Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: One-down (or up) from neutral - why, old bikes, clutch cable

Question
Why do bikes have a one-down (or one-up on racers) the rest-up gearbox rather than a neutral at one end followed by an unbroken sequence? Hoping you can answer this from your knowledge of the history of bikes.

Thanks

Answer
Harry,

Thanks for the question. I'm not really sure why or how neutral ended up between 1st and 2nd, and my research failed to provide a good answer. Most likely, engineers found that gearboxes were breaking when riders were gearing down (engine braking) all the way to first while in motion. So putting the Neutral between 2nd and 1st gave a "cushion" of sorts to the gearbox. Once stopped, a rider could click down (or up, on old bikes) to 1st without straining the engine, or leave the engine in Neutral and let out the clutch, lessening strain on the clutch cable (and the riders arm). But I have no evidence there was ever a Thou Shalt Place Neutral Here decree from anyone in particular. It was most likely just an evolutionary process.

As for the difference between street bikes and racebikes, it's a multi-part answer. One part is tradition: before the current arrangement (one down, the rest up), the opposite (race) format was most common, especially in Europe and Britain. As the Japanese brands began to dominate, they all used the current format, but the old race format stayed with racing and the "new" (some say better) format became the standard for street bikes.

Why do race bikes still use the "backwards" format? Some say tradition, but it's also because of ground clearance issues. As bikes got leaned over more (and even old racebikes got leaned way over- somehow), every bit of ground clearance was important. In the race format, your foot is on TOP of the shift lever for upshifts, rather than below it, so that allows a higher lean angle under most situations, especially exiting corners. Many trackday riders have damaged boots from riding their streetbikes through corners under the shifter, preparing to upshift exiting the corners. And if you have your foot under the shifter in a hard corner and you hit a bump, your foot can then bump the shifter UP a gear in midcorner- without the clutch- making for a possible crash or loss of control.

Overall, it's not perfectly clear why shifters and gearboxes are set up like they are. It's part tradition, part engineering demands, part riding demands (cornering) and partly because no one will invest their company into doing something that bucks real hard against the mainstream. Who knows, that may change, but as we see more electronics work their way into every aspect of motorcycles, paddle shifters, or even "performance" automatic shifters may make the motorcycle gearshift as quaint as the kickstarter is today. Ridden a Suzuki Burgman 650 scooter lately? It's "lever-free" automatic transmission with manual overrides (via buttons) may be a peek at the future.

Ride smart, ride safe,

Bill Roberson