Shifter not returning

[hyperfamilyman]

Greetings and Salutations fellow riders,

I absolutely love my Aspencade 1500, I ride it every chance I get, unfortunately the chances are not as often as I like.

I took my time and installed the shifter brace a couple weeks ago and I took mybtime and made sure it was right. Even grinded down the welds to make sure it sat flat when bolted in. I got my first chance to ride it today. I do feel the shifts are crisper and cleaner.

When I upshift it is great and no issues.

Downshifting is another story, after I downshift I have to put my toe under the shift lever and lift it a little so it is in position to go to the next gear.

It seems when downshifting it is not returning to let's call it zero position. This is 100% a result of the shift brace.

My question is does it need to "break in" and it will correct itself after a few bit of riding or do I need to break out the wrenches again?

[Rambozo]

Sounds like you have a pivot bind. Time to do some adjustments. It can take a little fiddling to get everything lined up. Not one of Honda's better ideas, hence why the brace is even needed in the first place. Also be sure to apply a little lube to the pivot bushing in the brace, too.

[bellboy40]

You might need to revisit where it mounts with the engine guard. That has to be flat so that the arc of the pivot is true. Another thought is to be sure the lever or brace is not hitting anything when you downshift. Check where you had to trim on that cover to make sure you have plenty of clearance for that brace to move.

[the_big_h]

For sure the brace is causing a bit of binding. I wouldn't count on it "breaking in", it's far better to make adjustments as needed to make it work perfectly from the start.

The bearing in the brace has a few thousandths of an inch of clearance. If you get it aligned perfectly, you should be able to move the shifter up/down and fore/aft by those few thousandths. If there is no play at all once installed, you know it is binding (or at least at the verge of binding).

When I installed mine, it took 8 or 10 tries to get it perfect. I may have used some blueing on the bearing to see how it was binding, or maybe I just inspected very carefully to see where it was binding. If I recall correctly, I filed a tiny bit off the face of the brace that meets up to the engine guard to make it fit up perfectly. This is after removing some weld spatter off the engine guard mounting face, and making it as flat as I could.

I'm really happy with the brace, no more worries about hurting the shifter with my size 14 stompers.

[hyperfamilyman]

Thank you all for the advice and tips. Looks like I will be getting some wrench time in this weekend.

[JoeJoeGun]

I purchased one from ebay and for the life of me I can't get it to sit flat. It binds up just as soon as it starts to tighten up. I have filed and filed, even tried washers with no luck. The only way I can get it to half way work is to leave it loose and use loctite. Then still when you press down for first gear you have to pull it back up twice before it shifts to second gear.

After riding the bike around a few miles I took it all apart and you could see metal shavings and the wear that had already taken place. I like the tightness feel it gives to the shifts but I don't think it's gonna work for me. And by the way, It wasn't giving me any problems before I installed it. I just thought it might help. Plus I like to tinker on it.




Anybody else have this problem? If so, please tell me how you corrected it.

Thanks

[Rambozo]

You need to figure out what is out of alignment and correct it. If your engine guards have hit the ground or even if they were just made on a Monday, you may have to grind the back of the brace mounting point, at an slight angle, so that the pivot pin is parallel to the shifter shaft.

One other thing, did you get the one from Pepe or the knock-off from the Ukraine? I know Pepe's fit, not sure about the copies.

Ideally this brace would have a spherical bearing so it would self align, but that would increase the cost substantially. Since you only have to fit it once when you install, it takes a little work, but not too bad.

[blupupher]

Sounds like I got lucky on mine then.
I just followed the instructions here for install and it worked just fine, no adjustments needed.

and @JoeJoeGun, I ask the same question as Rambozo, who was the e-bay seller (or provide a link to what you bought).

If you bought it in the past 2-3 months, it is probably a knockoff since peppi-le-pew has been out of stock for several months now.
If it was an original from Pepe, contact him, he will make it right.
If from overseas, good luck.

[hyperfamilyman]

I got mine from Cycle Max back in January, just got around to putting it on a couple weeks ago. You guys gave me some great things to check. I hope the other guy gets his figured out and it works for him.