Last edited by AsianDan; at PM. It is a great idea, until you're sat at the lights in gear waiting to pull off, and you just lose balance a touch, as does happen, lean to the left, drop your foot off the clutch to stop yourself falling, and you jerk forward into that truck in front before your motor stalls Just a thought. Originally Posted by KingHerald. Originally Posted by SyndicateChoppers. Originally Posted by AsianDan.
You can honestly tell me you've never pulled up at the lights and had to dab a foot down unexpectedly!!! I call BS! If your not aware of your surroundings enough that you would stall a bike and lurch it into an intersection while at a light you have absolutely no business riding a motorcycle, and your probably a major hazard to the other people that might ride around you.
I absolutely love it and would recommend it to anyone but first time riders. Just don't put the clutch on the shifter IMHO that's just a cop out and a bad one at that you have less control and it looks cheesy! As far as "having" to put your left foot down its really not that big oh a deal u get used to it quick! And the only way it would be a problem at a light like was mentioned is if a you have your idle way to high and you are way to close!
Just like any car. I learned to ride that way. I can't imagine putting a clutch lever on the shifter - that sounds like industrial strength stupid to me. I never got the "suicide" term. Idling in gear with the clutch in at a stop light simply means your right foot is on the deck. No more dangerous than sitting there with the hand lever pulled in. I guess some people have never seen a clutch cable break - I trust the solid mechanical clutch linkage more than a cable.
If you can't ride with a foot clutch Don't give a youtube video as your reason why you can't I didn't watch it but I'm sure that's why you posted it If that's why you posted it.. I guess you can't ride unless both feet are on the ground at a red light Originally Posted by Tattooo. No front brake is a Suicide shift Perhaps he was a bit more prudent than some others. Aftermarket speed parts are hardly a new invention. Manufacturer advertisement. The Speed-E-Shift was cool because it also took care of actuating the clutch.
There was a little lever that went to the handlebars that would be held down for downshifting, allowing the mechanism to operate in reverse, after the race was over. Now, getting back to suicide: the classic suicide setup is a jockey shift, which came into vogue years after footshifting.
The name came about because in order to select a different gear, the rider must reach down and back, behind the left leg to reach the lever. This gives a similar appearance to a jockey flogging his horse.
Shifting directly off the trans top did not come about at the same time as the clutch modification. Either real late '50s or even the early '60s.
So if racers had moved on, why did some riders make this change? Removal of the big fat bob tanks was part of building a chopper, usually replaced with a smaller unit. Small tanks from the colloquially, the Hummer were also pressed into chopper service. Here's a nice factory tankshift setup, but there's no way this would have lasted in the hands of a chopper pilot.
All that stuff would have been binned, including the somewhat complex linkages that allow the gears to be selected from the side of the left fuel tank. Recall that the left-side fat bob had the bungs to hold the shift gate and shifter in place.
The replacement tiny tanks had no provision to retain the shifter linkage. Interestingly, some bikes, like an Indian Scout, came this way from the factory.
Before we progress, a little side note. There are actually a few flavors of Harley Big Twin four-speed transmission. This isn't dangerous, is it? First gear and fourth gear locate the shift arm at opposite ends of an arc. And that ratcheting mechanism again bears suspicious resemblance to an aftermarket piece, this time the Thoro unit mentioned earlier. Some riders make a distinction between the two.
Now we can get to the heart of the matter. The third requirement, no front brake, is thought by many to be the real icing on the cake, because it requires the use of both feet, which presents a balance issue.
This part of the recipe is contested, which is why I'm calling it a characteristic, rather than a requirement. To me, it's a requirement. Riders began raising handlebar height and extending front ends for better ground clearance. Longer aftermarket versions were not readily available, so simply removing the front brakes was the easiest option. Squatty inch wheels were often jettisoned to achieve a slimmer look. Skinnier wheels exacerbated the problem. Of course, the massive rearward weight bias of the average chopper also contributed to a lack of front brake function.
Hey, wait a minute Photo by Dan Venditto. Plus, of course, there was the cool factor of being a daredevil. For many riders, this is a true suicide bike: hand-shifted, with a spring-loaded clutch, and only a rear brake.
On flat ground, when coming to a stop on this type of bike, one will downshift into neutral coming to the stop, make the stop, put the right foot down and bear the weight of the bike, engage the clutch with the left foot, bang into gear, and then release the clutch.
This can get hairy, though, on steeper grades. Many a chopper rider would roll slowly to the stop, keep an eye out for traffic while staying in low gear, then shoot across the intersection if the coast was clear. Of course, if performing that trick at a red light with oncoming traffic, the result was predictably detrimental.
Voluntary installation of such an arrangement was — and often still is — seen as a self-administered death sentence. I think you need all three to truly be a "suicide" bike.
I like bikes when they are set up with any two of these three attributes. All three is a little too hard to ride in close quarters. I personally ride in the city sometimes, where there is a lot of traffic. I have set up bikes with handshifters and brakes. Alternatively, I did a motorcycle with a suicide-style clutch and just a rear brake, but controlled it from the handlebar. This allowed me to use my right foot to balance the bike when my left clodhopper was doing clutch stuff, and I simply used my hand to hold the bike from rolling away.
There is no denying how clean bare handlebars look, though. Give it a whirl! It's a little challenging and fun to control a bike in a manner different from what you are accustomed to. If you have never ridden a handshift or tankshift bike, try it! Navigation Menu. Wish List. Please reference our International Shipping Policy for details. International Shipping Policy. Self-Service Returns. Doesn't fit?
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