Reverse (race) Shift Lever Setup

[Rifleman]

I read somewhere that often race bikes are equiped with a reversed shift pattern. That is increasing gears is done by pushing the shift lever down and dropping gears is performed by toeing the lever up. My understanding is that this is accomplished by simply removing the shift collar from the shift actuator spline, turning it over, re-install and adjust the linkage for proper lever position.

 

Is this true? What are the advantages/disadvantages of such a setup?

[stuman]

Yup you have it right. On some bikes you have to grind away at the sprocket cover to get the shift collar to clear.

 

Race shift is pretty sweet once you get used to it. It just seems to make more sense to push down to go faster Also it's a little easier to upshift while your still leaned over some while exiting a corner.

[JeF4y]

You have more available force pushing down than pulling up.

Shifting through corners is much easier

It's more "natural" of a feel when you're racing

 

Flipping the collar over is the common method although some rearsets have different methods based on the bike... The cbr600rr for example has 3 or 4 different types for accomplishing this. From the simple (flipping the collar) to a complex rod system...

[sanfret]

I just switched after 13 years the other way. It took me a month of street and track riding to get to the point that I don't have to worry about going the wrong way. It is so much more comfortable, and the shifts are a lot smoother.

[Sperofarm]

This like a good place to improve my time with only a small cost, if any. Can anybody help me? I have a '99YZFR6, and would like to change the shift pattern to race shift, I would also like to do this to my other bike, a DR 200.

 

Have also heard the saying, head down change down, head up change up...use this to remeber the change to race shift pattern, rather than the change down:push down, change up:pull up that we all learned on.

[stu#71]

That memory aid (and I spotted it on this forum from one of the instructors) works really well. I've just "swopped" over and it's taken me about 2 or 3 meetings for gear changes to happen without spending more than a $dollar of attention on each one. It was well worth it.

[Rifleman]

I was down working on the greasy side this weekend and found that the side stand mount is in the way to simply flip the collar. Not quite ready to take a P-grinder to the mount just yet. There are still other ways to "defur that feline".

[RoadRunner]

I've just converted to race shift.

I find it a great help coming out of corners - really positive shift and just feels 'right'.

 

It has however, made my downshifting problem worse - it feels really weird to be clicking up while blipping the throttle in the braking area.

[studiotan]

If you have multiple bikes, I would recommend converting all to gp shift (reverse) or all to standard. When I first had a track bike set up for reverse and a street bike in standard pattern, I found myself pausing briefly mid shift to remember which way to upshift every so often, which was distracting.

 

In terms of the setting up the rearsets and linkage, on a Ducati superbike you can just junk the linkage and pick up a slightly longer shift pedal to attach directly where the linkage use to go. Flipping the linkage around did not work in my experience without a different length connecting rod. The gp shift pedal also has a very nice solid feel. DP, tecmoto, cyclecat, etc. all make them.

 

An R6 on the other hand required a bit of work to space the coolant overflow tank away from the linkage once it is flipped around, as well as requiring some bushings against the fairings so nothing was rubbing. I picked up some Sato rearsets and they had parts included to make everything fit so that's a good, if pricey, way to go. I assume sato makes the gp shift kit an option on all their rearsets for various models, nice stuff.

[motorthings]

switching to gp shift on my R6 definitely helped. the tranny on the early R6's is pretty notchy, and the gp shift works much better. it did take a little while for it to become natural, but now i barely notice.

[Rifleman]

I'm thinking that if I find the proper lenght lever and run it as a direct drive (right of the shift spline) rather then any linkage (stock set up) it should be cake to convert. Just got to find the right length lever.

 

thanks for the input.

 

Rman