Question 4:      What does lifting or pressing on the gearshift lever do?

               ssss Fig 1                                                Fig 2                                           Fig 3

• Fig 1 shows the gearshift lever in the “reset” or ready to shift position. The lever is spring loaded to return to this position after each and every shift.

• Fig 2 shows the gearshift lever being lifted (toe is placed underneath lever and by raising toe, an upshift is made to the next higher gear).

• Fig 3 shows the gearshift lever being pressed down (toe is placed on top of lever lever and by pressing down with toe, a downshift is made to the next lower gear).

• No matter how hard you lift or press, you can only shift up or down one gear at a time.

Below is an example of a gearshift pattern:

• You usually start in 1st gear and UPSHIFT to 2nd, 3rd, etc. (the pattern above shows a 6-speed transmission... some motorcycles have 4 gears, some have 5).

• When in the higher gears, you DOWNSHIFT from 5th, to 4th, to 3rd, to 2nd, and usually try to stop in 1st gear, ready to run through the gears again upon launch.

• Neutral is “nested” between 1st and 2nd gear. It is referred to as “nested” because it takes some special action to get into Neutral and because it is not part of the normal gear shifting pattern (when upshifting from 1st, a good uplift will place you in 2nd gear... and when in 2nd gear, a good press will downshift you back to 1st). 

• How to shift into Neutral:

• From 1st gear, you must use a "half-lift" or "butterfly-lift" to reach Neutral. If you make a "normal lift", you will end up in 2nd gear, and must use the procedure below to find neutral from 2nd.

• From 2nd gear, you must make a "love-tap" down on the gearshift lever [this is best accomplished by raising your toe about a half-inch above the gearshift lever and making a quick "tap" on top of the lever].  If you rest your foot on top of the gearshift lever and try to "tap", it will turn into a press on the gearshift lever, putting you back in 1st gear, bypassing Neutral. Now you start the whole process over, referring to the statement above about going to Neutral from 1st gear.

• Half-lift from 1st or love-tap down from 2nd and you'll find Neutral. Otherwise you'll spend all your time going back and forth between 1st and 2nd and never find it!

Return to top