Simple question:

Why do you have to use downshift to get the car from neutral to 1st gear? Seems kinda odd to have to use that instead of normal upshifting.

its a motorcycle gearbox

Quote from XCNuse :

its a motorcycle gearbox

it's true

If you think that's weird, how about this: on most racing motorcycles, you pull the lever up to go into first from neutral, and you push down for the remaining 5 gears.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. It's much easier and faster to push down than pull up with your toes, especially in a racing environment. I think the main reason most street bikes don't have shift patterns like this is because it's counter-intuitive to most people.

It's been many years since I was involved with motorcycles (I got taken out by a Mitsubishi on a roundabout and don't ride since then) but I seem to recall in my younger days that some bikes were 1-up and 5-down even though most were 1-down and 5-up. I don't know any existing road bikes using the 1-up and 5-down gear change but they used to exist.

My old Yamaha FS1E was one up and 4 down. But it also had less power than an UF1, so it didn't matter about the gears it was always slow.

I once also had someone tell me that clutchless shifts gave you a higher top speed. I spent about 2 hours trying to explain how wrong he was, but he was too stupid to accept it.

where did he get that from?

Quote from Gunn :

....but I seem to recall in my younger days that some bikes were 1-up and 5-down even though most were 1-down and 5-up.....

That's exactly what I said, most street bikes are 1-down and 5-up, most being the key word. In fact I'm pretty sure my father's 1981 Kawasaki GPz-550 was 1-up and 5-down.

1 down and 5 up is bad when you're in a corner and want to accelerate out of it and have to shift up. Because you have to fit your foot somewhere below the shift lever, and down there the asphalt begins. Bad!
1 up and 5 down is nice, because you can easily shift up while in a corner. But it isn't intuitive.

At least a commentator on EuroSport said that once.

Vain