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It’s that time of the year. Your mates are thinking about buying new bikes. But you like yours and, in all honesty, don’t want to blow a wad of cash. So… you have to do something… but what to do with the ol’ gurl?

For us this time of the season we’re flat out working on engines in for major tuning work in a bid for more power to keep up on track (and road, in some cases…). Sometimes spending money on the bike you have is actually more cost effective than getting newer tackle, when you consider what you’ll lose on depreciation on the one you have and the one you’re buying (another reason we do so many ECU remaps…).

Modern sportsbikes can come with a ton of electronic bells and whistles. But they’re expensive with it so if you’ve got a bike you like and don’t need a ton more power or traction control but want to do something then one straightforward update is a quickshifter, giving instant power-on upshifts.

We’ve been fitting the Cordona PQ8 for a good many years and have found that in all conditions it’s a system that works flawlessly. It’s also fully adjustable, fully programmable, and while it’s cutting the unit tells the bike’s ECU that all is OK. Its harness is plug and play, there’s no wire cutting and it bolts straight on.

The Cordona system is suitable for any Japanese four cylinder bike and all Aprilia/Ducati twins. It’s also available for BMW’s S1000RR, a bike with a quickshifter fitted as stock that isn’t really up to hard use on the track, potentially throwing up gearbox issues.

With a retail price of £329 plus VAT (the BMW S1000RR kit has a retail price of £339) it’s a relative bargain (especially compared to upgrading a whole motorcycle…), and especially because it’s completely transferable should you sell your bike, or get a new one. Fitting is approximately 2 hours @ £44 plus VAT an hour, with a Dyno run of £40 plus VAT to set it up. We keep them in stock – so if you want lightning fast, bombproof gearshifts get in touch…

Cordona’s PQ8 strain gauge quickshifter – it works, and works very well…
The business end of the PQ8 system – the strain gauge is fully adjustable to tailor shifts how you want them.

Cordona strain gauge quickshifter works perfectly with a superb 'cut' and action
It has a superb ‘cut’ and action – this one is on a Ducati Streetfighter