On my first long ride, before adding the highway bars and pegs, I found that I just wasn't able to move my feet around enough. They felt trapped on the floorboards. Even with the highway pegs it was irritating. I also didn't like the thought of getting my foot hung up between the front and rear shift pegs.

So rather than shell out some $$ for a new one, I cut the rear heel shifter leg off since I'll never use it to begin with. I've had a ton of bikes and this is the first with a heel shift peg and I really can't see any use for it.

I now have a lot more room for moving my feet around. I really like it this way.

Believe it or not, probably because of my sport bike experience, one of my most comfy foot positions when riding SOLO is the passenger pegs behind me! Great on the open road.

Anyone else?

To do the mod I simply took a Sawzall to where I wanted to cut while the shift lever was still mounted to the bike. Took about 15 seconds to carefully cut through with a metal blade. Then I took a flat file to the edges to smooth them off a bit. Problem solved!

The heel shifter on my 2008 FI was removable. I took it off long ago and traded it to GreenMachine for a 33T primary pulley.

The one on my 07 was adjustable. I still use it just moved it down a little bit.

My 2006 had a 2 part shifter, and I just unbolted the rear half and put it away. Never really liked the heel toe shifters.
John

Believe it or not, probably because of my sport bike experience, one of my most comfy foot positions when riding SOLO is the passenger pegs behind me! Great on the open road.



I used to do this when I first started riding. It really is quite comfortable.

When I first started looking for a bike the local dealer had a 2000 R*. One of the first things I noticed was I could barely get my foot between the toe and heel shifter. As others have said the later models are 2 parts and it seems they may be longer. Also the back half isn't a peg but a wedge. I don't have any issue on my '08 even wearing my work boots.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted to swap out the newer heal/toe shifter it would work.

Wow, I have size 12's and so far haven't had any problems with the shifter on my '03 R*,, other than forgetting it's there and shifting with just the front of my foot,,,

out came the angle grinder,it was one of the first things I did to mine once I'd got it home, I've never had a cruiser before so had never had a heel shifter , I wondered if there was something I wasn't seeing about riding a cruiser and would regret cutting it off, thankfully not, compared to my Kawasaki zrx1100 the roadstar has a sweet gearbox shift.

The early model and late model shifters are not interchangeable.

I really like the heel shifter and would never consider cutting/removing it. I have my longhorn pegs placed so that they are almost a rotated extension of the floorboards. I can keep my heels on the boards and put the ball of my foot on the pegs. I can further extend and place my whole foot on the peg. I wear a size 13 shoe/boot.

On the other side, the brake pedal is a real pain. Thank goodness it flips up so I can get my foot under it. At some point I'm going to cut it down so it's not so wide.