can i make heel toe boatds work without the heel toe shifter?

[halcombrick]

A guy is offering me a set of floorboards that he got from eBay, they are heel toe that don't have the shifter, they were supposed to have came off an 83. but the left side would not work for him, is there a way I can make them work and use the factory shifter?

[roadwanderer2]

hey Hal:

with the left side floorboard on the bike, there wont be enough room to put your toe onto the shifter. the length of the board will take most of the room between where your foot peg is to the bottom of the engine guard. you will also have to remove your front foot pegs when you put the boards on. when I put the boards on my 83 aspy, I had to remove the shifter and install the heel-toe shifter. if you look on eBay, or want me to find one for you, I'll be more than happy to research it for you. that's how I found the ones for mine.

if and when you do decide to put the boards on, you will notice a big difference in the way you'll be riding. your feet will rest flat on the boards which will make you sit up straighter and your legs will be straight out from the hip to the knee and straight down from the knee to the foot instead of how your riding now with
the ball of your foot resting on the peg.

in my opinion, its actually more comfortable and you'll have a different feeling in the way you ride the bike. it will be like sitting in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. you'll feel like your riding a true touring bike. it took me a little while to get used to it, but im glad I got these boards and heel-toe shifter, they made my ride down to Florida much more enjoyable. it will also make a difference in the way you use your right foot on your brake peddle. you'll have to lift up your foot and PLACE it onto the peddle. THAT will take a little getting used to also. remember, you wont have your foot pegs anymore so you'll have to "adjust" the way you use your foot onto the brake peddle.

one more thing, these are NOT easy to put on, they are a pain in the a**, especially when your removing the stock shifter and putting the heel-toe shifter on, but with patience, they can be put on.

attached are 2 pics of what and where the placement of the left side floorboard and heel-toe shifter will be once its on your bike. left click on the pics so you can enlarge them to view them better.

let me know if you want me to try and find a heel-toe shifter for you.

im signing off for the night. I'll chat with you again tomorrow.

stuart.

[halcombrick]

stuart, are these a good type? i can get them for 5o

[roadwanderer2]

those are markland boards with the shifter. mine are "tour-ease". although the ones you have pictured are good, I don't recognize the heel-toe shifter so I cant say yes or no. what is that one peg for? and where is the linkage that supposed to be with the shifter? the linkage on mine sits just behind the shifter and is supposed to have a rod that goes from the shifter to where the stock shifter peg sits. the flat spot towards the back is more or less a safety spot so you don't accidently put your foot on the "up shift" side of the shifter. like I said earlier, these are a pain in the a** to put on, but well worth it. if you click on the photo of my left board in my last posting, you'll see the rod that im talking about. it has a small red washer/spacer attached to it.

if you want me to find you a set, I can try, im not really THAT far from you. your approx. 82 miles n.w. from where I live, if you can hold of until the weather breaks, I might be able to come up to you and help you install them.

below is pictures of my boards left and right.

stuart.

[halcombrick]

stuart, i was told that these dont use the rod linkage, that the fork on the shifter slides over the factory shifter end, and have no idea what the peg things are for they told me they mount using all the existing mounting crash bar and other hardware and i think they are trying a little hard to sell them and said twenty minutes and im riding, they obviously dont know me lol

[roadwanderer2]

that's not possible. there has to be something missing from that shifter lever. there's no way that simply slides over the stock shifter end because it comes out of the engine casing and its a splined end and I've never seen any pegs on any of the shifters I've seen. there has to be a linkage that goes from the shifter to the shifter output shaft. let me see if I can find a set and i'll give you a link to them. give me a little while and i'll be back in here.

stuart.

[roadwanderer2]

hey Hal:

here's a link to a set of floorboards WITHOUT the heel-toe shifter...........361208455699 go onto eBay and type that number into the search box, it will bring up the listing. if you scroll down to the "product details" it will show that it fits your bike.

stuart.

[halcombrick]

are those the factory crash bars on your bike the right hand side looks weird to me it may be just the pic angle but i have the factory u shaped crash bar without the center piece that goes straight up and down

[roadwanderer2]

yes, those are stock factory "engine" guards. its the angle of the photo. I took in on a down angle looking from over the top of them. I really don't have the room in my garage to take a photo of them from the side. once it gets a little warmer, (above 32*) i'll pull the bike outside and take some GOOD photos.

did you get a chance to look at the boards I sent you the link to? right now, those are the only ones I can find that will fit your bike. there are others, but they look exactly like the ones you have in YOUR photo. I still cant see where that shifter lever will hook up to the trans output shifter shaft. there has to be a linking rod to connect the shifter to the shifter shaft otherwise I don't see how it would work. im still researching it. give me more time to figure this out for ya.

stuart.

