I'm not able to change the title,
but it should read ''in 2025'' , my bike is a 2013,

Here we are in 2025, and a lot
has changed I'm sure in quick shifter tech.
-What is the best today (air shift?) and why is it so much
better than the affordable models.
-Are the upshift-only models seamless for our ZX14R's
-Do we need to ECU flash first, or mention it when
getting ECU flashed...
-What are the easiest to install, most difficult.
-Smoothest
-Most reliable

* Last updated by: Stratovarious on 11/21/2025 @ 5:03 PM *

The only one I've ever used is the HM Plus. I got it ten years ago. 65 mls kill time was recommended for a sport bike with slick gear box. Apparently the 14's gear box wasn't slick enough. 90 mls was reliable but I can shift with the clutch that fast.

I would try a reputable electric shifter like Pingle. Maybe an air shifter but most seem to be favoring electric. The problem with foot shifters is the series of mechanical interactions between the shift pedal and the shift star inside the clutch cover (and there's more after that). The 14 has a big motor. You can shift fast but you're taking some risks if you want to shift ultra fast under a lot of load. The parts just don't line up, the shift is missed, the engine hits the rev limiter and you coast along not in any gear while the engine settles to idle. The worst thing to do is to try to shift down and start afresh. I banged my transmission so hard just a couple times doing that. It caused damage. Use the clutch and shift up if you miss a gear. After chipping my gear dogs about twice, clutch shifting wasn't a problem but it was impossible to trust the quickshifter. I once shifted from 2nd to 3rd at WOT and high rpm and the shift just didn't make it all the way. The rpm screamed to 11,000 and the gearbox slammed back to 2nd gear. The bike stood straight up and I was doing about 80 mph.

I like the feel of a foot quick shifter. It's not worth damaging your transmission though. The Gen3 Hayabusa has a bi-directional quickshifter I'm anxious to try. There's another thing I've mentioned that's superior about the Hayabusa, the gearbox is a lot smoother.

For the 14, I'd do the research and look for an electronic/mechanical shifter. Footquickshifters are for road racing but you need something more reliable for the ZX-14. The foot quickshifters are fun though. Just be aware, you can fuck some things up if you use them and it goes bad. Get other testimonies but thats mine.

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So If I miss a shift for whatever reason and get a
false neutral, I best shift up, never down
to get out of it?
I think I've read that
before; ''DON'T DOWNSHIT to get out of a false neutral''.

Yes.

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Cool,
I'll cool my jets on quick shifters
for now, I don't want too much damage
exposure.

If you get a foot quickshifter, you'll need to use rearsets too. HM makes a quickshifter foot pedal that bolts on just like the OEM shift pedal. It's possible that one will work better than the HM Plus that requires rearsets and two extra mechanical pivot points before applying force to the shift shaft.

Some owners do clutchless upshifts just by backing off the throttle and say it works just as good as a quickshifter.

HM has an up and down quickshifter. It does an auto-blip for clutchless downshifts. I'd love to try it. It's just my previous experience with this product didn't meet my expectations when really put to the test. There are other foot shifters with more settings that might make them more useful for all-out race shifting. You can set the HM to 80 or 90 mls kill time and it works on the 14 but since you leave the throttle open, you feel a pretty good jerk as the next gear engages.

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I'm sure I'll be looking into quickshifters again in the future. The HM has only two settings, kill time and sensitivity. Kill time is how long the ignition is cut to make the shift, sensitivity is how easily the switch is activated by pressure on the gear shift pedal. I think it was the Power Commander quickshifter utility that had kill time and some other parameter where milliseconds could be chosen to keep the ignition active while the mechanical parts moved...or maybe that was an MSD product I was enquiring about. I'll be looking into this stuff again. For a straightline machine, I'd go straight to an electric shifter and probably auto shift.

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Ok, thanks.
I think that pretty much settles if for me,
definitely for now, no quick shifters in
the foreseeable future, I would want 'incredible'
quick, and perfect up and downshifts all the time
or pass.
I'm doing a lot more clutchless upshits now
than using the clutch, and figure on
continuing that path.
However, I'm downshifting using the clutch,
I don't think I'll ever get the hang of
good clutchless downshits.

For a straightline machine, I'd go straight to an electric shifter and probably auto shift.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me, no real need for
downshifts, just great upshifts.

However, I'm downshifting using the clutch,
I don't think I'll ever get the hang of
good clutchless downshits.

LOL I did it once on the Hayabusa by mistake. It was not real high rpm and I just fumbled the shift lever somehow. It went right in without any dramma. I generally always use the clutch to downshift and I rev match to domit pretty fast. I don't understand how people clutchless downshift at mid and high rpm. A throttle blip gets it every time. Use your ears and imagine what rpm the engine would be running at if one gear lower. Grab the clutch lever, blip to that rpm and the shift pedal goes in with a quick touch.

