Dumb question:

My FXDC has mid controls. When I ride, I keep the ball of my foot on the pegs not riding on top of the shifter so when I downshift, I pick up my foot off the peg and sort of stomp down on the shifter to downshift.

Is this right/correct? Or should my heel be on the peg with the ball of my foot always resting on the shifter?

The only reason I even noticed was that I was driving behind a guy on a metric cruiser and noticed he was just sort of riding the shifter and gently tapping down with his toe to downshift. Made me wonder if I have been doing it wrong the whole time.

I can't imagine that riding the shifter is good for the transmission but maybe it doesn't matter.

 

Not the best for the shifter fork inside the transmission.
Years ago a co-worker would stomp to shift on his shovel. I always cringed when I would see him shift.

 

I think my shifter is too high because I can't stretch my foot up enough with my heel on the peg to get on top of the shifter unless I lift my whole foot up and stomp it.

 

It's adjustable. You need to remove the bolt and pull the shifter arm off and raise or lower it and push it back into position.
With it off you'll see a channel cut out that the bolt lines up in.

 

Not a damn thing wrong with the way you are down shifting. Not commenting on riding the shifter. I wouldn't, or rather never had to.

My '73 Ironhead had mids and that's how I had to down shift. Pretty much everybody I knew back then that had mid controls did the same....don't pay much attention now a days.

 

During the normal course of riding, your hands and feet should NEVER hover over any of your controls.

 

oh boy. here we go. i predict 72 pages in this thread before the end.
any way to start a pool?

 

When I had my Sporty with mid controls, I always rode with the peg sitting in the notch in front of the heel of my boot. This put my toe in position to access the shifter up or down. My toe wasn't riding on the shifter, but rather next to it so I could just slide over and shift. Same thing on the brake side. Seemed the most natural to me, and I never really considered any other position. That's my two cents. As for whether or not you're doing damage, I have no idea.

 

+1

For my mids the peg rides in the arch of the boot/shoe right in front of the heel. The shifter is positioned so it is just above my boot in that riding position. So upshifts are just a simple tap up on the toe. For downshifts I have to "hold" my boot above the shifter and then tap down. As noted above adjust the shifter height to what's most comfortable for you.

 

I like the heel toe shifter for mid-controls, got these from an FX Police, bolted right on. Also changed the powdered metal shift forks for forged and installed a Sputhe Pos-Shift at the same time. You can't make the shift drum rotate too far with the posi shift installed.