Same here. When my feet are on the outriggers, I snap into the next gear with my heel and return my foot back onto the outrigger peg in one motion. The 06 has the spoon style heel shifter and it provides more room on the floorboard vs my 2003. I find the heel shifter on the 03 is a bit of a nuisance. Trying to find the floorboard assembly off a Road Star to convert the 03 into the spoon type unit.
I understand the desire to chop the heel shifters.

I did mine as well.. One of my Fav. Mods

I presently have 3 R*s... one of my very first acts was to rid them of the heel shifter. I've been riding 47 years now, and the Roadie was the first bike to have a heel shifter, and it was only in the way.

I dismount the entire unit, cut it at the pivot, and take it to the wheel to round it all up... kinda looks like there never was one there, when done.

Father, where did you get that brake pedal? I love how it tucks closer into the engine.

Hoping it's steel so I can just weld it right on.

That's an aftermarket Hot Rod brake pedal... I have the same. They're real metal, and pretty hefty.

My 08 heel shifter is adjustable and removable. I've tried to use heel shifters a couple times before and found them awkward and felt like I would not be able to effiently use it in a hairy situation. I'm pretty old school when it comes to shifting. It's hard to learn a new trick after 30+ years of riding without one.

Interesting... I love the half spoon on my 08. It is hard to go back to toe shifting. I want forward controls, but really love the heel shifter

The steel toe of my redwings doesn't for under the toe shifter without fidgeting and it gets annoying. I've grown quite used to using my heel to upshift and my toe to downshift. Works well for me and after 4 years of doing it this way, I don't know if I could live without mine.

Oh I'm sure I could have taught myself to use and get used to the heel shifter, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why. Like others I've been shifting by toe for decades.

But for me it wasn't as much about heel shift or not, it was about moving my foot position and having free space while on the road. I wanted to be able to slide both feet back, including just my toes on the back of the floorboards. Now I go from the highway pegs to different positions on the floors to even the passenger pegs if I'm flying solo.

I think an improvement would be to have a fold up heel wedge of some kind that would accommodate both styles. I didn't want to remove any value from my bike by cutting it off but in reading here I see that I'm clearly not alone in my preference. I also knew the next owner could find another shifter if that was his or her preference.

Bigrigme... the shifter is completely adjustable! No reason to not have it adjusted to fit over your steel-toed footwear.