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Down shifting with clutch is good, I think that's what you're
saying, I've been a rev matcher from way back whenever possible,
cars, bikes.
Lately I'm often shifting down 2 gears now
at the same time, I mean if I'm going say 70 and know
I want to come to a crawl pretty quickly, I'm really
only at 4k rpm, so why not rev up to about 6k, drop
two gears to 4th and have tons of nice engine braking
but still not wild engine braking.
You shifted down instead of up? Tisk tisk , lol,
I've done that a few times, yikes, can be embarrassing,
but if you thinking fast, you can kind of cover it up :smi

Lately I'm often shifting down 2 gears now
at the same time, I mean if I'm going say 70 and know
I want to come to a crawl pretty quickly, I'm really
only at 4k rpm, so why not rev up to about 6k, drop
two gears to 4th and have tons of nice engine braking
but still not wild engine braking.

Never tried that. I downshift one gear at a time. I've downshifted two gears but that's a sepparate shift for each gear, two grabs of the clutch lever and two blips.

It hasn't been often. Only on the track really but I loved wild engine breaking. ...the kind of engine braking where the motor stutters a little because the rear end is floating.

You shifted down instead of up? Tisk tisk , lol,
I've done that a few times, yikes, can be embarrassing,
but if you thinking fast, you can kind of cover it up :smi

I guess that downshift was to save face but it cost the bike a lot in wear. It's not worth it. If youcan make a quick upshift, you can sort of cover it up. If you can only make a delayed upshift, the embarrassment only lasts a few seconds where transmission damage is forever.

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If youcan make a quick upshift, you can sort of cover it up. If you can only make a delayed upshift, the embarrassment only lasts a few seconds where transmission damage is

Yeah, it seems to me the more I practice this;
Key is timing isn't it. Also the faster I'm able to kick the
shift lever the smoother the shift, it's like night and day,
I've tried many many times to get a smooth shift by holding
slight pressure on the foot lever before the actual shift but
that is not nearly as successful for me as really kicking
that lever, like maybe 10ms a opposed to maybe 70 ms,
but it's a lot hard and sometimes actually takes me
off of my seat lol, but damn that's a clean shift (upshift).
--
Just this am, I thought I'd also start working with
some clutchless downshifts, that's a frontier I'm
just scratching the surface on, I used to do it
'sometimes' on my dirt bike 'ok' but then a dirt bike
is expendable, this bike is not. I was just commenting
that I'll never get that downshifting clutchless down,
I'm pretty certain that I'll never get 1st gear down,
but maybe some of the others are a possibility. :shrugs:
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One nagging issue remains though, that is the emissions
issue, I still need to get the ECU flashed to get
rid of that throttle drop off, that happens here and there,
where when I pull in the clutch and expect the rpms
to be maintained, they just drop off lol.

* Last updated by: Stratovarious on 11/19/2025 @ 10:18 AM *

Key is timing isn't it. Also the faster I'm able to kick the
shift lever the smoother the shift

...except those shifts from 1st to 2nd to third gears. Shifting as fast I could on my Gen1, kind of stung my toe.

I still need to get the ECU flashed to get
rid of that throttle drop off, that happens here and there,
where when I pull in the clutch and expect the rpms
to be maintained, they just drop off lol.

If you're holding the throttle open at lest 10% (that's a guesstimate) with the clutch lever pulled, the rpm should climb (maybe even to the rev limiter) within a second. If this isn't happening, it's not an emissions issue, it's something peculiar to your bike. A flash isn't going to solve it. Have a look at the parameters any flash addresses. There is no "enable throttle while clutch is disengaged." That's something that's just supposed to happen. Lots of riders rely on that to make quick downshifts.

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...except those shifts from 1st to 2nd to third gears. Shifting as fast I could on my Gen1, kind of stung my toe.

I think that shifting thing is a science all by itself,
but bearing in mind also, I'm only shifting generally below
6k rpm, I'm testing the waters so to speak and may
never go far beyond where I'm at, I'm not at the
skill level with a sport bike that I'm doing my
shifting and 9 or 10k.
I'm doing all kinds of testing, with my drills on
what works for me and what doesn't work so well.
I'm finding that sometimes I'm literally off
the damn seat sometimes, jamming that shift lever
as fast as I possibly can to get a nice,
super clean and super quick shifts (clutchless),
but yea, for now these shifts are happening
in about the 3500 and low 4k rpm range .
Toe? I tried an over boot shift pad a few
years ago, still have it lol, but that's no way
to go for me, it just gets in the way.
Lately, to save the top of my toe, I've
pressed a rubber pad or two onto a short sock
that slips over my long sock, to help cushion
the 'hit', seems to work pretty well.
Sometimes I'll sweeze jam my foot further forward
and shift behind the toe, of at the top of my foot,
that set up is more rigid, which is excellent but
can be more painful. lol
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If you're holding the throttle open at lest 10% (that's a guesstimate) with the clutch lever pulled, the rpm should climb (maybe even to the rev limiter) within a second. If this isn't happening, it's not an emissions issue,

