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ORIGINAL: 91hdfxr64
A friend of mine owns a !995 H-D Fatboy thought about the suicide shifter conversion. He thought it would look cool on his ride and never tried it before. I told him I had never ridden a motorcycle with a suicide shifter. I can't make a decision for him. I told him about the safety issue but he wanted it so badly. Any thoughts, bikers??
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First off, let's get the terminology straight. It's a suicide clutch, not a suicide shifter. The shifter part will either be a jockey shifter, where the shift lever is fastened directly to the transmission, or maybe a hand shifter that is mounted to the top engine mount, or the frame. The old bikes had the shift lever mechanism mounted to the left side gas tank. Later ones had it mounted to the left front frame downtube. These were often called police shifters. Transmissions had hand shift (jockey) tops early on, and then came ratchet tops, and finally cowpie trannies. Some were 4 speed, some were 3 speed w/reverse. All 3 speed w/reverse had jockey tops. Then the 5 speeds came and they are all ratchet tops, though no one calls them that.
The suicide clutch operates just like a car clutch; push the pedal down to disengage the clutch, and let it up to start moving. The suicide part comes from when these were run with no front brake. If'n you pulled up to a stop on a hill, didn't get the bike into neutral, you had a problem. Right foot had to be on brake pedal, left on clutch. Oops, fall down, or shoot through the intersection.
Original clutch was a rocker clutch. It stayed where you put it; heel down was disengaged, and toe down was engaged. If the spring was removed or it got out of adjustment, it bacame a suicide clutch. Hopefully not when least expected!
Labriola makes a good suicide/jockey setup for 5 speeds. Hotop makes one that is to be used with a hydraulic clutch, but it isn't a jockey shift. It's a hand shift that replaces the top motor mount. V-Twin has a rocker clutch and frame mount conversion kit, though the quality ain't all that good. I've got the rocker clutch from them on mine, and had several problems, including a broken weld, parts not lining up, and a cable that breaks at least once a year. It's being converted to a hydraulic setup as I write this. I built my own hand shift lever and mounting setup.
I've run a foot clutch and hand shift for about 25 years. Once you get used to it, it becomes second nature. And the stuff about pulling your hand off the bars, well it ain't never been an issue. Ain't ya ever picked yer nose while riding?
If yer bud wants to do it, and has questions, ask 'em. I'll be glad to answer whatever concerns he might have.
Suicides rule; the rest are sissies!
Suicide shifter conversion
Chrome sucks.
