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Tank Shifter

saintNH

Member
I have a 2001 Fatboy and I am trying to find a tank shifter. I will start by saying that I am doing this more or less for the look, not the function. I have seen the jockey shifters, and the police style shifters, but I am looking to keep my clutch up on the bars and keep my heel/toe shifter. My thought is to keep the toe shifter, get a used heel shifter and cut the shaft off of it and keep the splined clamp, weld an arm on it, thread the upper end, chrome it, put a knob on it and put it back on where the heel shifter would be that way I can still use my toe to shift and achieve the look Im going for. Has anyone done or tried anything similar?
 
neet idea, but i wonder if the extra weight on the heel shifter might create problems. hope not...................bw
 
neet idea, but i wonder if the extra weight on the heel shifter might create problems. hope not...................bw

Me too. I also wonder about the vibration that the extra length added will create?

Bodeen
 
As far as the extra weight on the heel shifter from turning it into a hand shifter, the shifter goes through a mount before it goes to the linkage, so the weight should be on that. And it will be centered over the shifter so that shouldnt be a problem right? The only thing I wonder about is if it IS too heavy and leans forward or back, will it do any damage by putting pressure on the transmission?

I should clarify also that the way I am thinking about doing this is by taking the heel shifter lever, cutting off the part that goes from the clamp back, using JUST the clamp and welding a rod to the clamp and standing it up centered over the mount that goes to the linkage and leaving the toe shifter to use. I will not be leaving the heel shifter on.
 
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While at my local mechanic's shop this week I noticed a Bike that was set up much as you describe. When I asked my bud why it was there he told me because of the shifter. The weight of the rod and the movement of the shifter caused the wearing out of the hole that the shifting arm comes through the case. I hope that makes sense. I thought it looked pretty cool but their was some serious wobble in it. Hope this helps.
 
You said you are doing this "more or less" for the look. I understand your discriptions of the lever/linkage hook up. What I don't understand is how the hand shift could be used. Your left hand has to pull the clutch, are you going to shift with your right? Or not use the clutch for shifting while moving?
 
I would have to reach across to use it unless there were some way to get it on the other side. I have seen it once, but there is very little i have found online to be able to convert to a tank shift.

The more I think about it the more I think that a police style shifter on the other side might be the way to get me where I am looking to be, because it would be supported since it mounts to the frame, it would work smoothly as far as using it goes and i could still use the hand clutch. Does anyone have any ideas how that could be done? I was also trying to think of a way to be able to keep the heel/toe AND have a hand shifter. If I could figure out a way on the forward end of the linkage to tie police style hand shifter to the heel/toe that would be perfect.

I know this is a stretch, but i really think if i could do it, it would be pretty cool.
 
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