Rear shifting is done by the right brake, which also incorporates the indexed 7-speed shifter. It's a Shimano Sora part, and brifter is short for brake-shifter. You twiddle the brake lever sideways with your hand to downshift, and push on a button with your thumb to upshift.Thanks George, sounds complicated and energy intensive. I'll stick with 1 down and 5 up.
Front shifting is done by the Suntour bar-end friction shifter you can see at the end of the right handlebar. It's a vintage part with an internal ratchet mechanism so when you tighten, you're only pulling on the derailleur spring, and when you're loosening, you and the spring are overcoming the friction. 'Barcon' is a term for bar-end shifter.
Aha, someone mentioned bikes. My daily non-winter ride to and from work. Sora Brifter rear shifting, Suntour barcon front shifting, both on the right drop to leave the left end for the mirror.
Unfortunately, the bicycle and the motorcycles are parked 'til March or so.
My typical commute is less than 1 mile. Murder on any engine so I usually bicycle it.
Built up a late 80's Shogun unsprung MB as an all purpose commuter/errand runner......
I don't know why but the pic makes me think of chicken and dumplings by a nice cozy fire.
I used to live 2.5 miles from work. Now I live 10 miles away. I found an old chromoly Nishiki being thrown away on afternoon. I don't have any good pictures since I finished rebuilding it. I did kind of add a farkle or two though. The throttle is a thumb shifter mounted upside down. The engagement mechanism just goes over center and rubs (rolls against) the tire under heavy spring pressure. Everything is 1/4" plate aluminum and SS hardware. The engagement handle (which isn't installed in the pic) is a cut down rubber-handle trowel. I can pedal it or just ride. It'll do about 25mph. 28cc of pure screaming joy...
Mine is scratch-built from a weedeater motor. Fun to engineer, but very time consuming. I just saw this on eBay - what a deal!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Stroke-80cc-Engine-Motor-For-Motorized-Bicycle-Kits/150764350753?_trksid=p2047675.m1982&_trkparms=aid%3D333005%26algo%3DRIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D177%26meid%3D3280327625734674234%26pid%3D100009%26prg%3D1088%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D221320099131%26