I have a 2007 bike. I found that in moto boots it was very hard to get my foot around the shifter, so i bought and bent up one from a XL650. fits great, awesome length. BUT I had trouble with hitting neutral whilst shifting between 1st and 2nd with the stock shifter, and now its far worse! Its a massive pull between 1st and second and back again! I also find there is little to no effort to shift, the detents seem very weak. Is this normal? it never pops out of gear, and the shifter isn't loose on the shaft. but I miss shifts in the most inconvenient places..

I know I'm never going have racebike style shifts but is there any help? Or shall I just train myself to shift like a stomping cowboy?

 

This sounds like the shift star problem. The shape of the peaks on the shift star allowed the trans to end up between gears, especially between 1st and 2nd gear. I don't know when Kawi changed to a better shape......maybe someone else will chime in on this. The old shaped shift star can easily be reshaped to work much better.
Shift Star Fix

Ride on
Brewster

 

Wow, that seems easy. I wonder if it makes it more prone to breaking?? but it must work, as its now a $90 kit!

 

No breakage problems.

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Brewster

 

Did you order one for yours? and does it make a huge difference for whats going to $150 with shipping??

 

I reshaped my stock one.

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Brewster

 

I couldn't get my foot with moto boots under the shifter so I put a Yamaha Banshee shifter on. Had to bend it to fit and welded a folding tip on it.

 

Looks good!
I bent a xr650l shifter mself. Do you find the longer shifter made the shifts very vague?

 

No it seems to shift fine. I had to point my foot down to get the moto boots under the stock shifter also I run my shifter a bit high. My feet are 8.5 so I can't imagine what 11 or 12s would be like with the stock shifter.