I remember a previous post with this question, but at the time didn't need the answer. My search was futile (limited abilities I guess). Anyway, I am fairly comfortable with my forward controls except for down shifts. I just got the bike today and I have to remove my foot from the peg to get above the shift lever to down shift. Looks like there is an adjustent to rotate the lever (picked up the bike around closing time so they expect me back tomorrow for fine tuning), so my question is;

Do you normaly leave your foot on the peg and toe "under" the shift lever, and then up and down shift as necessary (this worked good for me on Honda VTX), or is picking up the foot/leaving the peg to downshift normal. Sorry for the ignorant question, but if I'm supposed to have to remove my foot from the peg to downshift (i.e. can't adjust the position to work for me) I will need to think about that for a while. Thanks.

 

There is a crimp bolt in the shifter peg arm. If you remove that bolt, you can remove the arm and reposition it on the splined shaft of which it mounts.

 

You can rotate the shift lever on the shaft, but it's splined and it's a coarse adjustment. An aftermarket shift rod with heim joints would allow finer adjustment. I like my peg a little high so it's easier to upshift, get it down too low and it's hard to get your toe under it. Ihave heel rests on mine and they allow you to keep your heel on the rest while downshifting...foot still has to come off the peg, but the heel is still in contact.
It's not an ignorant question. It is awkward til you get used to it and find what works best. I didn't like lifting my foot off the peg to downshift either, but it was better than having to have to bend my foot down to get under the peg to upshift.

 

Thanks. As I mentioned in my post; I see the (splined) adjustment and thanks for the heads-up on the replacement option. It looks to me that I will run into the problem mentioned above (i.e. low enough to down-shift adjustment will result in not being able to get my toe under to up-shift). Hopefully the tech has some suggestions/solutions. Although I won't be racing around town, I would like to be able to be fairly smooth with shifts while riding slightly aggresive. My father-in-law mentioned a heel shifter option, maybe I'll gets some thoughts on that also.

 

I mounted a short heel toe shifter called the Heel Hammer. It rocks. The only time I use my toe to pull up on the shifter is to find neutral. Otherwise it is heel down for upshift and toe down for downshift. Took about three trys to get the angle right, but now it is 2nd nature. Much faster upshifts, in fact I found that I had to wait to hammer up until the clutch lever was all the way in just to make sure I was dis-engaged. Otherwise it is so fast that you are in the next gear position before the lever is all the way back. Dewey Jelen sells them on his website for about $120, including the two longer shift pegs, or about $90 without them. I bought one with the pegs, but have just mounted two HD pegs to match my footpegs. This is one piece, not two like a standard heel-toe. It is also a little shorter on the heel end to clear the crank case. Here is a picture from when I still had his pegs mounted.

[IMG]local://upfiles/58191/540ED7D5BB8049DFA2A2D530CE47A3D5.jpg[/IMG]

 

I had a similar situation with my Kury forwards and the stock HD pegs on my '07 FXDC. Resolved it buy buying the large ISO Kury pegs. Haven't had to lift my foot off the peg to downshift since

 

It sounds like your peg is set too high so adjust that down a bit, and no I don't leave my foot under the shifter while I'm driving. I tend to move the foot back and forth into position for personal comfort. But it is an effortless motion,like it's just natural.

Edit = O and my heel never leaves the peg !