Transmission talk

Lets hold a discussion for the pupose of understanding some terminology and reasoning in the transmission department.

Backcutting the Trans. What's the purpose ? Better shifting ?

Do any of you guys run your Trans with neutral at the bottom of the shifter instead of between 1st and 2nd ? And what purpose does this serve ?

Back-cutting the trans is when someone machines a slight angle into the dogs on the gears. I think most use about a 7* angle. This angle helps to lock the gears together when shifted so they don't jump out of gear. It's done differently by different machinists. Depends on what you plan on using the bike for. Some just back-cut one side for up-shifts. Some cut both sides. Some will even take some of the hardness out to make the gears "softer" to help with the shock from a shifter. Lot of dragracers will move neutral to the bottom. This would help with a 1-2 auto or more to find neutral. With neutral on the bottom, all you have to do after the burnout is shift down til you hit bottom and you know you are in neutral and then shift up for first. Easier to find neutral this way and safer in that respect. Using a slider clutch can make it harder to find neutral so neutral on bottom is easier to figure what gear you are in and get in first. Some say it makes for a faster shift but according to one shop, it doesn't beings it still moves the same distance on the shift in either scenario...

Good Fortune!

My old Kawasaki H2 triple has neutral at the bottom. That idea is totally stupid on a street bike as generally when one shifts down, you shift all the way down to first. Easy to find first when you stop for a light ect. Now with neutral at the bottom you shift all the way down, the have to shift up once every time you stop to be sure you're in first gear. Not a huge deal, but gets old.
The worst thing is if you are riding along at a slow speed for example and think you are in second gear and want to shift to first, but in reality you are already in first. On a normal motorcycle, if this happens and you try to shift down nothing happens, on a motorcycle with neutral at the bottom, it's kind of embarassing to gun the bike to pass a car and shift down from 1st to neutral.
These are not a big deal possibly for most, but the big deal on the H2 is it's geared really high in first, you can go 50mph in first gear if you want to. Easy to believe there is another gear down there and all you got is neutral.
I've had this H2 for 35 yrs now and still think the system is dumb to say the least. Stay with the conventional shift pattern.

Well that's some helpful info guys, thanks a million.N at the bottom of stack does sound ridiculous for the street.