With the advent of additional bells and whistles being fitted to more new sports bikes these days, sometimes it becomes hard to actually see the true benefit of these and many are simply gimmicks to sell bikes. But one of these bells and whistles does at least warrant investigation, as the benefits do seem quite clear. A couple of my friends have the 2010 S1000RR from Munich, with aforementioned bells and whistles bristling all over it, one being a Quick Shifter!!

After riding these bikes and using the QS to good effect, it made sense to buy one (a quickshifter that is, not an S1000RR) and fit it to my 2010 Fireblade, as potentially, this is the single biggest improvement a 2010 Fireblade could have. In addition, the quickshifter is a hoot to use and really allows the full acceleration potential to be witnessed through the gears.

There are a few QS systems out there, but they are not in abundance, like, say, aftermarket exhausts and there are not very many manufacturers fitting them as standard yet. BMW do to their various sports and semi-sports bike and ... er, ... In fact, I think that's it??!

So after a bit of investigation I opted for the Translogic TLS-QS2GPPUSH system for my Blade. In the part number the word 'push' is seen and this is important, as dependent on the gear change mechanism you have on your bike will determine if you need a 'push' or 'pull' set up.

With the gearchange linkage on the Blades from 2004 onwards being activated from the gear lever on a separate spigot (not attached to the left footpeg assembly), it is a 'push' system.

Changing up from 1st up to 6th, you 'push' the tie rod between the gear change lever and the gear box shaft. You only 'pull' the tie rod when you select 1st gear, whereby you use the clutch. All sounds very simple and in effect it is.

The Translogic system I selected has a 3 way switch which attaches to the bars (or elsewhere) for 'on the fly' adjustment. Position 1 for trackdays and flat out gear changes with a 52 MS (millisecond) pause (primary interrupt time), between gears and position 3 is for normal road riding with a partially opened, but constant throttle and allows a 74 MS pause between gears, which apparently allows a smoother gear change. It all seems like blink of the eye stuff to me, but should be fun. Position 2 is obviously somewhere between these. See tables below;

The kit arrives in a very nice hard plastic box (can be used for sandwiches for work once empty), with loads of clips, Velcro, cable ties, all important fitting instructions and various bits and bobs that you do or do not require, but the 2 main things are the transponder and the loom with the small ECU attached to the end of it.

The first thing to do is replace the tie rod between the gearchange lever and the gearbox shaft, there are 3 pieces of universal tie rod in the kit, 2 of which I cut and made to measure to get the exact fit, but as long as you are careful, you take your time and measure the length properly, allowing a few millimetres of excess for adjustment, it all goes together nicely with the transponder at the top of the rod and looks very neat indeed.

Next is the loom which attaches to the ignition coils, + and - of the battery, the 3 way switch, the transponder, a wire for the clutch lever, (not needed though) and the ECU itself. When you start, it's best to remove seat and tank/tank cover and lay the loom out for where you want the wires to go, The length of the wires is enough, in fact a little too much for the switch and ECU cable for the Blade but you have to allow that this is a universal system - it's not bike model specific.

It is recommended that the ECU sits towards the front of the bike and I intend to locate mine inside the front fairing, it's the size of a match box.

When reading the instructions it all seems very straight forward and if you have a bit of mechanical know- how it is, but if you don't, get a dealer to fit it as it is fiddly.

When fitting mine, I was cursing the advent of fuel injection, as the airbox has to be completely removed to get to the coils!! Airboxes these days are festooned in gaily coloured wires, plugs, sensors and the like and are a bit tricky to remove at first glance. However, I managed to get the thing off and then had to locate the original connectors that attach to the ignition coils on top of the spark plugs. Once the airbox is removed, numbers 2 and 3 are simple enough, but 1 and 4 are a nightmare and as I write this, my knuckles are showing the signs of skin loss.

So if you have a young son or daughter with long and slender fingers, make sure they are within earshot as it's worth calling them in when you want to unplug and re-plug numbers 1 and 4. Mine were at school today, so no amount of cursing brought me any assistance. I must say, though, I did it all without having to strip any side panels off the bike, which may have given a bit more access.

The bulk of the system itself is now fitted after approximately 4 hours. The airbox is back on and everything plugged back in. As the 2008 onwards Blade has the electronic steering damper under the tank cover, it's important to keep the excess lengths of wire in the loom tucked well away from the arm of the damper. There does appear to be enough room for this, but I will find out more when I put the tank cover back on.

What's left to do? I only have to situate the switch and the ECU and then cable tie and tuck wires away, so all in all it is nigh on completed and then of course, ride it.

Day 2

As you can see, I took my time to fit it and glad I did. The finishing touches have now been performed. The switch is mounted on the top yoke; it could have been placed in various locations, but I decided to secure it by drilling a 5mm hole in the top yoke and tapping out a 6mm thread and then loctiting into place, it looks neat and tidy and is easily accessible for the 'on the fly' changes I may require. The ECU is located inside the left hand fairing, tucked down in a well ventilated and easy to locate position. It is held on by Velcro - use a hair dryer to warm the surface for the Velcro pad as it does help it stick.

And does it work? Well, it's not at all bad, does the job albeit not as smoothly as the factory fitted stuff on Beemers. The best setting seems to be 1 as it gives the least noticeable stutter in forward motion. More testing will need to be done as position 3 seemed rather jerky but is supposed to be smooth. Certainly, the harder you accelerate the better the shift is and it will improve flat out acceleration times racing those pesky S1000RRs.

Remember; if in doubt about fitting this system yourself get a professional to do it.