suicide shift

[flyingdakota]

Hey Guys!
Has anyone ever modified the xs11 to have a suicide shift? If so how did they do it? Or does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
Tim

[81xsproject]

if that is the rear stomp to upshift type, that came up in a thread recently.

[flyingdakota]

suicide shift

actually the suicide shift is where there is a lever coming from the shift spline that you use you left hand to shift through the gears. Harleys have them but I have never seen them on a metric bike. What it is, is I have a buddy that is fixing up one of my xs11's and he was thinking about sticking a suicide shift on it. I think it would look cool but it would be dangerous.....thus the name suicide shift! anyway any input would be appreciated.
Thanks,
tim

[prometheus578]

I think it would look cool but it would be dangerous.....

Any control that requires one to take their hand offa the handle bar is dangerous.
Be that as it may...
It'd still be fun to build, just because you can.
From what I 'member... suicide shift shifts mit der hand, and there's a pedal fer your foot to clutch, as in a car. Had a buddy once(yeah, I know... hard to believe), had an old Hardly with a suicide shift. Was an old cop bike, or modified "Meter Maid" bike where it was common. (also had reverse, too)
Anyway... the fun begins at intersections when you're starting off, and have to lift your left leg from the pavement to use your foot on the clutch pedal. When sitting at a stop, too many things can happen, (like a gust of wind, or the traffic suddenly doesn't move and you have to push the clutch in again), where I'd really appreciate having both feet on the ground.
The suicide shift that I had envisioned building, if I ever got a round to it, would have had the clutch still operated by a hand lever, but connected to the shifting bar. (Left hand moves the gear selector, and also squeezes the clutch)

[knewsom]

I donno, I think having the shift bar on the left handlebar would be fine with a foot clutch, because you'd still have one foot on the ground when starting off from a start.

'course, you could just add a shifter like on a ten speed that you could operate with your thumb (prolly have to be spring loaded or hydraulic or something in order to have enough action to shift a gear, but I'm sure a clever mind could do it), and still have your clutch in hand, thereby operating both with your left hand, as prometheus mentioned. I think that could be called the "slightly less suicidal shifter".

Might be good for lefties, but righties...

I'm gonna stick with my shifter on the floor, I think, but the heel-toe thing with floorboards'll take a bit of getting used to - espech since my shifter has NO rubber on it. ah well, grip tape'll have to do for the time being.

keep us posted if you or your friend decides to go with a suicide shifter - it'd be neat to read about how it was accomplished.

[Dennyz]

I think a hand shifter is do'able.

It would take a mounting bracket bolted to the valve cover (longer bolts), A shift lever (for the hand), a rod going down to the stock shifter, and a pivot clamp (to clamp onto the stock shifter). It would fit a Special tank nicely and could retain the stock shifter.

A clutch pedal on the left is possible with a bit more work. Creating the pivot point for the clutch pedal is the biggest challange. Then it is a matter of using the existing clutch cable.

I could built ya one for a price!

[LoHo]

I have this bike that has the clutch as a ler on the left grip and the shifter is on the left foot pedal...it works great and is quite safe.

This reminds me of some of the tennis players I coach: they were hot to play with my old wooden racquets, so I brought them out. I learned to play with those, so I adjusted quickly, but they had trouble getting around and generating power. Afterward, the commented on how hard it was to play with wooden racquets. I just looked at them and said, "You think that might be why they don't use them anymore?"
~LoHo~

[fxrer]

Suicide clutch

It's more a suicide clutch, instead of shift.

What Prom said, until the 50’s when foot shifters were introduced, the old HD’s and Indians had a hand lever gear shift (left side for HD’s, right side for Indians). The clutch was a rocker-type foot unit, with a frictioned over-center that would hold the clutch in when you took your foot off it and placed it on the ground. You rocked your foot backward to engage the clutch, forward to disengage.

When guys started 'bobbing' and 'chopping' the bikes, the rocker unit would often be replaced by a brake-styled foot pedal, and then a chain would connect that to the clutch arm. The clutch arm had a spring back action coming from the clutch springs. So, with this modification, all they did was push forward on the pedal, and the clutch would disengage.

The chains that connected the clutch peddle to the clutch rod came from wherever they could be found. Some used dog chains with questionable strength.

A biker would pull up to a stop light, pushing the clutch in with his left boot, brake until stopped, then lean the bike to the right, supporting it with his right leg. Remember, the bike is still in first gear. Sometimes, with a weak chain, it would snap a link under the clutch spring pressure, and rocket the bike out into cross traffic.

That's where the suicide clutch gets its name.

[SG-Olli]

Re: Suicide clutch

Originally posted by fxrer
Sometimes, with a weak chain, it would snap a link under the clutch spring pressure, and rocket the bike out into cross traffic.

That's where the suicide clutch gets its name.

But of course that can only happen with the power of a big twin at idle.

My 11 just dies if I let go off the clutch lever at idle.

[Geezer]

I saw an old Honda CB450 converted to hand shift. It was chopped and the guy mounted the clutch lever on the highway bar. He ran a rod from a clipped shift pedal to up through a loop on the frame and hand an antique door knob on top. It was a little odd but it worked for him.

Geezer

[LoserShoes]

You rocked your foot backward to engage the clutch, forward to disengage.

Actually, Harlys and Indians did that different also. On my 48 Chief it was back to release and forward to engage. You could rotate the clutch arm 180 degrees to change it though.

Steve

[btchalice]

you could always put the clutch lever at the top of the hand shifter