Heel or Toe Shiftng, which is better?

Fishbein · Mar 31, 2014

Assuming the rider is gentle, do you think using the heel shifter too often can damage the bike?

Willtill · Mar 31, 2014

Fishbein said:
Assuming the rider is gentle, do you think using the heel shifter too often can damage the bike?

Nope.

Fishbein · Mar 31, 2014

Thanks, Willtill. Fish

TriumPhil · Mar 31, 2014

Being gentle with heel-driven upshifts is key. If you are not gentle, you can cause all kinds of mayhem (slop) with the exterior linkage and that can or will cause damage internally.

I removed my RIVCO heel/toe setup, which, admittedly is not as well engineered as Triumph's, and returned to the stock shifter arm for exactly those reasons. I'm an aggressive rider, so nice and easy or consistently gentle shifting was not something that I could easily abide or exclusively achieve.

Fishbein · Mar 31, 2014

Yeah, I'm trying to be especially gentle cause w/ my last Touring I didn't really think about it much; just dropped my heel and clicked into gear, until one day it didn't. I'm gonna be really gentle, but you think it's still ok to use the heel 95% of the time (up shifting)?

Willtill · Mar 31, 2014

Fishbein said:
Yeah, I'm trying to be especially gentle cause w/ my last Touring I didn't really think about it much; just dropped my heel and clicked into gear, until one day it didn't. I'm gonna be really gentle, but you think it's still ok to use the heel 95% of the time (up shifting)?

When I'm just cruising around; I use my heel shifter. When I am holding on for dear life, because I am purposely porking Our Holy Mother of Blessed Acceleration... I exclusively use the toe shifter.

Fishbein · Mar 31, 2014

Well said Willtill.

IDK, true; however, sounds like you had the same broken detent spring problem I had. There might be some connection to a heavy heel, though there shouldn't be.

Fishbein · Mar 31, 2014

idk said:
No connection. I think the problem with the detent spring is that mechanix use pliers to install them and the pliers put a very small nick in the spring. This causes a weak spot which eventually fractures. Of course, without doing some microscopy one cannot be certain. However, they all seem to break in the same place, and that place is where they would be nicked if installed with pliers.

Gotcha. Well, the only question I have, if that's the case, is why so few of them break apparently. Triumph claims there was no recall because it's so uncommon, and I think you all were saying the same thing. If they're all installed incorrectly, or it's a bad design like Triumph Manassas was telling me, why so few problems?

budman · Mar 31, 2014

I use heel shift always..no problems here..

GPMAZ · Mar 31, 2014

I removed the heel portion of the shifter. 50 years of not having one made it about as useful as an appendix. Plus, I wanted more room for my big feet.

Heel or Toe Shiftng, which is better?

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