For those who see this bike purely as a sportbike, don't hate on me; and please spare us of immature comments. My experience riding sportbikes may very well surpass yours, as I've ridden all sizes over the past 20 years as well as riding the Daytona Int'l Speedway. Furthermore, I intend to get sporty on it, but in the sense of touring.
Anyhow on to the mod. I'd like to do for this bike what I did for a Buell S3 years ago, which is add a heel shifter to prevent what I call the dreaded "shifter foot" from leaving its mark on the left big toe of all of my shoes. The design is simple, and has been in use for years on cruiser style bikes. Instead of slipping your toe under the shifter to shift up, you slide your foot back on the peg so that you're on the ball of your foot, and then press down with your heel to shift up. It is really a great improvement in my opinion for daily riding (maybe not for hardcore road racing?).
When I made the shifter for the Buell, I simply went to a salvage yard and picked out a used shifter with a bend in it, a bend that worked best in my application. I then welded the used shifter backwards to the shifter already on the bike, and had the stock toe shifter for down-shifting and a modded heel shifter for up-shifting. I could even wear a white leather comfort shoe and not have to be concerned about the black mark on the top of the shoe.
I've attached a little diagram I've drawn representing my intentions. The black is our current shifter and peg from a side, or elevation view. The purple is my heel shifter mod. The purpose for my sharing this with you is twofold. One, for your own consideration if you never thought of it; and two, to get ideas on which bike's shifter might work best for the mod. The 99-02 Yamaha YZFR6 has perfect bends for the task, but with one major and one minor problem. The major problem is a deal-breaker [it's forged aluminum, so I can't weld it to our stock steel shifter]. The minor problem I could live with, especially since I'll paint the whole heel/toe shifter flat black when done. The YZF shifter has a hole in it from the side view.
In the worst case scenario I'll just get a typical strait shifter, cut its original mount off, add a small section of steel to get the desired additional angle [as seen in my diagram]. I know I can make it work that way. I'd just rather only have to weld once if possible to make it look as factory as possible. With that said, anyone have ideas for a good donor shifter?
Anyhow on to the mod. I'd like to do for this bike what I did for a Buell S3 years ago, which is add a heel shifter to prevent what I call the dreaded "shifter foot" from leaving its mark on the left big toe of all of my shoes. The design is simple, and has been in use for years on cruiser style bikes. Instead of slipping your toe under the shifter to shift up, you slide your foot back on the peg so that you're on the ball of your foot, and then press down with your heel to shift up. It is really a great improvement in my opinion for daily riding (maybe not for hardcore road racing?).
When I made the shifter for the Buell, I simply went to a salvage yard and picked out a used shifter with a bend in it, a bend that worked best in my application. I then welded the used shifter backwards to the shifter already on the bike, and had the stock toe shifter for down-shifting and a modded heel shifter for up-shifting. I could even wear a white leather comfort shoe and not have to be concerned about the black mark on the top of the shoe.
I've attached a little diagram I've drawn representing my intentions. The black is our current shifter and peg from a side, or elevation view. The purple is my heel shifter mod. The purpose for my sharing this with you is twofold. One, for your own consideration if you never thought of it; and two, to get ideas on which bike's shifter might work best for the mod. The 99-02 Yamaha YZFR6 has perfect bends for the task, but with one major and one minor problem. The major problem is a deal-breaker [it's forged aluminum, so I can't weld it to our stock steel shifter]. The minor problem I could live with, especially since I'll paint the whole heel/toe shifter flat black when done. The YZF shifter has a hole in it from the side view.
In the worst case scenario I'll just get a typical strait shifter, cut its original mount off, add a small section of steel to get the desired additional angle [as seen in my diagram]. I know I can make it work that way. I'd just rather only have to weld once if possible to make it look as factory as possible. With that said, anyone have ideas for a good donor shifter?