Right-shift Brit bikes (somewhat o/t)?

[cruisedaddy]

I had an opportunity to (carefully) test-ride a friend's '52 Vincent Rapide.  Has anyone besides me here ever tried a bike with the shifter on the right and the brake on the left?  I found it absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to do smoothly ... fortunately the road wasn't at all busy ... but I was just wondering what the heck.  I think those new Nortons coming out may be right-shift as well.  What's the secret?  I mean the bike was simply incredible never really heard anything like it but impossible to look cool riding due to gross incompetence.

[The Buddha]

Wont ever pass DOT...Has to be left shift standard pattern...in india we have all sorts of shifting...reverse, regular, all down, all up...right side (enfield) hand shift right and left (scooters...) and there is no dot...anone can slap anything together and register it...Not like that in US..
Cool.
Srinath.

[sblandin68]

I've ridden my brother old Sportster, '67 or '68 and it had the right-hand shifter. It was really strange at first.   It just takes practice. If you rode it everyday you'd get use to it like anything else.

[cruisedaddy]

Srinath, they must be grandfathered or something here in NJ because it has certainly passed inspection.  I liked the bike so incredibly much (AMAZINGLY, it weighs about the same as a GS!!!) but I'd be hesitant to get one ... I guess 26 years of riding left-shift bikes has formed some habits that I just can't kick.

[KevinC]

Yep, the DOT has decreed that the stupidist arrangement is the only one in the US, and that has effectively made it that way in the rest of the world.

I have many years riding with right shift, and a one up, four down pattern. It took me literally years to get to the point I didn't brake with the shift lever in emergencies on the DOT style bikes. I'm not surprised you had problems in a small test ride.

A shift pattern opposite to the DOT one is much better for performance riding: you just have to stomp the shift lever to upshift. Most of the racers reverse the pattern for this reason. I've tried, but I can't cope with a different patern on the track and street. Down shifting in a corner when you really needed an upshift is something you only need to do once!

[scratch]

I've ridden a Tiger with no problems, and have seen all kinds of Triumphs with the right-hand shift on the roads around here.

[KevinC]

They don't make anyone change a bike that was built before the DOT shift pattern law took effect. That was 1974 if I remember correctly. The British and Italian bikes a had all sorts of strange mechanisms in 74 and 75 to switch the shifter to the other side.

Triumphs had the patern the DOT way but on the right, Nortons were 1 up 4 down on the right, I can't remember what the Ducs and MG were.

[JamesG]

... I think those new Nortons coming out may be right-shift as well.  

Not if they want to sell more than a handful of them.

[glenn9171]

I still over-rev my old Honda 3-wheeler as the shift patern is all down.  Accellerating hard from (supposed to be) 2nd to 3rd and accidentally popping it back into 1st.  Can you say "nuts crushed against the tank"?