2020 Monkey, Vintage Comparison, & Mods

[Stichill_imp]

Those rubber boots over the linkage are kinda cheesy; makes it look like there are greased precision joints underneath vs. a bent rod and cotter pins. It's amazing that they'd spend the money on the mold for the rubber cover vs. just using actual rod end joints with purposeful rubber covers. Personally I'd be completely down with replacing that kludge.

I did something similar with my CBR250R. The shift linkage was riveted to the lever, and the rivet loosened and created annoying play.



For the CBR250R application, McMaster-Carr came through. Pricey but you get the good industrial stuff.

Metric Heavy Duty Ball Joint Linkage
M6 x 1 RH Thread Male Stud with Right-Hand Thread Female Shank
McMaster-Carr SKU [url=https://www.mcmaster.com/6275k53]6275K53



Type 18-8 Stainless Steel Flex-Top Expanding Locknut
Hex, M6x1 Thread Size, 10mm Wide, 8mm High
McMaster-Carr SKU [url=https://www.mcmaster.com/94560a060]94560A060
This type of nut is ideal for high-vibration applications.









The improvement in shifting precision was marked. It's a fantastic gearbox and now I can exploit the precision of the engineering that went into it. It makes no sense to build a bike with precision internals and then operate it with sloppy externals!