Ratchet top to hand shift

[FNG1]

I got a damaged ratchet top on ebay. I wanted to see if I could use the large detents on the shifter cam in a hand shift cover. I used a mill, a grinder, a lathe, files, and a sand blaster. I cut away the damaged ratchet flange to look like the jockey lid. I turned the shifter shaft end to look like the washer and rivet and pressed on and welded a lever made from 1/4 hot rolled. I welded up the neutral safety hole and blasted every thing to get rid of as much chrome as I could. This 1941 FL will be my first hand shift bike. I had heard that hand shifting had a lot of neutrals and i hope this will help me get and stay in gear. You can still see the screw hole from the ratchet mounting and I need to alter the casting around the detent plunger screw. Any thoughts?

[Rubone]

Seems like a lot of work to cure a problem that doesn't exist. But then I've only ridden hand shifts for 45 years or so, I may still be new at it...

[FNG1]

There is no substitute for experience. I only hope my learning curve doesn't involve medical care.

[Frankenstein]

The beauty of a hand shift bike is being able to ease the tranny through the shift, allowing a slight delay as gears come to matching speed and achieving a smooth, noiseless shift. In time, as your skill improves, you may move on to clutchless shifts, using your speed matching skills, the techniques being akin to those of a multispeed big rig truck, I'm told.
My only experience with truck shifting was a Duce and a half, and that was only verrry remotely related to shifting a Harley!
DL

[FNG1]

Thanks, I'm sure it will be a learning experience. This project was just to make use of a damaged part (no original hard to get parts were harmed for this experiment). And I still have the unaltered lid to put on.