rather thick and bulky in the toe area of your feet, you might do well to try a more race-oriented and more slimly contoured boot in the toe region, such as one of Sidi's Vertigo models.

Also, I'm curious as to how you might tend to generally position your feet (particularly your left foot) on the pegs while riding. As you may know, when riding a sport/sport-touring bike, you should be riding with the balls of your feet (rather than your heels) resting on the pegs. Doing so keeps your toes well behind and away from the foot pedals, and pointed somewhat downward. When you need to shift, you move your left foot and toes downward and forward a bit, momentarily moving off of the balls of your feet just enough to allow your left toes to flick the gearshift, and between each shift you should often be returning the ball of your left foot back onto the left peg. In other words, don't keep your left foot's toes hovering over or around the shift pedal, especially if you have long feet, and especially if you're wearing riding boots that are rather thick and bulky in the toes.

 

Shadow shifter may work

 

redrover said it all. foot position is key.

btw i have a size 12 foot and usually have a problem with my heel rubbing the exhaust, but no problems with shifting.

 

Thanks folks. I'll pay closer attention to foot position tomorrow and see what I can work out...

 

16?

WOW!That is a big shoe.......rode a gen 1 in 85 with cast on my leg and had to run string to shifter to up shift.......you may want to try that........down shift is easy.:thumbsup:

 

Mine are 14s...cant begin to imagine 16s