750 maxim forward controls made easy

Hi all, been along time since I posted. After my accident (about a year ago) I have had to basically inspect my cycle completely to make sure forks and other items were not bent, during this process I decided to do a complete custom re build and discovered a pretty simple solution for those of you who would like forward controls. I removed the entire foot peg assemblies, drilled out the ball attachment on the shift lever and replaced it with a bolt on style (throttle ball assembly) from the auto parts store, cut to size a threaded rod (from home depot). to mount the foot peg assembly I removed the lower motor mount bolt got a 8 inch bolt with a 2 inch spacer ( used from frame to assembly) and bolted the assembly thru the motor mount. To keep the shift pattern (1 down, 4 up) the same I flipped the shift lever from top to bottom. Similar set up for brake side, but moved the brake lever from inside of foot peg to out side and slightly bent (with heat) the lever inward to line up with peg a little better. As soon as I can I will post some pix to help. During my test drives it has worked out very well and was very very low cost, around $20 total. I'm in the process of cut and rebuilding rear end so test drives are short at this time. But wanted to post this info, hopefully to help others with forward control set up's. I know some idea's I was given before were either very ugly or expensive.

 

This is a very pleasing post. I wonder if this will work on a xj700...

Keep us posted as I am most interested in this subject...

cant wait for the pics...Good stuff there regulator..

Im also glad that you are safe and ok, im guessing....

Good luck and post em pics...Ridz 8)

 

Thanks ridz, I had taken some pix of the process and will try and post those tommorrow. I am not positive about other size xj's but should work, I think they all have the lower motor mount bolt I used.

 

here are a couple pix of shifter side, I flipped the lever on the shifter just to make it more confusing for other to ride LOL the shift pattern is now 1 up 4 down, however there is room to leave it the way it is origanally if you wanted to. I got two 8 inch bolts, lock washers, and nuts to complete both side for 74 cents from Tractor supply company, and hollow tube used as spacer from home depot for $6.00. One other thing I did was swap the foot pegs (rubber part) left to right to get the foot area in the coorect area, I have since switched to round pegs.

 

pix are in my gallery couldnt figure out how to attach in message

 

I see no pics.

 

they are in my profile gallery, just checked. I will get some new pictures posted soon as well.

 

Here's mine. (kinda blurry photo, sorry)




..and if you still need a fender idea, here's what mine turned out like:

 

I like that fender painter, is it the stock fender or did you get a different fender?

 

I got a mine from http://www.tcbroschoppers.com/

 

The fender I used is for a boat trailer. I bought it at Northern Tool for $24.

 

This is an awesome idea, BUT...

I tried it. Got the brake side to work great (just needed a bolt and some threaded rod... no big deal) but I need to bend the brake pedal so it's more comfortable and easier for me to reach (right now I have to bend my ankle down quite a bit to actuate the brake).

The shift side is killing me though. My shift pattern is backwards. I know you said you flipped the shift lever from top to bottom, but that doesn't make sense to me. Unless I'm missing something... here are picture references of what I'm talking about:

Regulator's forward controls:


Now, judging by this picture, you press down on the shifter, it causes the actual rod protruding from the transmission (not sure if it's got a name...) to rotate counter-clockwise.

Here are some forward controls posted by DodgeRamit:


Again, press down on the shift lever, and everything turns counter-clockwise.

Here are forward controls posted by PainterD:


Now, unless I'm mistaken, when you press down on the shift lever, it rotates CLOCKWISE.

 

Forward controls by PlainJane:


Again... clockwise unless I'm not looking at this picture correctly.

I couldn't find a good shot of the original controls on a 750 max the same year as mine (maybe I'll have to put mine back together and snap some) but, here are standard controls on an 82 650 posted by maximjim:


Press down, turns clockwise...





Am I crazy?

I have my arrangement set up like regulator's. My shift pattern is backwards (1-up four down instead of the other way around). It's annoying as hell, haha. There's not enough space between my foot peg and the motor mount to allow me to flip the shift lever on the rod coming out of the transmission to the top without hitting anything or needing to bend the linkage (which doesn't seem like a good idea).

I feel like I'm missing something really simple, but then when I look at these image references I'm shown two different shift patterns. Are the transmissions backwards on different-year bikes? Are you guys with forward controls just re-learning how to shift and using a 1-up four-down pattern? Or is it something simple that I'm missing. I can take pictures of my setup if it'll help...

Oh, and one tip (who knows, maybe it's the source of my problem?): Rather than drill-out the ball joint and replace it and use threaded rod on the shift linkage side, I just got longer shift linkage (with the reverse thread pattern on one end) from Cycle Re-Cycle and it seems to be a much simpler solution than drilling out and replacing that joint.

Anyway, any help on the backwards-shifting problem would greatly be appreciated...

 

Hmm... those last couple of pictures didn't post for some reason. Either way, if you look in the galleries at controls, unless I'm totally losing my mind, I see some that turn one way and some that turn another.

What's the deal, and how do I make mine work right? haha

 

Okay, so I re-routed everything and got it functional. Which means I've got mine set up from what looks backwards of everyone else's, but it works perfect. Is this really backwards or what? I'm at a loss. Even now that the project is completed, I'm still curious.

 

It is because you have the actual original shifter facing downwards, which reverses it, flip it around so that it is facing upwards and it should be right. You may have to slightly bend the shifter outwards to clear the case. Hope this helps

 

could this method be modified for a maxim xj 650, and save me about $200?

 

redneckzombie,
If your shifter is backwards, just flip the clamp over that attaches tot he shifter stub coming out of the engine. I did the same thing when I made my forward controls. You may have to bend or fabricate a new shifter rod to make it clear the side of the engine, but that's pretty simple. >PD<

 

I got the problem solved that day, I was just curious why it seems that some shifters turn clockwise and some counter-clockwise.

Rather than fabricate a new shift rod, I used a longer one off another bike. That way it's only threaded on the ends (minor detail...) and it's reverse-threaded on one end like the original. Worked great.

 

Thought I'd bring this 4yr old thread back to life. ;/
I've been looking for diy forward controls, I figured with the cost of the only available forwards at tcbros i rather spend my cash on tools and fab my own.
The OP hasn't been on here since '08 which might say something about his fabbed fowards :~

Although the forwards as constructed by the OP seem real easy and no tools necessary my first thought was that that stuff will rotate around the motor mount bolt with the pressure put on it especially the brake side.
Any thoughts?

Here's a pic of the OP's, hope anyone can make out what I'm talking about: