GP Shift - How long did it take you?

[Mr.Azim]

took me 2-3 days of street riding.... i only accidentally "stock shifted" once or twice in that time. ever since then i've been fine with it (since my street bike was also my track bike, i didn't have the worry of switching back and forth between bikes).

once i took it to the track it was second nature for me

[Teal]

Not too long, but long enough to blow a few shifts, and sometimes I have to think about it before starting my ride (finding neutral). I did almost get myself into trouble while adjusting to my new rearsets, and for this reason do not necessarily prefer GP shift... shifting down (directionally speaking) is typically more comfortable/positive than shifting up, so with GP shift you're more likely to mess up a downshift (speaking in terms of gears) than an upshift. Obviously if you rely on engine braking a blown downshift can get you intro some serious trouble, vs a blown upshift which slows you down; in conclusion standard shift is safer, GP shift is faster!

[SweetOnion]

ha, that explains a lot.

i are SMRT.

no, not once.

hahaha... I am starting to have my doubts!

[doozerdave]

... in conclusion standard shift is safer, GP shift is faster!

I've had a few instances where I accidentally hit double downshifts with "standard" shift. For example, braking into Alan's Corner at SMP over the bumps, hovering my foot for a downshift the bumps made me hit it thrice instead of twice! That wasn't good.

-Dave

[Brian P]

Have you downshifted when you meant to upshift yet?? That is what I was makin' reference to.

The thing to do, is for the first track session after a switch-over between standard and GP shift, is to short-shift it a bit until it becomes automatic, that way an "oops" doesn't send the revs to the moon.

I change over all my bikes to reversed shift pattern.

[Fawaz]

Thats exactly what I was doing, and what was crucial to keeping me out of the hospital but also made for some rather pathetic lap times.

But I got it now..
Thanks for all the advice ... (Dave P- up=GO, Down = WOOAH)

last session of my second trackday with the bike..... but i'm still blaming the slow progression on the fact that Its a new bike.

The thing to do, is for the first track session after a switch-over between standard and GP shift, is to short-shift it a bit until it becomes automatic, that way an "oops" doesn't send the revs to the moon.

I change over all my bikes to reversed shift pattern.

[doozerdave]

Well, it took me no time at all to get used to GP shift. I caught myself a few times almost going the wrong way for an upshift early in the day and made one upshift when I meant to downshift in early in the day (no harm there). It wasn't until the very last session, second last lap that I made a bad upshift and way overrevved my SV. It still works fine so I don't think I hurt it. haha...

Verdict - yes, GP shift rocks. Somebody said earlier that standard shift makes sense because it's up to go faster and down to go slower. I was thinking of it this way, up to rev up, down to rev down. Seems to work for me!

-Dave

[caboose483]

hahaha... I am starting to have my doubts!

ok.

[cola_fiend2003]

I picked up a new bike for the track (08 R6) a month ago and converted it to GP shift. I have always run an SV on the track and this was the first time I have ridden an inline 4 on the track. I had 3 things to learn.

• Inline 4 high rev - keeping the RPM up that high all of the time
• GP Shifting
• First time running Pro Track at SMP

I did pretty good. It was so easy and felt much more natural to upshift with the small tap of the left foot. I hit neutral a couple times downshifting into the hairpin and hadda freewheel the turn... Other than that, I just had to ensure I pulled up hard when in such a low gear. Lesson learned.

[Mr.Azim]

I did pretty good. It was so easy and felt much more natural to upshift with the small tap of the left foot. I hit neutral a couple times downshifting into the hairpin and hadda freewheel the turn

That happened to me a few times when I was getting used to it.... with the R6 you can adjust it on the fly, so I put it so that the shift lever was higher than usual - it meant i had to lift my foot higher for a downshift, but for an upshift, i barely had to touch it.

[cola_fiend2003]

That happened to me a few times when I was getting used to it.... with the R6 you can adjust it on the fly, so I put it so that the shift lever was higher than usual - it meant i had to lift my foot higher for a downshift, but for an upshift, i barely had to touch it.

