For six years, motorcycles were my jam and to this day I still enjoy the occasional ride. My wildest years involved Yamaha two-strokes with enough power to scare the ever-living hell out of you…I’d be ripping gears with the front end rising up and the rear tire getting very loose every time the engine came on the power band and loving every second of it. Back then, I thought I was riding the ragged edge of stupidity and barely hanging on. Today I realize that I was close, but not quite there, and after watching this footage from Urban Hillbilly Videos, I’m certain that I was on the safer side of things…mainly because all of my bikes had the conventional left-hand clutch and foot-operated shifter.
This chopper doesn’t have either one. This is a “suicide shifted” bike, which in short terms means that it has a left foot-operated clutch pedal and a hand shifter on the left side, down on top of the engine/transmission case. Most riders wouldn’t want to play with that setup on a gentle cruise along empty roads, let alone ripping 11-second quarter-mile runs while steering one-handed and flinging body weight around as you bang the gears. You want to show your kid what multi-tasking really looks like? Let them check this out!
For newbies and armchair “bikers” who have neither seen or ridden one, “suicide” means a spring-return clutch pedal, hand-shift (jockey or tank), and no front brake.
For a mental picture, imagine stopping (right leg) on an up or down grade road and getting the trans into neutral so one can hold up the bike with one’s left leg.
Now, imagine how one is gonna depress the clutch pedal and shift into gear with one’s right foot depressing the brake pedal. It’d be like a monkey trying to make love to a football!
On an uphill stop, I’ve heard tales of guys waiting for a car to pull up behind ’em, rolling back to their bumper, and engaging 1st gear to go with their right foot on the ground. ‘Truly an urban ballet!
You know what they say – practice makes perfect!
This is the probably the guy’s daily ride so he’s well used to it As for monkeys trying to make love to a football that would be the Sunderland soccer team who are the mortal enemies of us Geordies.
That’s the people of the City of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the UK by the way..
Geordie, the scooter featured wasn’t [a] suicide. It had a front brake.