I was riding to work the other day and was downshifting to come to a stop but couldn't downshift past 3rd????
So when the light goes green I started off in 3rd gear and stayed there until I got to work. I was afraid to go to into 4th or 5th for fear I would get stuck in one of those gears. It was hard enough to start from 3rd.
At work I have a look and find that the heat shield on the left exhaust pipe had broken a couple of welds and come loose and got jammed between the pipe and shift lever preventing it from shifting.


Anyone have this problem before? If so is there an easy fix or is re-welding the only answer?

Grind off the other side and buy a pair of after market shields that attach via a Stainless hose clamp. If you weld it, weld metal does not like Chrome Plating and you will end up with a noticeable blem and possible warpage. There are some fairly good looking heat shields for cheap nowadays, probably made by Chi Coms like most everything else.

Depends how it broke, I have welded the one back on the pipes with no visible blemishes and a little silver paint on the weld itsself. If the tab broke against the back of the chrome part it will blemish. For some reason the pipes on Wendys bike used to break heat shilds loose, I never did see any reason why.

Triumph should have just not bothered cheaply tacking them on the pipes to begin with. I've run Thunderbike pipes without heat shields since 2004 with absolutely no problems.

Only possible reason for heat shields might be the models with cats, even t6hen not sure they would get that hot.

The heat shields are only there so they can't be sued if you burn yourself . These pipes are so low slung that they are not really needed . I have scepters and they are the same diameter as stock and they are stock length and no one not me or my grandchildren that ride with me or anybody else has ever been burnt by them . Take the other side off so they look the same and don't touch them lol