Heel/toe feedback

I have decided to try a heel toe shifter. I haven't yet decided which. I have the mini-boards, so I might add the Kuryakyn with the extension, since I don't care for their skinny floorboards. But I'd love any feedback about pros and cons of those, the Show Chrome, and the Rivcos. Quality, comfort, issues, etc.
I think I read somewhere that Show Chrome might be a sponsor on this forum? I'm happy to show support where I can, but I also want the best and most comfortable. Thanks for your time!

Jason

Way back when, we had a member who managed to "grenade" his transmission after installing a heel/toe shifter! The owner, like many others on the board came to the conclusion that the extra leverage applied to the internal shift fork caused the failure. He posted detailed photos of the failed slider bar. Do some research before you pull the trigger on a heel/toe. You may save yourself a lot of trouble/grief!

Ride Safe

bob109

I had heel /toe on my '05, 1700 Road Star & my '16 Indian Chief. The Road Star came with one so it was made for it, worked great. Chief seemed to work okay but I only put 600 miles on it, then sold it. All my other bikes have been toe shift. I haven't a favorite, like or dislike one over the other. Unless there's a physical reason for the heel / toe, I would give it lots of thought after reading bob109's post.

I have had heel toe shifters on other bikes and love it. The toe shifter on the B seems awkward to me.
However discussed changing to heel/toe shifter with the dealer and he says that all who have tried it eventually change back to toe shifter... cause the heel/toe is even more awkward. and apparently you have to raise the foot pad to lower the side stand with a heel/toe shifter.

I always took the heel part off the heel/toe shifter on my Harleys because it felt like my boot was trapped inside the thing. Actually when I traded my '13 Road Glide in to get the F6B that was one of the things I had to send back the Honda dealer, who was in Florida, when I came back to NY.

I slipped a piece of 3/4" id clear vinyl hose over my shifter, used a small zip tie to make sure it doesn't slide off.
Not sayin' I won't, but I haven't missed a shift since ..... up or down.................

Takes an ol' goat with a lot of common sense to think of that one. I'm heading out to my shop now.
Thank you!

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Originally Posted by Verismo

I have decided to try a heel toe shifter. I haven't yet decided which. I have the mini-boards, so I might add the Kuryakyn with the extension, since I don't care for their skinny floorboards. But I'd love any feedback about pros and cons of those, the Show Chrome, and the Rivcos. Quality, comfort, issues, etc.
I think I read somewhere that Show Chrome might be a sponsor on this forum? I'm happy to show support where I can, but I also want the best and most comfortable. Thanks for your time!

Jason

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I bought the kuryakyn and love it! It felt awkward with the toe shifter. I got to where I was keeping my boot lower to be able to up shift. The day I drug my boot in a turn I pulled the trigger and wished I had done it sooner.

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Originally Posted by Xrider57

I bought the kuryakyn and love it! It felt awkward with the toe shifter.

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I agree about the awkwardness, Xrider. Did you purchase the whole floorboard setup, or just the shifter? Have you had any trouble with any of the linkages like some of the posters warn about? Thanks for your time.

Jason

Always preferred the heel/toe shifter. Bought the Kury for my 2016 F6BD. Works very well with no issues. I still have driver pegs (always have had footboards but these pegs are surprisingly comfortable and a nice change). No install conflicts with foot pegs, side stand, et.al. as mentioned earlier.

I have always had floorboards and a heel-toe shifter. One of the first things I did was install the Rivco floorboards and heel-toe shifter on my 2016 F6B. The Rivco comes with an included sidestand extension so you don't have to lift the floorboard to put the sidestand down. Rivco's craftsmanship is top rate!

I just installed the Kuryakyn heel-toe shifter with the extension. I am leaving the stock foot-pegs on. Because of the weather, I won’t be able to ride my bike before this weekend and cannot tell you how it works.

My impressions of the shifter so far are:
It is well made, but way too heavy. It should have been made out of aluminum;
Relief cuts should have been made for the hex bolts.

Update: if you plan on scraping the foot peg on left turns, remove the kickstand pad, if you have one installed;
On the left turns, I no longer scrape the toe of my boot when up-shifting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Verismo

I agree about the awkwardness, Xrider. Did you purchase the whole floorboard setup, or just the shifter? Have you had any trouble with any of the linkages like some of the posters warn about? Thanks for your time.

Jason

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I just bought the shifter and break lever for the other side. I like a larger break pedal. No problems so far but I don’t stomp on the upshift. I just apply enough pressure to get into gear. Before I would occasionally miss shifts because my boot was pushing up on the shifter constantly.

I had to do the same thing after installing them. I’ll tell you what life is way better with them.

Mine jumped from 5th back to 4th today. I probably didn't use enough pressure when shifting into 5th.
Have missed 2nd and gone into neutral many times.
A heel toe sounds good.