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left AKA and shifting
Hello all,
What an awesome forum to read. A little bit of my story, just to give you an overview of my position. I was a Buell Ulysses as well as a Harley Ultra rider. I guess the Buell was a bit of a mid life thing...LOL I was on my way home from a week long trip, when my riding buddy and I went to the top of Reddish Knob WV. I was about 40 seconds in front of my friend when I rounded a corner and met up with a fast moving Pick up truck. The dirt road was less then two lanes wide, and there was not much space or time to react. He hit me as I tried to drive the bike into a ditch. The force of the impact severed my left leg at the knee. BTW if your ever in WV and need to call 911...there is no phone signal.
Ok enough about that, lets move on to the bike stuff.
I was very focused on riding again. I did not want to ride a trike, no way...no how...was I going to ride one of those things. So I went to Orlando and met up with a guy who builds retractable landing gear for bikes. I did my best to learn to use that thing, but the second time it tossed me over, that was enough for me. I wanted to be able to ride alone, to have the ability to ride with out feeling I needed someone there. So I broke down and bought a 2001 ultra that had a trike kit installed. Ok so the stability issue has been addressed, now how do I shift the thing? I bought a Pingle shifter. Sorry pingle lovers out there, that thing was the biggest wast of money I ever spent. There are four major parts to the shifter.
Two computer modules, one to control the shifter, and one to control the ignition cut out. The switch to activate and operate the shifter, and the large electro-magnetic coil that did the shifting. Every one of those parts failed once. Leaving me on the side of the road, waiting for a tow.
This was not the riding I was looking for. Lucky for me I have a good friend who likes to think about problems like this and how to solve them. To bad I think he is related to Rube Goldberg. We were at the shop one night after the tow truck dropped off my trike thinking how can I shift my bike with a fake leg. I have no control over the knee, or the foot. I could not even get my foot in close to the shifter.
So if the foot cant go to the shifter, then the shifter must go to the foot. After ditching some very fancy plans, most involving gears, and pulleys with some cantilevers tossed in here and there , a most simple solution was come across. The floor board was moved out about 3 inches. This was done so my foot whttp://wildpiginfo.msstate.edu/damage-caused-by-pigs.htmlould rest better on the board. a 7 or so inch of PVC with an end cap on it was twisted on the toe shifter. The shifter peg had to have tape wrapped around it to make it fit. I found a longer shift peg for the heel shifter and installed that. So about now someone is wondering...
OK so how does he move his foot from the toe shifter to the heel shifter with no control of his knee? Glad you ask that one, shows your paying attention. With a little help from Galileo.
Inertia is how I move the leg forward and back. It's not all inertia, there is some gravity tossed in there just for fun. But all fun aside, the toe shifter sits out past my lower, when I use the brakes to slow, I lift my foot up and it will swing out. When it's over the extended toe shifter, I just push down. After I down shift to where I want it, say first gear for a red light, I lift my foot and it will bend back with gravity to the foot board where I set it down. When I come off a light, I lift my foot and it swings back to the heel shifter, all I do then is push down. Just like everyone else! There are a couple of things that make it a challenge, but it will not short out, and leave me waiting for help. But I'm going on when I should be riding, thanks Zook...the rake kit was the best thing I ever did for the bike. Now, down to Danials for a burger, riding solo.
Originally Posted by Biker-Dave
