Paddle Shifters

[MDMike]

Some problems with using a shift cable from a car is they are WAY to stiff to bend without using gyro setup .
Also as you shift a "bike" trans, the shifter actually moves up or down a notch, so your shift points won't be in the same place, You'd need a lot of travel.
My 2 cents would be go with a good ole stick shifter.

 

[microbusa]

hi have a look at my gearbox made from a suzuki bandit 600 internals swaped em round a bit got a reverse as well works fine out of the car not tested under load yet though just look under may in the build diary
www.microbusa.synthasite.com
hope it give you some ideas

 

[jarcynvicnchris93]

light years

Man I love this forum! You guys just gave me an idea with the electronic shifting! Could use paddles, like already mentioned, with a couple of solenoids from like a starter motor, a high uF capacitor and 12v battery.

man Kibble your like light years ahead of the rest of us. however I do think your idea would be freaking awesome for what this guy is wanting to do.

 

[squat251]

ok, and i may be going simple here, but why bother putting the paddles ON the wheel? just use really big paddles, like half circles and mount them behind the wheel and within reach (duh) but im just spitballin

 

[robin]

You can use the solenoids, just make sure the system shuts off spark just before and while you're shifting otherwise you can ruin the gearbox.

Also, since most motorbike gearboxes have neutral as a sort of 'half way' between first and second it is very difficult to get one of those automatic shifters to shift into neutral. Just another problem to work out.

thats how change geer i just use the kill switch on the stering wheel

 

[mike75925]

the gyro would be needed if you intended to shift gears while turning, most if not all of the time you shift in the straits. and you could over come the gyro by making a wider paddle. i've seen a shift setup on shifter kart. it was cool, but what were the other paddles for clutch? using two cables (one push other pull) is easy to do, make a wheel to catch the cables. and weld it to the shift arm on the engine.

 

[mike75925]

make sure the paddles are long enough, it takes a bit with a foot to change gears

 

[squat251]

the gyro would be needed if you intended to shift gears while turning

would my idea not work? is it too simplified an approach to the problem? because the way i see it in my head that would work, it would look a bit goofy perhaps, but it seems applicable, plus then you dont have to try and fit a darn gyro to the cart. I've had to fix those before, its a pain the rear.

 

[modelengineer]

It would work, but the paddles would either need to move a LONG way, or be extremely difficult to move, because of the amount of movement required to shift a bike gbox.

Paddle shifters are lame IMO...

 

[BradenM]

Paddle shifters activating a solenoid and cutting out spark would be good I think.

 

[modelengineer]

That's a proven concept and it works, but then you only really need 2 pedals most of the time, and that's just one step away from it being automatic...

 

[mike75925]

squat, our ideas seem the same. should work.

 

[robin]

whay would you need a gyryo just have some slack on the cables on most gokarts you onlay have to turn the wheel a small amount. most hommade gokarts will never see competitive use on a track so imo paddle shifters isnot needed and you would still need a clutch unles you have a club90 or somthing else

 

[bmg]

well im in the middle of making a shifter kart with a yamaha 250cc... it has mad power and i was thinking the same thing for like 2 hours today... if you take 2 cables a gyro from a bmx bike... you take one cable to one side of the gyro for shifting up and the other cable to the other side of the gyro to shift down.. the rest you can finish in your head......

 

[newrider3]

EDIT: For fvcks sake... This is a two year old thread, that I've already posted the same **** thing in.


Trust me, you do not want to install a gyro on your kart. The cheap ones blow hard enough on bikes, are horrible to set up and maintain, and eat a bunch of energy. I'm pretty sure, on a kart, you're not gonna be turning the wheel more than one turn lock to lock. Just use long cables, or better yet, linear strand BMX cables. That's what I run on my bike; you can turn the bars until the cable is completely wrapped up and there's still no binding.

 

[Linksep]

I know it's an old thread, but I'm with Squat. Mount the paddles on the column support so they stay in a fixed location behind the wheel. You could use push/pull cable from boat steering OR throttle. Pretty cheap to get a cable for a boat.

 

[mAthamphetamine]

Old thread but it hit on my google search...and gave me an idea.

How about modifying the gas and brake pedals to pivot a little more towards the middle so it can pivot in 2 directions, toe and heel on the same pedal? Use the right heel to gear down (so you can still be hard on the brake) and the left heel to gear up (since you're not going to be gearing up while braking)?

It'd be a complicated pedal setup, like the cables wouldn't be directly connected to the pedal. Perhaps a tab that sticks out that works the throttle and only gets hit by the pedal when it goes past the neutral pedal position, and same for the gear down cable but a tab that gets hit when you heel the pedal below 0% throttle, and the same setup for brake/gear up.

I'm looking at buying a used shifter cart is I can get one for the right price. I found one but the shifter setup is complete ghetto/home-brew (big-*** tall stick on the left side that move like 2 feet to click a gear...and has an ugly street bike clutch lever and handlebar grip on it....that's got to go and what prompted me looking for paddle/electronic/alternative shifting methods).

I've never owned a shifter cart...so I could be missing something, but to me this sounds like the perfect setup.

Your thoughts?

 

[modelengineer]

STOP REVIVING OLD THREADS!!!!!

But since I'm here

Also as you shift a "bike" trans, the shifter actually moves up or down a notch, so your shift points won't be in the same place, You'd need a lot of travel.

They don't work like that. They push up/down then return to the centre. It ratchets up and down through the gears.
It doesn't work like a mower trans where you move it up for first, then up even further for second. You would move it up and back down for first, then up and back down for second. The lever always returns to centre.

 

[fowler]

paddles would work

ill say no more

 

[mAthamphetamine]

STOP REVIVING OLD THREADS!!!!!

But since I'm here <reply to 23 month old post snipped>

What's wrong with offering new information to an existing thread? Not to mention that your "while I'm here" response was a reply to an October 2008 post. THAT I can see as being silly for what should be obvious reasons.

Are you saying I should have started a new thread that would likely bring up all the moot points from this thread again?

If you're going to take the time to reply, why did you ignore the post that revived this old thread (mine) when it offered a completely different idea/method specifically asking for this group's thoughts?

Nearly every forum on the planet encourages searching first before asking, so as to not have tonnage of threads on the same topic. I don't see the problem in adding value to an existing topic. *shrug*

I apologize for offering a new idea.

It won't happen again here. Goodbye.