Heel Hammer Shifter From Dewey

“Heel Hammer” Shift Levers (patent pending)

There’s this monster of a madman in New Mexico who came up with this heel/toe shifter for custom applications. At first I thought, “I’m an outlaw, building a rigid. What the fuck can I do with this?”

So it hung around a year, just shinning on one bench or another. Then we built the Salt Shaker and my arthritis got worse. I have a tough time with mid control bikes now. I’m too big and my body screams at me when I squat. We installed mid-controls and I had a tough time with the shifter. I modified it, but that didn’t help much. Then I stumbled onto Dewey’s Heel Hammer and that bastard saved the day. Without lifting or twisting my foot off the left peg I just rock my heel back and shift gears.

During this time in the shop we needed to fix up my new Little Mick painted helmet with luggage strap like snaps. The standard helmet straps suck. There’s a kit you can buy to transfer traditional straps to snap-clips, but I like a good, heavy duty luggage strap-clip even better.

We went to work making in fit this application using our brass goofball handle tabs. Dewey makes a line of pegs and shift knobs, but I was looking to keep an old school element running on this Accurate 120-inch Panhead. These puppies are 100 percent solid brass.

We had to cut the original metal chin strap bungs off the helmet carefully, so as not to damage the old nylon straps.

Here’s the female end of the bargain. We slipped it into the loop after we removed the traditional metal pinchers.

This is sorta nuts, but I’ve changed the pegs on this bike a couple of times. A 5-Ball racing sponsor supplied me with super long billet grips and iron cross pegs, Rollin Sixers. But if I was going to ride it as a regular rider I needed vibration dampening products, so I ultimately shifted back to the stock rubber grips and pegs. I’ll hold onto the billet stuff for another bike.

Anyway, we drilled and taped the rear bung for 3/8-16 threads and ran in a stud since there was no room on the back for a bolt head. I don’t know if I’ll knock off the thin brass knob on the front, but what the hell. It looks cool for now.

How’s that for custom?

Then Jeremiah took the Salt Shaker our for a spin. When he returned the Heel Hammer was slipping off the spindle and we needed to adjust the position. We did but it wouldn’t pinch down without relieving the groove. We handled that on the bandsaw and then it tightened as tight as the rivets on a ship’s hull.

Here she is ready to rock.

When I asked Dewey about the slippage, here’s what he said, “Where did you get it ? I don't remember sending you one. Send it to me and I will look at it and send you another. You probably stole the sumbicth.”

Salt shaker on her first test run.

Here’s what the Dewey Man makes: Custom Machined Aluminum Billet Footpegs, Billet Handgrips, “Heel Hammer” Shift Levers and Billet Aluminum “Rammer” Air Cleaner Covers for Harley-Davidson Motorcycles.

Upon interviewing the mad cowboy from New Mexico we discovered his drive behind this invention, “No more scuffing of your polished cowboy boots. Simply push down with your heel to upshift or push down with your toe to downshift!” Dewey said. “I have a 95-Inch 2002 TC88 FXD and with my big feet and long legs I needed a better solution for my daily driving. I ride a lot and with this new set up it's like having a speed shifting automatic transmission.”

Here’s the male end of the chin strap, sorta out of focus. We just laced this into the strap on the side of the helmet.

”I machine the “Heel Hammer” out of billet 6061 T-6 and offer them in a triple plate show chrome or polished finish,” Dewey wouldn’t shut up. “I'm making these for forward control Dynas. They also will fit some Softail applications.”

“The first time I stopped by my local dealer, Four Corners Harley-Davidson, customers were all over my bike wanting to try the shifter,” Dewey said. “Since I had ported my 95-incher and it makes 112.23 hp and 108.81 pounds of torque, people wanted to know what the hell I had done to the bike as well as wanting a ‘Heel Hammer.’ I'm a big guy and I just want my bike to work better…probably a situation we all find ourselves in.”

That's all folks…

ALL OF DEWEY'S PRODUCTS ARE MADE IN? NEW MEXICO U.S.A.