How does Kick Shift work?

These are some of the questions that this page will answer. Please read this before deciding to order an optional front peg or a Relo kit. The optional front peg DOES NOT replace the Honda OEM stock shifter peg. As the picture shows, it is mounted in ADDITION to the stock OEM shifter peg. Optional pegs cannot be adapted to replace the OEM shifter peg, they can only be bolted onto Kick Shift.

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ORIGINAL AND INNOVATIVE
Kick Shift is an original and innovative design. When one says "Heel Toe Shifter" one may have some preconceptions as to what exactly that is. It is NOT Kick shift, hence the name. Yet, it is. Kick Shift's primary goal is to improve performance upshifting. Its secondary goal is to provide comfort. It does both of these things very well. However, it is not strictly a heel/toe shifter as you may be familiar with. One does not shift with the heel and toe simultaneousely in contact with the shifter. One upshifts with the heel, using Kick Shift's supplied rear peg and downshifts with the toe, using the stock OEM peg. If one adds an optional front peg to Kick Shift, one can then shift both up and down with both the heel and toe in simultaneous contact with the shifter. But many find this uncomfortable. And, this simultaneous contact hampers performance shifting. An additional front peg takes away room from your foot in the normal riding position, and requires that you always use it instead of the stock shifter to downshift. Kick Shift is also designed so that you can, in certain instances, revert to the old way of shifting both up and down with your toe under and over the original shifter. This is deliberate, as there may be instances when this is desireable. Adding a front peg makes this unique feature difficult to appreaciate.
(Pictures show Kick Shift with Custom Kuryakyn pegs installed)

DOWNSHIFTING
Your normal riding position is as shown to the right (stock footpeg - stock shifter peg - stock position). This picture shows Kick Shift with only a rear peg installed on it. Note that Kick Shift's gentle curve surrounds your foot. The heel peg of Kick Shift is to the rear of your heel. Your toe is just outside the OEM shifter peg. There is plenty of room for your foot (you won't even know Kick Shift is there). When you need to downshift, merely move your toe over to the OEM shift lever peg and shift down as you always did. This is logical. When you are riding, your foot is on the footpeg and your toe is already near the OEM shifter peg. Downshifting is a natural movement, a simple pigeon toed twist inward to the original shifter peg, just as it was before you installed Kick Shift.

Normal Riding Position

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"Kick" Upshift Position

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UPSHIFTING
When you come to a stop, as your right foot is working the brake, you normally take your left foot off of the left footpeg to make contact with the road. This takes place after you have already completed your downshifting to first gear. When you begin to proceed, after releasing the clutch, you raise your foot from the road to place it back onto the footpeg. As you perform this action, your foot is not yet in its normal riding position. To prepare for upshifting with Kick Shift, you merely need to move your foot back a few inches as you place it onto your footpeg. Note the picture at the left which shows Kick Shift with no extra front peg installed and the foot in the "kick" upshift position. Place the "ball" of your foot on the footpeg and your heel on Kick Shift's rear peg. This is a natural movement, and prepares you for upshifting with your heel. Once you have progressed through the gears (one thing that becomes MUCH EASIER with Kick Shift), you need to simply move your foot to your normal riding position, as shown above, to be ready for downshifting. These are logical movements of your foot. As you become accustomed to Kick Shift, these will very quickly become natural movements as well. This movement of your foot for heel upshifting is much easier than your current and somewhat unnatural movement to prepare for upshifting with your toe under the OEM shift peg. In fact, once you have traveled only a few miles with Kick Shift, you will never want to go back to the old way of upshifting with your toe under a peg scuffing your boot tops.