''not an emissions issue'' This may well be true,
however if you've ever read ZX1000F owner issues,
you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, that
bike is notorious as well as my GL1800 for dropping
throttle to save the planet whenever it seems
like a good idea or excuse to bring in
'pleasing' emissions figures to EU emission overlords.
Those issues and reading about how certain
'flashers' can eliminate those issues, is why
I think a flash might include the fix for it,
if I mention the issue to whoever does the flash.
Like you say though, it could be an issue
just with my bike.

Have you had a look at your launch control? ...just a thought. If launch control were enabled and the launch control rev limit were set to a lower rpm than you ride the bike, the motor wouldn't rev past whatever rev limit had been selected only when the clutch lever is pulled. This should only effect first gear though. I'd check if launch control is enabled and set it for a higher rpm than you normally ride at or try shutting it off. If that solves the problem, there must be some electrical problem related to launch control.

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Have you had a look at your launch control?

I don't believe I have Launch Control, mine is a 2013,
I was assuming that everyone knew that my bike
was a 2013.
I should have written the title;
...in 2025, not just 2025, I put 2025 year in the
title cause most of the threads/post I found seemed
to be 10 to 15 years old, and I'd guessed a
whole bunch has changed for quick shifters since then.
I'll see if I can edit the title...

An example of the throttle-dive (I'll confirm in my am ride),
is cruising in 4th gear at 34mph, one of the tests I made
note of was when I pull in the clutch at that speed and
hold the throttle locked, not changed in either direction,
the throttle quickly drops a 2 or 3 hundred or more rpm,
when it obviously should rise 2 to a few hundred rpm,
that's an emissions 'bonus' lol, from everyone I've
read and talked to, and they always point to
ecu flash, that they say corrects these 'by design' / 'planned'
emissions dives.
This is not an issue at all speeds in all gears, which
has also been pointed out to me several times, they
try but fail to find places where 'CUTTING FUEL OFF' is
ok , to 'save' fuel, and add to the mitigation of
exhaust and CO2, but imv, is sure ad is not ok.

I don't believe I have Launch Control, mine is a 2013,

As far as I know, they all have launch control since 2006. My 2008 had it. My 2024 has it. If you have the owners manual, it tells how to set it. It's quite a process of button pressing but once you figure it out, it's not bad.

I knew what you were talking about. I don't think it's possible to edit the title.

I haven't noticed any throttle dives on my 2024 and I often do what you described to downshift without engine braking, hold the throttle steady and grab the clutch lever quick while shifting down. It sounds cool. You may be onto something though but it's not anything I've ever heard of.

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As far as I know, they all have launch control since 2006. My 2008 had it. My 2024 has it. If you have the owners manual, it tells how to set it. It's quite a process of button pressing but once you figure it out, it's not bad.

I haven't seen anything yet on my bike other than
my power mode, (which I have set to F), and TC which
I've been leaving on the default of 1 vs
turning it off.
I just queried my pdf with; launch, and didn't get
any returns.
I went through settings again and found the items
I mentioned and things like fuel economy,
trip a, b, odometer, battery etc.

I can get 45 to 50 mpg by the way if just loping along,
but I'm finding that when I get to the gas station it's right around
30mph, when doing the math, I can't really complain
about 30mpg though, that's with tons of slow to med speed drills
and 'spirited' riding.

Bike is running nice with my 14'' slip ons, and sounds great,
I took out the DB killers, it's just marginally louder
than the OEM pipes, but loud enough now to hear the engine
when shifting, so that is super cool.

I haven't seen anything yet on my bike other than
my power mode, (which I have set to F), and TC which
I've been leaving on the default of 1 vs
turning it off.
I just queried my pdf with; launch, and didn't get
any returns.
I went through settings again and found the items
I mentioned and things like fuel economy,
trip a, b, odometer, battery etc.

Sorry, I made a mistake. The ZX-14 never had launch control. What it has is an engage lamp. This only comes on to indicate that the selected rpm for launching has been reached but it doesn't limit the rpm automatically via ignition cut or fuel cut. Launch control was something i was looking into doing through the Dynojet setup I had on the old bike.

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