Salt Grass Motorcycles

When it comes to motorcycles many people often wonder why the shift pattern of the motorcycle has neutral between 1st and 2nd. Some people think that it is an odd design and that there is no specific reason for it, but in actuality there is a very good reason for it. This design was made a standard part of motorcycles in 1975 because of safety.

One of the reasons that the gear was placed between these two gears is because of how many motorcyclists were shifting into neutral as they slowed down, sometimes it was on accident, but mostly riders did it on purpose. The main reason behind this was so that they could stay in neutral at a stop sign or light and then simply shift into gear as soon as they had the right of way. The biggest problem was that riders started getting hurt.

The main reason riders often got hurt was because of rear wheel lockups, which usually turned into crashes. The rear wheels usually locked up because riders upshifted to first gear from neutral but they were coasting to fast. By putting neutral between first and second gear the rear wheel lockups crashes were reduced. Not to mention that it got riders to quit depending on neutral when they were at stop, so locating it in an odd spot reduced that dependency.