SHOULD I INSTALL AN OPTIONAL FRONT PEG?
We don't think so. However, you may want to. Our recommendation, buy Kick Shift (of course). Buy a custom peg to dress it up a little if you wish. Run Kick Shift with only the rear peg. See how you like it. Try it with a front peg (if you bought a custom peg, you can use the supplied peg as a front peg for testing). See if you like it. The picture at the right shows Kick Shift with a front peg installed. You can see how it may intrude on the room you have when your foot is in the normal riding position. You will not want to upshift Kick Shift with your foot on both of the pegs anyway, since that will make it necessary to raise your toe as you lower your heel. This hampers performance shifting and cramps your instep. Most of your upshifting will be done as described in the paragraph above. The addition of a front peg, as the picture shows, will make it necessary to always down shift with the optional front peg instead of the OEM shifter peg. This means that you will have to raise your foot off of the footpeg to make all of your downshifts. The only reason we made Kick Shift with the option to install an extra front peg is for folks who always drive in heavy traffic and will be upshifting and downshifting repeatedly and rarely progressing all the way through the gears. A front peg in this instance is a boon. Also, for twistie riding, one may want the front peg so that rapid up/down shifts can be made without having to move the foot forward and backward. In these cases it is easy to place the foot onto both pegs of Kick Shift (rear and optional front) and just toggle the gears. Some shorter folks with smaller feet may find the addition of that extra front peg quite comfortable. The way that the Valkyrie is designed, with the shifter tucked under that big front jug, average sized and taller men will find an extra peg to be a hinderance (pictures show a man's foot with size 11 shoes on). Smaller sized men and most women may find that extra peg to be very comfortable and will be glad that we provided this option for Kick Shift. Most often, however, you will ride without the extra peg installed. Kick Shift is designed to also give you the option of still shifting the old way, strictly with your toe both up and down as as if Kick Shift was not bolted on. You can still get your toe comfortably under the stock shifter for those instances of heavy traffic and twistie quickies for old style toe upshifting. We designed it that way on purpose. To help you with this, see hints.

Shown with Front Peg

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WHAT ABOUT A RELO KIT?
You will have to make that decision, but we can help you do so. Humans come in many shapes, sizes and proportions. We designed Kick Shift and our Relo kits in conjunction with one another along with some investments of money and time in ergonomic consultation. Our findings were what we envisioned in the first place (we could have saved the money). Kick Shift mounts in the same place with the same relative positioning to the original OEM shifter peg through necessity. However, our Relo kits enable you to move the OEM foot peg down one inch and forward, in three positions, 3/16", 15/16" or 1 11/16". Though you may feel that this is no big deal, it is. You would notice a change of only 1mm of your footpeg (that's less than 1/16"). Moving your footpeg with a Relo kit also moves it in relation to Kick Shift's rear shift peg. But, it works out just fine. If you have a larger shoe size, you normally also have a longer thigh bone. This is not universal, but it is the rule. In this case, when you place your toe onto the footpeg, the angle at which your lower leg is bent in relation to your thigh bone is greater which makes your "angle of attack" on Kick Shift greater. This results in your heel being naturally higher relative to the footpeg. If you have a Relo Kit installed, the natural angle of your foot in this case would match the difference that a Relo kit makes in the relationship between the footpeg and the rear Kick Shift peg. That the rear peg is higher makes upshifting very comfortable. If you have a smaller shoe size, your thigh bone is normally shorter (not universal, of course), and this means that your "angle of attack" is less. Your heel is naturally lower in relation to the footpeg so leaving the footpeg in its original position would suit you. Heel shifting in this instance is also very comfortable. But do I need a Relo Kit? If you find that in your normal riding position that your knee is higher than your hip joint and your lower leg is tilted rearward at an angle of less than 85º (measured at the rear of the knee) then a Relo kit will increase your comfort and Kick Shift should be adjusted so that the heel peg is high. If your knee is normally level with your hip, and your lower leg angle is greater than 85º, then you may just like the stock foot position and Kick Shift should be adjusted so that the heel peg is lower. But, of course, nothing is universal. A good rule of thumb, if you normally ride with your foot hanging over the front of your footpeg and your toe pointing at the road, get a Relo kit.

HINTS
One thing that my help you is to get a new rubber boot for the OEM shifter peg from your Honda Dealer. The part # is 24781-KR3-770 and the price is only $1.69. This will enable you to get to the toe shifter easier. In fact, order two!

You should apply a small amount of non-petroleum silicon grease(plumber's grease from any hardware store) to the inner surface of the slot of Kick Shift to make it slip on the rubber OEM peg easier. You can also stuff some of this grease to the inside of the OEM rubber boot using an awl or a long nail. Spin it a few times to spread the grease on the post. Wipe off any excess. Occasionally oil Kick Shift at the outer bushing to facilitate movement. Remember, Kick Shift needs to wobble to work efficiently.

Do not replace the hardened chrome washers nor the hardened long 70mm bolt that came with Kick Shift. These are specially constructed items and Kick Shift my not perform well without these items. Don't over torque the mounting bolt. Make sure the bushing spins. Torque specs have been changed on the mounting bolt to 20 LB/ft.

The stock shifter can be adjusted for comfort in three positions: One click above parallel with the engine head, parallel with the engine head, or one click below parallel. Adjusting, of course, also raises or lowers the rear peg of Kick Shift. To lower the rear peg of Kick Shift, mount the rear peg in the lower hole. Many folks find that Kick Shift is best used when the rear peg is high, however.

