DIY quickshifter

[Mr Fro]

I made this up the other day after much pondering about available kits priced at £150+ to give me a bit extra advantage on the track.

I was going to rig something up to cut/earth the coil power but that would throw an engine management light which would be annoying.

The obvious answer was to use the side stand switch which cuts the engine when it's down and tap it in to the headlight flash as the switch is in a convenient location.

I bought a relay for £1.32 from Amazon and used a few spade/bullet connectors and some wire I had laying around.

I didn't want to unnecessarily hack wires so pulled the bullets from the side stand switch and found the trigger wire from the high beam relay.

I made up extensions to the wiring so the side stand wires go to the "normally closed" pins on the new relay (pins 30 and 87a), the headlight flash goes to pin 86 and run pin 85 to earth.

I didn't bother fusing it as the wires are pretty thin and in the event of it failing the switch would still be closed and everything would work as normal.

I've been using this for a bit and found it to be the best 3 quid I've spent on the bike!

Using it is dead simple, keep the throttle open, apply a bit if pressure to the gear lever, tap the flash switch and jobs a goodun! The ready made kits cut the fuel/ignition for around 80msec - in other words a brief tap. You'll get the hang of it.

Pros:

Instant gear changes.

You save £147+.

Uninterrupted air flow through the carbs due to not closing the butterflies.

You sound like a boss!

Easily reversible.

Cons:

Getting used to it might cause you to crunch a gear or two at first.

Works best at WOT.

Using full beam will cut your engine.

I've found that chain tension is critical with this system - too slack and you'll get a jolt when you change.

I used it the other week at Snet and shaved just over 3 seconds off of my lap time. It was really noticeable having the near constant drive on to the straights.

If you use full beam (I don't) then you could always use the horn or wire in an alternative switch.

[cockercas]

Thanks fro.

[Stu]

Don't forget using this on the road is an MOT fail

You would need to revert back for mot but if you have a bit of savey you can put in another switch to switch between the two

[cockercas]

When the engine cuts out won't the dash light up like a Xmas tree?

[Stu]

Depends on the bike

If it does then you will need to wire it in the the earth for the coils

[Joeman]

Great idea!!

Bet once you get the hang of it its pretty cool.

[Mr Fro]

Works a treat bud, the gains you get when you're chasing someone down are huge, it's like they throw out the anchors when they're changing up!

I tried it a bit early on the exit to Agostini and got it just a weensy bit sideways.

[Joeman]

Works a treat bud, the gains you get when you're chasing someone down are huge, it's like they throw out the anchors when they're changing up!

I tried it a bit early on the exit to Agostini and got it just a weensy bit sideways.

 

Sideways is cool

Have you flipped you gearchange upside down, so 1 up, 5 down gear pattern? easier to keep the pressure on the gear lever that way.

Next mod would be to get the switch into the gear linkage, so you can just tap the lever and all the magic happens.

[Mr Fro]

Nah, thought about flipping it but haven't even looked at it yet.

[Fozzie]

Why not just wire it up but use your own switch system, and mount a tiny switch like a kick stand switch on the gear lever? Would be something to try surely to perfect your design?

[Mr Fro]

Why not just wire it up but use your own switch system, and mount a tiny switch like a kick stand switch on the gear lever? Would be something to try surely to perfect your design?

I did think of trying that with a micro switch. The problem would be that it only needs to cut the engine for a fraction of a second and I doubt my big old plates could move that fast!

I've subsequently read of others doing something similar but using a capacitive resistor in place of the micro switch and further electrickery. Sadly for me that's waaaaay beyond my electrical know-how.

I'm sure there are a good few people on here who could knock something up better than this that would be driven from the gear lever...

[Mr Fro]

Actually, I just had another "brilliant" idea - a secondary micro switch to close when the gear lever is in the fully up position.

This would be in parallel to the h/l flash switch so you wouldn't have to worry about getting the timing wrong on the cut out switch.

Standby for more experimentation...