Hey Guys

You can't go far on these boards before you find a thread about heel shifters. The most annoying thing about mine is I can't change my foot position as much as I'd like, but I've been too lazy to do it...that was until today

Long story short I have a Crossbones with a Sundowner Seat, last night I put the stock Sprung Seat on, so I'm in a different position than normal. I was coming up to a set of traffic lights, went to put my foot down but the bottom of my jeans got stuck on the heel shifter. I got my right foot down, but it was too late and went down on the left. Only a scraped Derby Cover and a scraped elbow (which hit the road) but as soon as I got home that shifter came right off!

Thanks for reading my boring story

 

Sorry to hear that , glad you came out of it with some scrapes . Maybe you needed to lower the heel just a bit so your pant leg wouldn`t catch it ...... but you fixed the problem ....

 

Bummer, that's the second time I've heard of this harrow happening.

 

That's a bummer, things could have been a lot worse than just a scratched derby cover

I was wearing tennis shoes while nursing a ankle injury and the pants I were wearing were about 2" shorter than usual. When I come to a stop my left pant leg caught on my mid peg... I kicked my foot out in time before dropping the bike but it set my healing time back about 3 weeks. My ol was pissed because she didn't want me riding with a f'k-up foot in the first place. I learned my lesson, never wear tennis shoes (or short pants) again

 

I took mine off within 200 miles. I used two extra spacers that came with my progressive shocks to move the toe shifter out to the position of the heel shifter. Much more positive shifts and room for my foot. Kuryakyn also makes a spacer for about $25.

 

Heel shifter is an accident looking for a place to happen. I almost dropped my bike also because my pants cuff got caught on it. I went right back home and off it came. Machined a spacer from aluminum and have been good to go ever since.
Get rid of them.

 

I had a problem with short legs bumpin it into neutral. $3 spacer from Lowes, cut off 1/4", problem solved. Sorry to hear about the dropped bike.

 

Sorry to hear you dropped it, but I am just wondering from the other posts, I have had a heel -toe shifter on most all my bikes in the 30 plus years of riding and have not had this problem. Is it the newer model bikes that maybe factory is positioning the heel shifter differently than before. Mine are always low and tucked in to the primary case, gives me room to position my foot differently and doesn't catch the pants. I would like to see a pic of these before removal, but I am going to check out the new models at the dealer to see. I will never ride without the heel shifter again, saves my boots from upper wear and is so comfortable to shift.

 

My problem is height. I'm 5'5", so my feet have to be right next to the bike to touch the ground. I have to flip up the floor board to pull up the kickstand. Taller folks naturally place their feet down further away from the bike. I lowered it 1 1/2" just to be flat footed.

 

I had a similar mishap one time. My boot lace caught on the toe shifter at a red light. I jerked my left foot out so hard away from the bike,I almost dropped it on it's right.
I've never ridden a bagger without the heel shifter,except when I test-rode my present bike. The PO had removed it. The first "mod" I did to this bike was re-intall the heel shifter..