May the Force Reverse You

It came in the mail the other day.

The reverse kit for the Harley. ~800 lbs of bike and short stubby legs make going backwards less than easy. Add in some somewhat adventurous riding style and it's all but a necessity.

Got this one, a Mototrike kit, for a relative song. While I would have liked the Baker reverse, that was well over twice the price of this. The Yelvington reversing pulley keeps getting pushed back, and it does spook me a bit because of the ability for that to engage reverse at any time.

So, this shall get installed this winter/spring, and hopefully it will be wonderfullness for me.

Your life just got a lot easier

How does this one work? Is that a transmission side plate spacer there and extra gears to kick between the 2 transmission shafts? Would you put the bike in 1st gear, then "engage" the reverse lever to make it go backwards?

Pull the right hand transmission cover and add this as a spacer in there, adding the reverse gear set. To engage it you put the transmission in neutral, then put the pull the lever to engage the reverse gear set. Use the clutch and walk it backwards. I honestly don't know the ratio, but I expect it's low, and hope it's very low. I don't need or really want to go backwards at anything faster than a walking pace.

There is some wiring in the kit that tries to help you from engaging forward and reverse gears at the same time. Splices into the neutral light and the switch on the reverse shift lever. If the neutral light is not on and the reverse lever is engaged, it kills the engine. I may or may not actually wire this in, as it does involve some wire cutting, which is something I personally don't like.

The kit includes a longer clutch rod. There is a little fiddling involved with the exhaust as the stock exhaust runs very close to the stock housing and has to be moved outward about 1/2" to clear the reverse gear set protuberance.

The Yelvington reversing pulley would work the way you were thinking, using the regular transmission. It houses some planetary gears in the big pulley on the wheel. So with the Yelvington reversing pulley one could theoretically run it up through all the gears while going backwards. A riding skill I do not possess.

I wondered about the extra wires and relays in the pic. Two gears at once would probably lock it up solid and kill the motor rather suddenly. As long as you're careful in it's application, I don't think I would add in the electrical stuff either. I mean, there are lots of things to "not do" that would get you hurt or damage your bike and that is just one more. Don't put it in gear and reverse at the same time. Even with the relays, there is still a chance for that to happen briefly.

It sounds as though it works similar to the reverse on my GL1500. The Honda, after engaging the reverse lever while in neutral, uses the starter motor to creep in reverse. It is really handy to have sometimes,and I haven't had any issues with it, but I use it minimally.

The engine kill safety seems misplaced to me.

If the transmission is placed in a forward and reverse gear at the same time while at a stand still, even I could figure out something is wrong because the bike isn't moving and the engine is starting to stall as I release the clutch.

More of a concern, at least in my mind, is the possibility of dropping it into reverse while moving. If that happens, the gearbox locks and locks the rear wheel. That's not so nice and can create some serious riding problems.

Spinning spur gears aren't good at engaging though, so it would probably just grind. And, the one gear is held on by two small pins that hopefully would sheer, leaving me with my forward gears and an inoperable reverse.

I'll be looking forward to seeing how easily the shift lever can be accidentally knocked into reverse by my leg, especially when bouncing down a dirt road or such. Hopefully it's a total non-issue. But if it does concern me, I could figure out a more positive interlock to prevent it from being engaged. Be it an additional release lever or even an electrical solenoid release.

This is what Baker has btw, I think. Their interlock doesn't seem to merely kill the engine, it prevents the reverse gearset from being engaged unless the neutral switch is actuated.