WOBBLE
Does Kick Shift wobble? You bet. It needs to. This keeps it from scrubbing the OEM shift lever binding or scratching and also leaves some peg left over for downshifting and upshifting the old way if you want to. Tolerance on the OEM shifter from countless measurements at bike shops all over the state is more than .16" EACH WAY! Now, with a tolerance of more than 1/4" in/out that we had to allow for plus the 1/4" of the Kick itself (narrower and it may wear out the rubber real fast), we had a problem with the short EOM shift peg. You'll notice that it's barely 1.50" long (someone needs to talk to Honda about their manhood!). Anyway, give us 1/4" allowance for differences and 1/4" for Kick, we got next to nothing left over. So, we wobbled it. When you need to downshift, Kick simply and easily moves the heck out of your way when you move your foot over to downshift with the EOM peg. When you're done, it springs back riding on the O-rings and does not bind against the OEM lever. Kick will move for you when you want to upshift the old way too.

More on wobble. It gets DIRTY down there by the road. So, we leave a lot of space for dirt inside. Also, when you Kick to upshift, the lever cants slightly top to the outside. This puts most of the force on the lever itself while the boss is merely there to keep it from canting any more than it does. This also swings the bottom part of the front slot of Kick close to the OEM lever at the inside of the peg which is the best place to apply pressure for upshift. And, there's another advantage: When you kick down, the lever contacts the sleeve rotating the sleeve about 1/16 of a turn. There is very little contact surface which makes for less friction (actually only the 1/4 lever itself). When you release, Kick up and rides on just the o-rings, making it easy to swing back with the OEM spring action while leaving the sleeve where it was. So the sleeve keeps rotating inside there (ideally, of course) while Kick rides just the O-rings to keep it from rattling and freely letting the OEM spring work the reset of the shifter pawl.

MORE PEG PLEASE!
If you're lucky and have a "out" tolerant bike, your Kick will ride close to the lever and you have lots of peg left over. If you're unlucky and have an "in" tolerant bike, Kick will ride further out but will still move for you when needed. You can adjust Kick Shift for more front OEM shift peg in two ways. When you tighten the bolt of the OEM shift lever, pull outward HARD. This may give you an extra 1/8" or so. Do not try to bend Kick Shift as the chrome will crack and we don't cover that under warranty.

WHAT IF KICK HITS THE ORIGINAL SHIFTER?
We already discussed tolerances and the need to leave room. Sometimes, you may have a VERY "out" tolerant bike and Kick Shift will strike the OEM shift lever and buzz or rattle. You should PUSH in on the original shift lever while tightening its bolt in this case. You could also use the bend method as described in the above paragraph. Gary Euler came up with the idea to put a large O-ring between Kick and the original shifter. Get a thick one a little smaller around than the shift boot (that would be a 1/8" thick by 3/4" inch ID) and roll it on there so it will sit to keep Kick from rubbing. Apply a little grease to make it work freely.

COMPATIBILITY:
Kick Shift has been tested and is known to work well with: Highway Hawk, M/C and Cobra Floorboards (with or without a Relo Kit installed), stock rider pegs and Kuryakyn Iso rider pegs. It works with these exhaust systems: Stock, TBR 6-6, TBR 6-2, Super Trapps, Cobra 6-6, Pro-Dyno, Jardine.

Our Relo Kit has been tested and is known to work well with: Highway Hawk and Cobra Floorboards, stock rider pegs Kuryakyn Iso rider pegs and Show Chrome's new pegs for the Valkyrie. It works with these exhaust systems: Stock, TBR 6-2, TBR 6-6, Super Trapps, Cobra 6-6, Pro-Dyno, Jardine.

SUMMARY AND MORE
We hope that this page will clear up the many questions you may have about the way Kick Shift and our Relo Kits work. Much thought went into the design of these items. We have gone through literally hundreds of prototypes before we settled on the final design. The Kick Shift / Relo Kit combination was designed to satisfy many shoe sizes and body types. We have tried to provide as many options for varied riding styles as we could, while keeping within the limited space that is provided by the Valkyrie geometry. There is not much room under those jugs, as you well know.

Kick Shift can use any standard Harley shifter pegs using 5/16" studs with fine thread (5/16" x 24). They come in many sizes and shapes, lengths and widths. They are also at Crossroads Motorcyle Outlet, 1-888-632-8709, any Harley dealer or custom bike shop.