05/06 Kawasaki ZX6R GP Shift (reversed shift) Conversion

Since I started riding sport bikes, I have heard a lot of people (especially those who do track days) talk about converting their bikes to GP shift. Initially, I didn't know what that meant and didn't really care too much since I didn't feel that, as a new rider, changing anything about the shifting of my bike would be a good idea. If anyone reading this doesn't know what that means, it basically reverses the direction of shifting so that, from neutral, 1st gear is up and 2nd through 6th gears are down.

I'm told that this is useful at the track to avoid hitting your toe on the ground when trying to upshift in a left-hand corner (makes sense, but never experienced that myself). For me, it seemed like an interesting idea after riding for a couple years because timing of upshifting is so much more critical than downshifting (for me).

Well, after thinking about it some, I decided to try it out on my 2005 ZX6R and it turns out it's a lot easier than everyone I had talked to made it seem. I was told by numerous people that it can't be done easily (like it can on many other ZX6R's) on the 05/06 ZX6R's because the frame gets in the way of the shift linkage. While this is true to some extent, the frame getting in the way does not actually preclude doing the conversion. All that needs to be done is to shim the pivot point so that the linkage will clear the frame - not a big deal.

So, if you are attempting this conversion yourself, you'll need a few things:

• 10mm wrench
• 6mm allen wrench
• about 3/8in worth of washers that will fit on the pivot bolt for the shift lever

All you need to do is to use the 10mm wrench to loosen and take out the bold that holds the external shift linkage to the internal mechanisms. Before doing this, take note of where your shift lever is in relation to the frame or something as you will probably want to get it back to being at about the same angle it is currently.

After removing this, you need to flip it upside down and put it back onto the post so that the shift lever is at about the same angle it was before you flipped it over. You'll notice, now, that it won't go all the way on because the arm of the shift linkage comes into contact with the frame. That's ok, leave it for now and come back to it in just a moment.

Now use the 6mm allen wrench to loosen the pivot bolt for the shift lever until it comes out far enough that you can get the other piece all the way onto it's post and put the bolt back in and tighten it up (you won't need to mess with that again).

Now all you need to do is take that pivot bolt all the way out and put some washers on it so that it will stay where you have it right now. To do this, just use your 6mm allen wrench to back it all the way out of it's housing leaving the actual shift arm connected to it over the smooth portion of it. Then put on a few washers and put it back in. Do this until you are happy with the clearance between the shift arm and the frame.







The following photos are how it should all end up looking if you've done it properly. From the back:

From the side:

From the front:

As you can hopefully see, I used 3 washers (ones I had laying around) to shim out the shift pivot so that the linkage would clear the frame. If anything is unclear, please be sure to comment and ask so that I can make sure to address any issues!

Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R Aftermarket Fuel Pump

The picture to the left here is my 2001 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, Lola. Lola is fun, fast, and good looking, but far from perfect (especially mechanically). Recently, I was on a pleasant ride having just filled Lola up with gas, when she completely lost power and started feeling like she was running out of gas. As it turns out, it was actually the fuel pump dying. I considered trying to repoint the pump, but given that I've never done that before and didn't know if that would actually even fix the problem, I decided to investigate another route.

I did a ton of research trying to find aftermarket options to replace the pump because the OEM pump costs about $200 from Kawasaki. Everyone I talked to in every forum I visited said the same thing, "there are no other options, just suck it up and replace it with the OEM pump." None of those people realized just how stubborn and cheep I am :)

I didn't want to spend $200 on a stupid fuel pump, so I went about another option. I started trying to figure out what the specifications on the OEM pump are so that I could try to match it up myself. As it turns out, it's pretty easy to find out that the OEM fuel pump for my bike has a cut-off pressure of between 1.6 and 2.4 psi. However, nobody seemed to have any clue what the flow rate would be. I got guesses everywhere from 5gal/hr to nearly 50gal/hr - not all that helpful. In the end, I just decided I didn't care that much.

I called Facet, a company that makes about a million different fuel pumps and asked to talk to an engineer. The engineer I talked to told me that based on the specs I wanted it to meet, and she gave me the NAPA part number for the pump I should get. The pump is NAPA number 610-1052 and has a cut-off pressure of 2-3.5 psi and a flow rate of 28 gal/hr. I bought it from my local NAPA store and spent an afternoon swapping out all the tubing, figuring out where to mount it, and getting it connected to the same power source as the original pump.

After getting everything put back together and hooked up properly, I took Lola out for a ride (in November......in Michigan). It was not nearly as pleasant as the ride that started the whole process, but, on the other hand, she ran better than she ever has :)

Moral of the story: if the OEM version of whatever you're trying to replace seems to expensive, there's always an aftermarket alternative.........even if it's a pain to figure out what it is...it always exists