Reversed Shift FJR (GP Pattern)

Randy said:

RTSR1/FJR said:

I've ridden R1's with a bent Shift rod and they felt like rubber and I have seen them break.

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Yeah, me too. But, they were aluminum and they needed adjusted on the splines. The steel ones we built had a solid feel and never broke (many many hours at race pace including a 24-hr at Willow Springs). Many ways to skin a cat.

Regarding the switch over from standard to GP, I did about 2 hrs of street riding with it reversed before going on the track and never had an incident. Days at the track are long gone as are my days with reversed shift on my bikes. But, I've thrown a leg over a few street bikes with it reversed and didn't have a problem. It's not for everyone.

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9 yrs. of racing ruined me! Std. shift is just ackward for me now. I can go between the 2 types fairly seemlessly, but do have to think about it for a while. Yep, many ways to skin that damn cat! lol

RTSR1/FJR said:

Randy said:

RTSR1/FJR said:

I've ridden R1's with a bent Shift rod and they felt like rubber and I have seen them break.

Click to expand...

Yeah, me too. But, they were aluminum and they needed adjusted on the splines. The steel ones we built had a solid feel and never broke (many many hours at race pace including a 24-hr at Willow Springs). Many ways to skin a cat.

Regarding the switch over from standard to GP, I did about 2 hrs of street riding with it reversed before going on the track and never had an incident. Days at the track are long gone as are my days with reversed shift on my bikes. But, I've thrown a leg over a few street bikes with it reversed and didn't have a problem. It's not for everyone.

Click to expand...

9 yrs. of racing ruined me! Std. shift is just ackward for me now. I can go between the 2 types fairly seemlessly, but do have to think about it for a while. Yep, many ways to skin that damn cat! lol

Click to expand...

One of my favorites was a GSXR test in Motorcyclest......... The rider was used to race pattern and up shifted the GSXR1000 at red line........... Oops, he down shifted by accident! LOL

Any news on this??

Theres a foot shifter on this bike...... :blink: Oh wait, I have the AE and never use it.... :yahoo:

count me in for the reverse shift! When's it going to be available? Former racer, loved the GP shift!

MotoStrap said:

count me in for the reverse shift! When's it going to be available? Former racer, loved the GP shift!

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This was the resurrection of a 2 year old post. No one has responded yet with info on availability.

BMW sells a high performance shifter kit for the HP2 and for the K1200S, and K1200R/Rsport. In addition to the use of carbon fiber, needle bearings, nc machined parts, and an $895 + labor price tag, the geometry includes a bell crank that allows you to convert it back and forth from a street pattern to a track pattern.

BMW claims that it is illegal to set it up with the track pattern for use on the street. I don't know if this is true or not.

Obviously, since it is also illegal to change your muffler, install a power commander, tear out your air box, etc. (since these kinds of mods affect emissions performance), maybe it wouldn't matter to most folks.

Actually, the illegality of the mod only increases it's attractiveness.

radman said:

Actually, the illegality of the mod only increases it's attractiveness.

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Lucid moment, eh?

El Toro said:

<snip>...BMW claims that it is illegal to set it up with the track pattern for use on the street. I don't know if this is true or not.

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Somewhere in the early/mid '70s the U.S.Gummint mandated that all motorcycles sold in the U.S. of A. shift on the left side (left foot) and shift down for lower gears and up for higher gears.

Scofflaws rejoice....

Wow, someone's been digging! Unfortunately it was cost prohibitive to farm out and I don't have the equipment to fab it. So no further advancement on this endeavor has happened. I do believe it will work great, there just wasn't enough interest in it other than me.

[SIZE=10pt]I've also raced for several years so I'm on the track a lot more than I'm on the street and wanted to change my new FJR over to GP Shift (Reverse Shift Pattern). I'm sure that my racing would mess me up a little on the street but I'm more concerned that the street riding will mess me up in a race which can have very dire consequences. I just picked my bike up this weekend and changed it over to GP shift before I have even ridden it. This is what I'm trying, NOT that I recommend anyone else trying it! I do not know how durable it will be yet so anyone interested in trying this must do so at their own risk![/SIZE]

After several hours of going to different shops, dealers and industrial suppliers I found what I needed. (A 6mm X 1.0 pitch, left hand threaded, Stainless Steel Ball Joint End) I had plenty of bolts and screws in the race trailer for the rest. Here's all that it takes...



I cut off the stock shift link ball joint and drilled the stock shift pedal right at the edge of the cover with a 6mm drill bit.



I took the rubber boot off of the stock ball joint and put it over my new one before threading it into the shift rod. I then bolted it to the shift pedal with a Stainless Steel 6mm large flat head screw and nylon filled lock nut.



Next I took the shift lever off and flipped it over so that the thick part of the shoulder is facing inward toward the engine and rotated it to the 3 O'Clock position instead of the stock 8 O'Clock position.



This is what it looks like finished.




It works great and shifts fine the only question for me is how long it will be able to last since the 6mm hole that I drilled in it was almost 1/3 of the total width of the shifters arm. There's not much pressure needed to shift but since you're using your foot I wonder if it will eventually break right across where I drilled the hole. Only time will tell and it was worth the $70 that it will cost me to replace the shifter if I'm wrong, and even then I'll probably pay a machine shop to tig weld it back together with some bracing above and below the hole. I'll be sure to let you all know if I have any trouble. John

Remove the end and clean up and polish the hole-less likely to stress crack then.

John ~ A simple and elegant solution to the problem! Good on ya... :coolsmiley02:

I agree with radman that a few moments spent lightly chamfering the edges of the hole (both front and back) will go a long ways toward lessening the chance of it cracking at your new hole. If I were to do the same conversion, I'd start the hole a couple of drill sizes undersize, second drill to near final dimension, and ream the hole to it's final desired diameter.

Unless you "Gorilla Foot" the shifter, I'm betting it will last quite a long time!

Don

Hey T-shirt I think you did a great job, one question. I can see where you may be a little leary of the arm breaking, so instead of bolting though the arm could you run a longer bolt thru the arm weld it both sides to streghten it and then bolt on the end of the stub? No different than what you did just thought that by welding the bolt solid to the arm the stresses of upshifting or downshifting would be distributed more evenly. Just thinkin out loud. Stan

Thanks for the input guys, I'll take it back apart and polish the hole.

dsmack, I'm hoping it will be fine, it's my throttle hand that's gorilla like, my foots not so bad.

kansas, I'm going to make it work one way or the other because I can't afford to let it screw me up in a race because my mind reverts to the wrong pattern. I don't think you can weld a steel bolt to aluminum, the factory uses a steel pin to install the stock ball joint but it's pressed in, then bradded. If I did that I would still end up with the same hole, just a different fastener. I figured IF it weakens or breaks I'll simply have someone repair it with a tig weld then add a 1/4" aluminum bar stock to the top & bottom tig welded on then blend it in with a grinder just to beef it up. It's got plenty of clearance on the top and bottom so that shouldn't be an issue and I think I can make it look good enough to not draw attention. John

I would suggest, anyone else trying this, to grind off the peened end of the original pivot on the shift lever, remove the oe end, and just run a bolt through it. Save buying another heim joint, plus a little more work and that lever is cleaned up. Also, the 2001 R1 shift arm looks like it would be a perfect fit. Move the hole in the lever out almost to the bend-a little better leverage at the cost of a bit more travel, but the shorter R1 arm makes up the difference, while adding a bit more frame clearance.