Well I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but the more I've been messing around with dirtbikes here lately, an idea popped into my head. My one complaint about the F4i's for as long as I've had it, was that it seemed like you had to move your foot a mile every time you changed gears. I installed a Factory Pro shift star and detent spring a few years back, and that definitely seemed to help some, but it wasn't great, at least compared to some other bikes I've ridden.

So I got the idea to try this.... getting rid of all the linkage and levers entirely, and like dirt bikes, put the shift lever directly on the shift shaft pointing backwards. You get rid of the added lever action, which while it does make for slightly more resistance to shift, it definitely makes for a shorter throw. I got to looking around at different levers, first one I tried was from a 1993 Honda CR-250... the angle and length was absolutely perfect, but the hole for the shaft was about 2mm too big. So kept looking and found another one with an almost similar shape and slightly smaller hole, and it worked like a champ.... it's off a 1990 Yamaha YZ-80. It moves the shifter 'foot' about an inch forward, but it's really not a big deal at all unless you might have super small feet, lol. It looks like maybe a VFR shifter would work too... I may still play around with a few different ones and see. But a YZ-80 one definitely does work. It's a tight squeeze for the pinch bolt as it almost hits the water pump case, but just barely misses it. I had to turn the bolt so the flat side of the bolt head was facing the water pump

Doing this also makes the bike GP shift without having to mess with the front sprocket cover at all

Anyways... a few pics. Before...



Test fit




Perfect!








Went and rode it, and hoooollly crap what a difference in feel! Like I said above you gotta put a little effort into downshifts since you don't have the additional leverage, but it's not bad at all and something you get used to pretty quick. But man the GP shift is soooo much better..... why didn't I do this 8 years ago?? LOL

Just thought I'd share

 

Too bad we can't do this without GP shifting. Exellent thinking though!

 

If you wanted to shorten the lever travel while keeping it close to stock (ie, no GP shift), I think it would just be a matter of swapping the silver arm that's attached directly to the shaft with a shorter piece. Assuming you can find or fab the part.

 

This is genius! I've been thinking about doing the GP shift conversion anyway, so this is perfect.

 

Definitely! I had wanted to do the GP shift anyways since its so much better for the track, so it was a double win. I got the lever off eBay for like $20 shipped.....can't beat it! I'm thinking a VFR lever would work too but can't say for certain

 

Just did it! The part was $12.99 on ebay, super easy install. I took it for a little spin around the neighborhood, and I love the solid feel - much better than with all those linkages.

I'm a little concerned about my ride to work tomorrow, since I'll have traffic and road conditions to think about and I'm used to just shifting without even thinking about it.
I wrote GP on a piece of painters tape and stuck it on the tachometer, so I'm hoping that helps me remember until I get used to it.

Thanks again!

 

Awesome!! Glad it worked for ya and you like it . It'll definitely take some getting used to, I'd say at least a good solid week of riding. I found it wasn't that bad if you were just accelerating from a stop and thinking about what you were doing, but the time I would mess up is when I was focused on something else, like when slowing down you're focused more on your braking and the vehicles in front of you, and just go to downshift by natural habit. Or when I downshift right before passing a car, I'm more focused on making the pass and making sure it's safe to do so, same thing shifting off natural habit. But if you can keep focused on it it's not too bad

 

So I am having issues with the shifter rubbing against the chain causing the old one to have snapped. I feel a vibration(chain rubbing) and a grinding noise when I shift into first, Any suggestions?