I’ve just been tinkering with the idea of a fifties bike and wondered why after a certain time all the gear levers changed to the left from the right. On another note I’m guessing German bikes always were left foot gears whilst others were right. Any idea the story behind it?
Was it anything to do with the switch to “unit” engines or following the trend with the rise of sales of Japanese bikes?
It resulted from US 'safety' regulations: most motorcycle imports were Japanese, so it was required to be standardised on the Japanese side. In fact, I have one old bike with a right foot change and two newer bikes with a left foot change, and I don't have any trouble adapting to what I am riding at the time, so it was really a quite unnecessary restriction.
The original Japanese designer had unfortunately lost his right leg "during the war" so put it on the left so he could change gear
Don’t think the early unit engines had left gear changes if I remember correctly and with sales of Japanese bikes were leaving the Brit bike sales well and truly behind so did the Brit bikes changed to right to left to follow a trend as Andy the chocolate Hobnob muncher suggested Orrrrr was down to a Japanese Long John Silver as Rocker hinted Orrrrr Orrrrr I can’t think of a bike that has the gear change on the same side as the clutch,,,it’s down to engine design.
I think it's just as simple that the gearbox was on the right and the clutch and drive on the left Triumph changed using a fairly complex solution on the bonneville because the yanks couldn't get on with the correct way round
British is only part of it but what about Spanish, Italian and others all on the right? Surely America couldn’t dictate to the world? If that’s the case all cars in Europe will have twin headlights and oversize bell end bumpers too then?
America couldn't legislate for the rest of the world, but all the European manufacturers wanted/needed to export bikes there, and it wouldn't have been economic to make two versions. By the way, is 'oversize bell end' a description of their current president by any chance?
Well yes and no Eric. The market in the 1960’s -70’s in the USA was huge and what the buyer wants the buyer gets. Take the Triumph Bandit designed by the retired Edward Turner 1968 it was an air-cooled DOHC parallel twin and came with a front disc brake which was a futuristic road bike design in those days. The USA was crying out for a bike like this with its top speed of between 110-115 mph, faster than a lot of home manufactured bikes of much larger capacity. Because of internal wrangling and the likes,and a few reliability problems it was 3 years before Triumph were ready to start production by which time the Japanese were selling 4stroke and 2 stroke bikes hand over fist in the USA. This stupidity by Triumph meant they’d missed the USA boat and were already on the downward spiral and with finances already dwindling a decision was made not to put the bike into production. BTW the Triumph Bandit 350 DOHC had a left side gear change
I always believed it was to standardise the limbs you braked with. For those of us that have ridden both and drive a car that sinking feeling when you hit the brakes only to change down a gear. (can be underpants staining)
As you say Steve do they count Think I should have said I can’t think of a British bike, post WWII that has the gear change on the same side as the clutch
IIRC, before the US legislation was enacted, the Harley big twins had left foot gearchange (because the original hand change was on the left?), and the Sportster, designed to compete with the British bikes, had the gear lever on the right. As well as the control position, the US also mandated the "1 down, the rest up" shift pattern. Previously, Triumph was 1 down 3 up (now standard), the other British manufacturers were 1 up 3 down (now known as "race change"), some Kawasakis had neutral at the bottom, and there were even bikes that had a rotary pattern (N>1>2>3>4>N>1...).
