Product Reviews


Product/Service: Translogic QS-2 Quickshifter
Manufacturer/Provider:
EMA-USA
Reviewed by:
Jeff


Hundredths of a second. That's what any racer worth his or her salt is looking for. Any place where a couple hundredths of a second can be saved and repeated during a lap, adding up to .5 or a full second.

Club-level racing seems to have evolved lightyears since I began racing competitively in 2000. It used to be that a HIGH-end racer had a small enclosed trailer, a 10x10 canopy and a noisy generator to power cheap tire warmers. The rest of us wheeled to the track in trucks & vans, and spent the first 3 laps of any race warming up the tires which we used for half a season.

Now it's gone to full custom rigs, $5000 supersport motors, Brembo, Ohlins, HRC, quickshifters, slipper clutches, etc etc etc. In trying to stay competitive, I look for those things that can give me repeatable savings at a reasonable cost. One such area is shifting.

On a given lap at most common tracks, I upshift 10-15 times (each lap). An upshift is currently performed quite handily by simply pre-loading the shifter and blipping the throttle which unloads the transmission and allows the bike to slip into the next gear. I don't have a means of measuring it, but I'd have to guess this action takes around 200mS (1/5 second) per shift. This doesn't take into consideration the inevitable missed shift (false neutral) which REALLY kills a lap.

Quickshifters are quite simple in concept. Interrupt fuel or spark just long enough to unload the transmission and allow the shift while remaining at full-throttle position. There are many brands on the market, but with the DSFI (dual-stage fuel injection) of the CBR600RR, killing the fuel flow is not really an option with commercially available units. So next it comes to killing spark.

After reviewing several products on the market, I was relatively convinced on the Translogic Quickshifter. The design to it seemed solid and the patented Intellishift configuration meant no adjusting kill duration which seemed the way to go. After riding a bike with a Translogic Quickshifter installed, I was immediately sold.

I went for the QS2-GP version which is a bit upgraded from the baseline unit. It comes with a programmable shift light and the inline pressure activated GP sensor vice the larger linear sensor. EMA-USA had this item in stock and delivered it within a week.

I had plenty of time, so I actually read the install manual a couple of times and thought about my install beforehand (yes, that is a first). Here's where I'll tell you, THE INSTALL IS NOT FOR THE MECHANICALLY CHALLENGED! Realistically, you need to be able to pull your bike pretty far apart and have a manual to understand the wiring. You should also have a multi-meter and soldering equipment and be familiar with the use of such. There are crimp connectors included in the box, but I simply can't trust a crimped connection at 160mph.

On install day, the bike was already apart, so the biggest challenge was determining where to mount the control box. Ideally, you mount them on the frame near the headstock. However, there simply wasn't enough clearance with the forks to do this. Mounting in the tail is an option, but I chose against it as I've had extreme heat issues in the tail, and I've seen too many subframes snap off in crashes.

In the end, I opted for mounting it right below the instrument cluster on the fairing stay. Now, I know, you're gonna tell me that fairing stays break off too, and I did consider that, but I believe the unit will be safer and perform better in the front than in the rear. (update since writing - I have mounted this on the headstock of the frame. The fork barely touches it at full lock position, but it seems solid)

For wiring, I wired it up with my Digigear DG8 Gear indicator, into the front wiring loom which goes to the gauges. All connections soldered, individually taped and then group taped.

The other wiring piece was to the coils or ECU. I chose wiring to the coils as there's more room to work. I pulled the coil harness and measured everything out so I could get the best possible fit. Again, cut & soldered.

Okay, now it's game-time.

1-2-3 flip the switch. POP! It all goes dead...

Hmmm that's not good... I blew a fuse. Immediately I started questioning my connections, so I pulled the tape off everything, separated the wires to ensure no solder joints were touching, replaced the fuse and fired it up again. POP... Well, crap...

I went on to ultimately blow 5 fuses in troubleshooting while removing everything and getting the multimeter out. I found a direct short between the power line and the GP sensor, which, when mounted is a grounded item. Damn...

I emailed off to EMA-USA and Translogic (on Sunday afternoon), explaining the scenario and indicating that I would be overnight shipping the GP sensor and the harness back as something was defective. Within 10 minutes, Translogic responded to my email with explicit instructions on how to diagnose a potential manufacturer wiring error. I quickly found that they had indeed made a connection which shouldn't be present on the GP sensor, and cut/isolated the connection per their instructions.

Back into the garage and re-soldering everything. Slap in a new fuse, cross my fingers and hit the switch. WOO-HOO! It works! I called it a day at that since I had nowhere to test operation.

Update 3/19 - We ran the bike in on the dyno today, and the quickshifter worked exactly as advertised. It seemed MUCH smoother at the higher RPMs and throttle position, but this would be expected. Plus, it was just on the dyno, not on the track. It was nice to at least get it in action... More to come!

Update 4/24 - The maiden weekend out at Road America with the quickshifter. This thing is GREAT. The only "gotcha's" to it are that you can't touch the shift lever unless you're ready to shift. Move your foot after EVERY shift, or you'll end up knocking a false neutral.

I am considering combining in a Factory Pro shift kit to help index the transmission a bit more positively, but if you pay close attention, you won't miss a shift.


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