Been working on the gear change for the last few days and decided on cable as it was simple to understand and relatively cheap, and i have honed my brass nipple soldering skilled to a fine art.
However, and its a big however, when you have a 18 foot motorcycle the cable runs are pretty substantial, especially with a push and pull set up, the total cable length was approximately 15 metres.
I spent ages optimising the system, cut the toe piece off the gear lever and machined up my own roller assembly so the cables could rotate slightly to keep a good angle of entry into the adjusters. At the foot rocker lever i made pivots so again the cable could self-align into the adjuster. I added strings to the gear lever.
BUT, whatever i did i couldnt get the lever to self centre to make the next change easy/possible, best i got was up changes were ok but down it wouldnt re centre.
Spoke to several mates, including Paul Lumley who said many sidecar racers were experimenting with the Kliktronic shifter designed for injured/disabled riders who couldnt change gear for themselves, with the added benefit that it changes in 0.35 seconds, so virtually a quick shifter.
I had looked at this and the Pingel system many times but the entry cost of £750 was too rich for a garage build, but i fed it into Ebay, and bugger me if there wasnt a used one for sale on a buy it now, that had been used on a motorcycle engined car.
Bingo, its now mine for £250! Due for delivery on 2-3 days time, with the whole kit, so push button up and down changes, it was obviously meant to be,
t to be.