[halcombrick]

the way that guy told me was that that fork slid over the rubber part of the shifter and that you leave the factory shifter leaver on and that fork slides over the rubber pad on my shifter and works it that way, sounds like he just wants to sell me boards with missing parts, those ebay boards will work with my factory shifter right?

[WingAdmin]

stuart, are these a good type? i can get them for 5o

That's exactly what I had on my GL1100. They are the Markland boards and shifter.

The heel/toe shifter does in fact just slip over the existing shifter arm, just inboard of the rubber part, there are no more linkages required.

The little peg goes on the right side, you can use it to prop your right heel up onto, in order to give you better leverage when braking if you like.

I don't see any parts missing, however the rubber pads on the heel/toe shifter are gone - you can cut some new ones and glue them in place if you like.

[auctioneeral]

stuart The ones that were on my 2 bikes in the following picture with red circle, the toe/heel shifter end went over the regular shifter end. So you kept the regular shifter on it.

[roadwanderer2]

hey auction, thanks, I just figured that one out. DUHHHHH lol. for some reason, I couldn't make any sense of it. mental block? mind going?

stuart.

[auctioneeral]

Looking on ebay complete auctions i have found these 2 type.

[auctioneeral]

I haven't got that far on my 2 bikes yet. But i know on the one bike it had a lot of play on the shifter rod were it connects to the floor board and my board on left side was not sitting flat , it was sitting up ward a bit which i knew i would have to try to get the play out of the bolt hole with a bushing.

[roadwanderer2]

ok, I have the shifter set up that you have in your 2nd photo, and as for the pitched floorboard, mine did the same thng. how I fixed that was I took a 2 x 4, laid it on the top of the floorboard, took a 10lb sledge hammer and "gently" gave it some "persuasion" to make it sit level and I haven't had any problems with it since.

stuart.

[auctioneeral]

stuart Ok will have to do that when i get bike to that stage. By looking at the 2 type , i think i would like your setup better.

[roadwanderer2]

yeah, the 2nd type is, (in my opinion), is much stronger and it wont give the shifter lever a chance to slip off of the stock shifter and possibly make a "miss shift" problem because you have to adjust the linkage to make sure you have it in "exact neutral" so it shifts properly. there are a few of this type of floorboards with the heel-toe shifter on eBay, but you have to pick the right one. i'll send you links to them once I've found the correct ones. I can see where the 1st type would be easy to install as compared to the 2nd one that I have. it took me about 2 hours to get it all connected and shifting right. like I said before, its a pain in the a**, but once they're on there, you'll really like them.

stuart.

[roadwanderer2]

stuart Ok will have to do that when i get bike to that stage. By looking at the 2 type , i think i would like your setup better.

this one might be your best bet............301344701552 its brand new, but missing some small hardware,(so it says), but if its only a few nuts and bolts, well, those should be easy to get.

here's another brand new set........111476510333

and yet another set.........321643943018

see, these are out there, you just need to know where and what your looking for .

stuart.

[halcombrick]

anyone know where i can just get a set of the boards that mount to my lower crash bar, that would be so much easier for me thats what i want to do.

[roadwanderer2]

hey Hal:

I have those on my crash bars and i'll tell you they are VERY uncomfortable. my knees are bent up more then they are when I have them on my floorboards. you wont be able to stretch your legs out straight because of the angle of how they have to be bolted on. let me see what I can find for ya and i'll send you the link to them.

stuart.

[roadwanderer2]

here's a set that mount onto your stock foot peg brackets..............331482234150 all you have to do is take the peg off the bracket and install these onto the peg "bracket". so far, these are the only ones I can find that come close to what your looking for, but don't worry, i'll keep looking.

stuart.

[halcombrick]

have any of you heard that heal toe shifters cause the transmission to go out? a guy i know said he had to have his 1800 trans rebuilt and honda said it was the shifter and that that usually happens around 90k with the heal toe

[roadwanderer2]

I haven't heard that, but then again, not ever having one I don't know much about them.

stuart.

[WingAdmin]

I've heard of this. The problem is that it's easy to stomp on a heel toe shifter, putting quite a bit of force on the shift forks, as compared to the relatively gentle pull up and step down pressures applied to the stock shifter.

It's also easier to rest your foot on the heel/toe shifter, which can wear both shift forks as well as gears.