Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Anyone used Triumph's Rocker Gear Lever?

I just bought a 2004 Speedmaster right before the end of '04 and I absolutely LOVE it. Amazing machine. Although, I have had some difficulty getting my boot between the peg and the shifter.

I am a relatively new rider and I haven't used a rocker lever before. I'll be quite frank... I don't know exactly what it is, but I've been told that it would help/eliminate my boot getting caught between the peg and shifter problem.

Can anyone tell me 1) what a rocker lever does and how it works and 2) if adding a rocker lever to my SM is a bad idea. Of course, I'm asking for anyone's personal experience or stories.

Thanks,
Jason

Okay, Jason - here's my 2 cents.

Got it, used it alot early, less now. My SM is my first bike ever, and I thought the rocker would be great. It allows you to step down on the rear end of the shift lever to see-saw the front end up. (It's commonly called a heel-toe shifter.) I have a calcium deposit on top of my big left toe, and riding 3-wheelers, 4-wheelers in the past, and the Honda Shadow 250 in my MSA class last Spring, that toe bothered me. I now have nearly 6000 miles on my SM, and I use the "heel" end of the shifter less and less, and the toe has never bothered me on my bike. Of course now I wear good boots mean't for riding motorcycles, too, so they may be better padded on top of that toe than anything I used to wear.

I have heard that the shift lever can be adjusted on the splines, allowing more toe room between it and the peg. Also read, just this week on another post here, that doing so may cause a change in the shift points, so mark the original position before you change anything.

Also, have heard that if you get or have the floorboards, the rocker lever may impinge on your available footroom on the left board, depending on how big your foot is, of course.

Another caution - my jeans bottom gets caught up around the heel-end of the rocker lever, making it a dangerous chore to get my foot off the peg when coming to a stop. I have experienced this happening in a blink of an eye, even just after having put my foot back up on the peg. Has me preferring to wear tapered leg jeans now, instead of my Levi's 501s. Even the straight leg of the 501s has enough loose fabric to get caught up on that shift lever. Thinking about some sort of a strap I could wrap around my jeans at the boot-top, to keep that from happening. That's real fun when you realize you can't get loose and your almost stopped!

If I were ever to add the floorboards, I will probably take my rocker off for the extra footroom. Either way, I am just as interested in adjusting that lever for more toe room above the peg - and anybody else's thoughts on that, too, would be welcome here.

Jason,

What color SM?

Keith...

Thanks for the input. This forum stuff is great!!! Actual input from experienced riders. I'll certainly keep your words in mind before making any changes. Everything you said makes very good sense. Since I'm not too mechanically inclined, I may have my Triumph service rep show me how to adjust the peg placement.

To answer your question, my SM is all black. I liked the all black bonnie, but was inexplicably drawn to the forward foot position, and the straight bars of SM... it has that "drag bike" look... at least in MY opinion.

How about you? What year is your SM, how many miles do you have on it, and what color is it? Did you make any modifications beyond footboards, rocker lever (aka "heel toe")?

Jason

Jason,
I put the rocker gear level on the bike a few months ago and love it. I run with floorboards on my bike. After reading several posts about people with larger feet having a problem because the rocker gear takes away a lot of usable foot space on the floorboard I ended up straightening the rocker gear a little which makes it a lot more comfortable. The gear normally bends outward from the bike, but I straightened out the bend on the rear of the gear so it’s more parallel to the bike. Works great for a larger show size. (I wear a size 10).

Gene

I had the rocker shift lever and hated it. I couldn't get my heel up high enough to use the rear of the lever. I put it on for the very same reason as you. In the prossess of putting it on I realized how easy it is to adjust the shift lever. Just loosen the two lock nuts on the shift rod and turn it a turn or two or what ever it takes to get enough clearence for your foot and then tighten the lock nut and your done. Hope this helps. BTW, I have the foot boards.

Wayne

I had it. I sold it. It took up too much of the floorboard. And I "only" have size 9 feets.

Jason,
My SM is all black, too. Just couldn't see me on the Red, Yellow, or the Light Blue. Like them all, though, just the same. Saw a lot more pictures of them on the old Forum. Give it some time and we will see more here.

Change/add a Black avatar to your profile, if you wish, and we'll all know which color every time you post. If you mention what you ride in your signature, that tells us all, too.

Having never owned a bike before, and living in Houston, I figured a light bar would be a good investment in safety equipment. (No regrets.) That and the rocker lever were the only mods on delivery. I promptly removed the Air Injection (there used to be a lot more posts on that subject on the old Forum, too), using the black anodized bolts from Brent at NewSpeedmaster.com - they have the flag milled into the top. Did that myself, and anyone could. (That is to keep your header pipes from blueing.)

Other than that, I added the chrome number plate bracket for the rear license tag - to balance it out. The light bar up front had that end looking pretty bright, with lights off!

Next mod will be Brent's chrome speedo cable loop. I'll look at luggage before I do floorboards. I've been looking at luggage, but my priority has been riding gear up until
now.

Here's what i did to solve the not enought toe room problem.
You can easily move the lever up to get more toe room by taking out the bolt where the shift rod attaches to the trans..pull the rod off the trans and then just move the lever up and reconnect the shift rod. ride safe
kennymc