1984 vs 1985 125m shift pattern differences?

[auto5man]

Did some forum searches on this because i was looking to buy a 1985 model 125 and noticed the shift pattern was completely opposite my 1984 125m. At first I thought something was jacked up with the 85 trike but after reading some posts on it read this was normal. So on my 1984 you push the shifter pedal DOWN to cycle through 1st 2nd 3rd and fourth, and of course you kick up to get back to neutral. On the 1985 model 125m (which I have now purchased the one I was looking at on craigslist, lol, this website has hooked me), it's exactly the opposite of the 1984 model. You kick UP each time you need to shift throught 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and then push DOWN to cycle back down to neutral. Given the (relatively) common failure to this model in the shift linkage of the gearshift drum stopper, I wonder if the honda engineers changed the shift pattern intentionally to counteract this? If you think about it, as the 1984 model (or models that you kick DOWN to shift up) wears out of spec and the shifting gets a little balky for whatever reason....the natural tendency of the rider (and especially the young riders probably typical on the 125) will be to stomp HARDER to get the gears to shift. Stomping harder ends up breaking things. On the 1985 model (at least on mine), having to lift the shifter UP with your toe, its a whole lot harder to lift your toe with the same force as opposed to a STOMPING motion. Maybe this change was made to stop this particular failure. Anyway, right or wrong, these are just the crazy type random thoughts I have while working on my new to me machines.

Another thing I wonder is on the 84 model that you kick down to shift to higher gears, I wonder what the difference will actually look mechanically. So far I havn't had my 1984 apart to see where the difference is. I've only had the chance to examine the internals of the 85 model.

[cjh]

on my 1984 Honda 125m atc you lift the shiftier up to up shift and kick down to down shift (N then 4 up.). I have heard of the kick down to up shift, some people like them because if you do wheelies its easier to shift by kicking down rather than pulling up.
I am not sure how much difference there is mechanically I changed out my crankcase and it had they same pattern haven't came across one that was actually kick down shift up only heard of it. I don't know if it depends on when in the year it was made or what but its a little odd my 125m is N 4 up and yours is N 4 down and your 85 shifts like my 84. Maybe someone else can chime in.

[ps2fixer]

Don't know a whole lot about the 125m machines, but the 1984 200ES Big Red is push down to up shift (backwards to most modern machines). It is easy to abuse the clutch to do wheelies like that though! :D

I would suspect it to be a differents in the shift drum/transmission gears, or possibley the linkage is on the oppsite side of the shift drum to reverse it. There are sites like "service honda" that you can see diagrams of parts to see differences, and also get part numbers for cross reference :).