It is possible to put a heel-toe shifter on a sportbike?

I know, i know, they're only seen on cruisers.

(I want to get my motorcycle license this summer (no prior experience.

I have a bad shoulder and a bad foot though. So positioning of the bike is essential for both my comfort and success as a rider.

I went to a dealer and sat on a bunch of bikes of various styles and the sportbike fit me the best (honda 250 cbr in this case but i'm only in college so i can't afford one of those beauties il probably buy a used ninja250).

I would stick to a cruiser but my arm is worse than my foot and i know that positioning would be not only painful but dangerous for me.

Although shifting was easier on the sportbike, it wasn't where it should be. I'm still doing exercises to loosen/strengthen tendons in it in the hopes itll make it easier for when i take an msf course, but thatll only improve me so far.

Having a disability i'm used to doing unorthodox things to get to where i want to be. So i don't need to hear "no one does that". I know.

I just want to know if its possible and what issues could come up if i did it (like it scraping during turns)

I can't imagine how someone with a "bad shoulder" would be more comfortable hunched over a gas tank and supporting his body weight with his arms rather than sitting upright on a dual-sport or cruiser style bike. Come back and tell us how it works after 30 or 45 minutes of riding.

You have a bad shoulder and want to get a sport-bike?!
Well good luck there!

The shift levers on most sportbikes don't bolt directly
onto the shift shaft.
The foot pegs are set back to accommodate a race seating position.
The shift lever pivots on a smooth pin directly in front
of the foot peg.
The shift lever is connected to the shift shaft with a linkage rod.
Because of that set up, a heel toe shifter would have to be fabricated.

Some examples of shift lever linkage rods.
http://www.partsfish.com/oemparts/a/hon/505402c3f870021c54bebda3/brake-pedal-change-pedal
http://www.partsfish.com/oemparts/a/kaw/500b6575f8700223e4797670/gear-change-mechanism

Spend 1500 dollars and have an electric shifter installed. It has two buttons on the left handle bar right by the clutch lever so you can pull the lever and hit the shift button. One button to shift up and one to shift down. You can make it even easier by having the EFM Auto clutch installed as well so you never have to use the clutch lever. Simply let off the gas and the clutch disengages allowing you to hit the button and shift gears.

It's possible. You would have to make one yourself or have one made to fit the bike.

They aren't very practical on a sportbike as there isn't much room for the foot to move efficiently.

There's an amount of adjustment (around the spindle) available with the position of the gear lever (and you can have the footpegs replaced with new rearsets with even more adjustment).

A kliktronic system might suit you.

Without knowing the extent of your motion I would have thought using a heel to shift would require more extension than a standard gear lever.

If you are in the UK contact NABD

www.nabd.org.uk/

In fact they may be able to help you anyway.

Obviously it would be a custom job, but with a little creativity and engineering know-how, I don't think it would be that hard to do.

The problem is, I'm pretty sure there isn't a "heel-to-toe kit" out there to replace your stock shifter on a bike. So because of that, as mentioned above, it would have to be a custom job.

My guess is they would just get a heel-to-toe shifter and outfit it to place over the top of the stock shifter so when you are done with the bike, your little rig can be removed and the bike will remain stock.

As for issues with it? The biggest issue I would see is the overall length or height of the seat to the shifter. Right now on a Ninja250, while sitting, your pegs and shifter are a good length away so you are not crunched up too badly. If you put on this custom shifter, it might shorten that distance and you will feel crunched. Think of sitting on a pedal bicycle with the seat all the way down. Your knees come up right? Same idea.

As for scraping during turns, unless it sticks out significantly which I don't think it would, your peg or leg will scrap before the shifter would. Also that is a pretty gnarly lean angle. Unless you are on a race track, have balls of steel, or are just plain careless, nobody pulls that kind of lean on public roads. The reason? Public roads are 'unknown.' You have no idea if there's a little sand in that turn, a pot hole, concreate repair patches, etc. Any of those things in that severe of a lean? You are sliding out and going down.