Reverse Shift pattern

Q. This may sound really stupid, but why do guys change their shift pattern from stock anyways? I’ve seen it done a million times, but never bothered to ask; thought maybe it was just preference….kev

A. Well, the reasons most racers reverse the shift pattern is as follows. If your coming out of a very fast left hand corner and say up onto the banking at Daytona for example and are ready to shift up to the next higher gear from say 3rd to 4th where is your foot positioned? UNDER the shift lever to pull up (NORMALLY) right? A lot of racers under that scenario would get their foot caught between the shifter and the pavement. But if you reverse shift, you are pushing down on the lever to go from 3rd to 4th and your foot isn’t trapped under the lever. Now I do it because I find it easier to make positive upshifts by pushing down on the lever versus pulling up. It can get confusing at first and you have to be careful or you can crash by shifting at redline from 3rd to 2nd, instead of going from 3rd to 4th.
Several times Nick (Eye-Notch) crashed bikes at Sport rider as a result of being used to a reverse pattern then getting on someone’s built street bike and got confused. He once commented from that point forth, all test bikes would be made the same on shift patterns to avoid wadding more of them.

I use rear sets made by Indigo Sports. After I bought them I found the shift rod was to short. I went to a Honda dealer and purchase a shift rod from a CBR 900RR, which was longer and correct fitting. Not all years of the CBR 900RR used a rod, and I don’t remember which model year it was off of, but I do still have the part #. Keep in mind, the reason Honda went from a no shift rod on early models to one with a rod on later models was, Guess what? so racers could easily reverse the pattern. Its as easy as Jeremy described above, simply flip the elbow over and adjust for maximum leverage. I don’t know about 96-2000 model years but it works on 89-95 no problem.

Remember to be real careful until you get used to it.

Here is the Honda part # for the shift rod that will bolt right on to the 7s elbow and shift lever and will give about an inch extra length. This works great with rear sets or reverse shift set ups were you come up a little short on adjustment. # 90065-MAE-00 only a few bucks.

Ken H2Os

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