LOL...with GP shift setup, I guess we have to stipulate upshift and downshift. I know what you are saying when you are describing shifting, but normal shifting, up shift means lifting up AND moving up in a gear(ie 3rd to 4th). Down shift means pushing down AND moving down a gear (ie 4th to 3rd).
GP shift: pushing down which is really upshifting (3rd to 4th) and lifting up is actually downshifting (4th to 3rd).
So we are both sorta correct. But imo, upshifting should be going faster and downshifting should be going slower. Not relating the type of shift to the direction of the foot movement, I mean. (perspectively........I know you can downshift to go faster (4th to 3rd))

[Mr.Azim]

haha, I'm talking about GP Shift.

Upshifting should be faster, so that's why I have the setup (when i go to track days) where its less effort to upshift (press down) and a little more to downshift (pull up).

[toybm]

I'm a newbie to the track but not to motorcycles and IMO I think the only real advantage to GP shift is the ground clearance issues that may arise by having your boot under the shift lever when leaned over. I'm not fast enough or lean over enough to worry about this at the moment.

The OEM shift pattern is intuitive, Up to go faster or to a higher gear and Down to slow down or go into a lower gear. There is also one other thing that makes the OEM a good fit, when you are slowing down/ braking your body is thrust forward making it easier to push down the lever and the opposite is true when accelerating. GP Shift has you working against your bodies momentum.

I'll save the GP Shift when I get faster and my boot is looking for an upshift when there is limited ground clearance.

[Mr.Azim]

I'm a newbie to the track but not to motorcycles and IMO I think the only real advantage to GP shift is the ground clearance issues that may arise by having your boot under the shift lever when leaned over.

Well that's the thing...... you shouldn't be upshifting in the middle of a corner, so if you are leaned over that far, you should have the balls of your feet on the pegs.

And if you do want to be ready to upshift coming out of the turn, having GP shift removes the necessity to have your foot under the shifter to 'be ready' for a quick upshift upon exiting the turn.

I've tried the track with both OEM and GP Shift..... I haven't found a difference when braking with your "body thrust" hypothesis. To me, it really doesn't matter since you're just flicking your toes up and down a couple of inches.

[toybm]

Well that's the thing...... you shouldn't be upshifting in the middle of a corner, so if you are leaned over that far, you should have the balls of your feet on the pegs.

And if you do want to be ready to upshift coming out of the turn, having GP shift removes the necessity to have your foot under the shifter to 'be ready' for a quick upshift upon exiting the turn.

I've tried the track with both OEM and GP Shift..... I haven't found a difference when braking with your "body thrust" hypothesis. To me, it really doesn't matter since you're just flicking your toes up and down a couple of inches.

Exactly, I agree. I'm not sure I said I wanted to shift while leaned over, I did indicate that I would be looking for an upshift ie preparing for an upshift and that there maybe clearance issues while my boot was under there.
I'll just stick to OEM untill absolutely necessary to change over. if ever. I'm sure many people change to GP Shift just because.... and not because it's absolutely necessary. Maybe not you, just saying.

[kellen]

fwiw I saw someone on an SV during the SOAR final round shifting midway through turn 12

[mobius]

less misshifts

[doozerdave]

One big advantage for me with GP shift is that I don't get sore on the top of my toes. For upshifting I always preload the shifter so when using OEM shift the top of my toes take a fair bit of abuse. GP shifting I'm only pulling with for quick downshifts so my toes don't get sore at all. Big bonus for me since my toes would sometimes be very sore at the end of a track day if I forgot to put band-aids on them. haha...

-Dave

[rev-fz6]

To go UP gears you shift UP.

To go DOWN gears you shift DOWN.

Any more questions?

I thought it was more like:

I am at a stop and I may not be in first, there is a large truck behind me that doesn't look like it is going to stop ... It's a lot faster to get to first and take off with street-shift than with gp-shift. I think this is also why its 1 N 2 3 4 5 6 (and not N 1 2 3 4 5 6). Just panic-press-down-until-it-cant and go.

For you people that will argue the "I always make sure I am in 1st" point, since when were rules and regulations made for the people who do the "right" thing?

[reciprocity]

Street riding isn't really relevant to this discussion.

This is regarding race track configurations and situations.