Got my new AE!

[Ed Sidders]

Congrats :specool: Enjoy :Lkingsmiley:

 

[YummYam]

Good! I'll work on my technique then. Any pointers on what I'm doing wrong? It's all about timing and throttle position right?

Yeah give it some break-in time. But on slow gradual shifts (where your putzing along in traffic) I don't let off the throttle,just a quick click and she is in the next gear smooth.

Now getting on it and progressing through the gears more aggressively you just "twitch" off a bit on the throttle at the exact moment you click the paddle, then bring back up the throttle. Takes a lil bit of "re-adjustment" but once you get it down pat.... so sweeeeeet!

BTW- I only use my forefinger for up & down shifts. I find the thumb (for upshifts) to close to the horn so the forefinger does both shifts for me. Plus I hardly ever use the foot shifter now, did at first however cuz it felt more normal to my regular hand clutched models. The transition naturally flowed to just the finger

Good luck!! Enjoy

On first reading this I thought 'WTF, how do you use your forefinger to change down? Then I thought about it and can see what you're saying,that's brilliant, I can't wait to try it out tomorrow.Usually I'm up on the paddle,down on the lever but will try this out.

 

[Top_Speed1]

Yeah for me it's by far the best/easiest. Do it for a complete day and tell me you would go back to thumb AND forefinger. NOT!

Forefinger pull is the normal upshift, forefinger push (with topside of finger) for down. EASY PEASEY

 

[majicmaker]

Yeah for me it's by far the best/easiest. Do it for a complete day and tell me you would go back to thumb AND forefinger. NOT!

Forefinger pull is the normal upshift, forefinger push (with topside of finger) for down. EASY PEASEY

Damn! Might have to try that.

 

[fastpappy]

Since my left hand is buggered ( the reason I got the AE in the first place ) I still use the foot shifter, less muscle memory to retrain. :blink:

 

[wnyfjr]

I find I do upshifts with the paddle and downshifts with the foot. Sometimes though, I get lazy and downshift with the paddle as well. I never consciously thought about this, it just seemed natural to do it this way.

 

[RiderX]

Yeah for me it's by far the best/easiest. Do it for a complete day and tell me you would go back to thumb AND forefinger. NOT!

Forefinger pull is the normal upshift, forefinger push (with topside of finger) for down. EASY PEASEY

I wish I had thought of that as a new owner. I hit the horn quite a bit in first 1000 miles, but I figured the muscle memory would set in. And it has. This year's 40,000 miles have seen one inadvertent horn blip (not counting driving the handlebars into the tank bag ) and I can always find the horn when I need it. That's 12 rally days and three trips across the country. So my point is that the muscle memory will build in the first year if you make it. TopSpeed's may not require too much.

I had like three farkles in the first three years of ownership. It is since out of hand (just installed my engine crash bars last night and moved highway pegs forward). I can't stop.

 

[Wolf_in_Cheapclothing]

Congrats on the new ride.

Someone could steal my foot shifter and it would be weeks before I noticed. I never roll off the throttle for up-shifts, I just keep pulling the trigger. To me it sounds like a pellet gun every time I shift.

I've had mine since mid June and the odometer now reads 7600 miles. Considering that I rode my Harley 19,000 miles in five years, almost 8k miles is a huge year for me (plus another 2K on the Harley before I sold it.

 

[cdc]

It took me a few hundred miles to shift smootly... I think is a great feature and will be hard to miss.

 

[Top_Speed1]

I never roll off the throttle for up-shifts, I just keep pulling the trigger. To me it sounds like a pellet gun every time I shift.

When your hunkering down on the throttle and riding aggressive, if you just twist off on the throttle when you click you won't hear or feel any "pellet gun". Now if your just barely getting up to the next gear and not on the throttle much, yep just a click with no movement in the throttle.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Yup, hard on the throttle, a little reverse blip smooths out those upshifts. Not needed if accelerating nice and easy though.

 

[Auron]

I noticed in the manual it wants you to let off the throttle during a shift. Does it just depend on the circumstaces?

 

[Top_Speed1]

I noticed in the manual it wants you to let off the throttle during a shift. Does it just depend on the circumstaces?

YES! just as me and Jasen have said above^^

 

[mcatrophy]

I noticed in the manual it wants you to let off the throttle during a shift. Does it just depend on the circumstaces?

Very much so.

The manual gives the impression you should close the throttle, flick the switch, then roll on the throttle. That's very misleading. All you are trying to do is unload the gearbox for the time the clutch is disengaged. perhaps, 50 thousandths of a second?

Ok, level road, admiring the view, want to change up. Barely think about dipping the throttle as you flick the switch.

In a hurry, revving it up a bit. For the smoothest change, just dip a little more, but only for the merest fraction of a second.

Slowing down: if you're playing in the twisties, revs still high, just hold the throttle and flick it down. You won't be on a fully closed throttle, it'll change nicely.

Climbing a steep hill, want to change down to maintain speed, now you need to drop the throttle a bit more cos it's open fairly wide and the engine will rev noticeably during the change and you'll get a bit of a lurch.

Slowing with a completely rolled off throttle, just open it a gnats when you flick, and close it instantly.

Yes, it depends on the circumstances, and you get to learn the timing and to do it all automatically with practice.

 

[psd2001]

Wouldnt it be easier on the rider to just leave throttle were it is during up shifts? That seem to work for me. Down shifting i mainly use to slow down so throttle is closed. Dont really notice much lurching shifting up or down

 

[gixxerjasen]

When hard on the throttle, the upshift is smoother with the reverse blip. If just steady and easy, then no adjustment is necessary. You CAN do it either way without doing anything with the throttle, but it's not quite as smooth as if you get the technique down.

 

[Auron]

So I finally figured out how to post a friggin photo. This is the night I brought it home. Sorry about the quality.

 

[Auron]

So the first thing that arrived was the fenda extenda. Great idea and very useful but probably the worst value in farkle history. They couldn't even give you some color matched screws? I was going to expoxy it but I've not had good luck with adhesives in the long term so I decided to drill holes in my brand spanking new bike :angry2:

I was digging through a jar of fasteners and came across 3 of these:

So instead of having to look at 4 ugly silver screws for the next 10 years, I get to look at this! :yahoo:

The underside looks like this, it seems very sturdy and I don't see it giving me a problem. You can kinda see how they spread out hold the extenda in place, I guess I just got luck because they were EXACTLY the right length.

Then the V46 came and I simply cannot believe how good it looks, almost looks stock from a distance. What a high quality piece of kit, I can't wait to have hard luggage after 15 years of floppy faded soft bags.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Nice job. You'll love having hard luggage.

Oh yea, and on your camera, look for the little icon that looks like a flower. That's your Macro mode. It helps the focusing when photographing stuff close up, like that plastic rivet thing.

 

[psd2001]

Those looks nice!!! Looking into painting my top case to match the sides. Ill be painting only half of it. Not sure wether to paint the top portion or the lower. What do you guys think?