Why are motorcycle transmissions designed with first gear down and the rest up so that you pass neutral going from first to second and when downshifting from second to first?

Question

Is there something inherently beneficial in this design or is it more of a holdover from old designs?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

It’s easy to lose track of what gear you’re in, so when you come to a stop you just keep mashing the shifter down until it won’t go any more. Then you know you’re in first.

It would also be dangerous to put neutral in the bottom-most position, because again, if you lose track of what gear you’re in, you can end up in neutral when you really need to be in gear (such as a vehicle approaching from behind about to rear-end you).

It’s also important to note that neutral is a half-step. So shifting up form 1 to 2 is easy if you use the full travel of the shifter. You have to deliberately make a half-shift to get from 1 or 2 to neutral*.

* Kawasaki transmissions have a Positive Neutral Finder, when you are stopped you can do a full upshift and it will lock you into neutral and not let you go into 2.