gear lever loads betterer innit

[handsomejackuk]

after some attempts at getting my gear lever better had loads of play at the lever end seems like i am finally getting there... anyway i ground off the pin that was holding the floppy folding foot lever on... and made the foot peg in to a solid one. this was achieve by bending the gear lever metal part back in to square and spacing the area where the springer was with about 4 thinck washers, also had to put another washer between the metal part, and the aluminum part of the lever all bolted nice and tight with stainless steel nyloc nuts, and spring washers. now i did go for a quick run last nite to see if it was any better, and it does seem a tad better... anyway part two tonite..... pulled the lever off again as i wanted to check my front sprocket, and see how many teeth on it.. more later on that...!!!!

anyway what i did next was to measure the length of the pin that goes through the lever, and the length of the lever that the pin fits in to... i did reduce the length of the pin last year to gt rid of some slop on the lever but not really enough.... anyway pin in pillar drill and angle grinder with slicing disk... carefully ground down the pin to 17.70 mm.. and filed the lever down to a smidge over, probably about 17.6 - 17.66mm reinstated the lever with plenty of grease and a plain nut, and a nyloc carefully nipped up the lever and locked up the plain nit.. result no slop in the lever at all... all assembled, and the lever feels much more positive...

what i am hoping to do next is to get some brass shim, and shim up the hole through the pin that the bolt goes through to alleviate any more forward back movement as there is a slight bit there but overall the lever is loads better and far more positive... theres prob about 2-3mm of play in it now whereas before it was more like 20mm play.... up and down... anyone with a sloppy lever its well worth doing this... even if you ditch the folding lever, as its not need for road use anyway..its loads better...

[den]

I with my size 11 feet am having the same problem,,, Shifting into gear is a whole leg rise instead of a foot tilt/lift , HOWEVER .I'm going to look at it from a different angle , I see everyone else looking at changing the lever and its travel characteristics where as I'm looking at a " adjustable foot rest" , I want to be able to adjust the forward/backward and up down properties of the footrest itself,,thus moving the pivot angle to get more feel/purchase on the lever itself,,What do you think,,

[handsomejackuk]

sounds like a good idea....

tell you what i did look at too.. was the tie rod thing... is actually a tad too long.. i find with small boots on it sits too high.. i have it adjusted to its shortest position.. i find my foot has to travel too far up to hook it into gear.. when changing up.. and to change down its too high... any amount of adjustment wont make it sit lower.... and if i turn the crank around one notch on the lever end it ends up fouling the sprocket cover...

now when i had the rubber foot rests on which i lost one.....it was fine its since having taking them off my foot sits too low...

ideally a shorter tie rod needs to be made...

now i did look and there are similar items available for the front / rear wheel adjustment on radio controlled cars. for tracking... but thats about as far as i got...










http://www.rcracinguk.com/index.php?mai ... Path=4_108

[handsomejackuk]

I with my size 11 feet am having the same problem,,, Shifting into gear is a whole leg rise instead of a foot tilt/lift , HOWEVER .I'm going to look at it from a different angle , I see everyone else looking at changing the lever and its travel characteristics where as I'm looking at a " adjustable foot rest" , I want to be able to adjust the forward/backward and up down properties of the footrest itself,,thus moving the pivot angle to get more feel/purchase on the lever itself,,What do you think,,

Den.... start by having a good look at the action of the lever though.. and what can be done to get rid of the slop in the mechanism... you be surprised how sloppy it actually is... the non movable lever is loads better and gets rid of loads of slop... that clevis pin on mine was worn too.. this item...



take it off and have a look... a new one os only a couple of quid there was loads of wear in that on mine....

[den]

will do ,

[handsomejackuk]

got to say i have done the gear mod about 2 or threee months now and its so much betterer... so much i forgot to update this post..!!! theres no need to now...its so smooth..

[den]

I modded my gear lever ,,i made a video and upped it to youtube,all will be clear,
http://youtu.be/6W16P7EfRr8

[handsomejackuk]

excellent video Den... put a comment on there for you and a like... I took up some of the slack on mine by shaving a bit off the length of the bush... and making it almost the same width as the lever...this tightened up the lateral movement but i may look at the bearing mod too..

Al..

[den]

cheers jack , i posted an afterthought on youtube,,for those who can not make a spacer for between the two bearing then co.s there cheap enough why not use three bearings and slightly thicker washers on the outer side,

[handsomejackuk]

nice big penny washer too on the outside and inside of the frame to squeeze it up nice and snug too..

naughty boy Den !!!!!

Al..

[duncmac]

Nice video, dont fancy doing one for the valve clearance checks do ya???