[Emilim]

Holy crap shut up guys if Sedan_Clan sees this we're all in for another round again.

But technically he's right, if we want to argue semantics. Less distance traveled by your hand does not equal shorter throw. It's the distance travelled by the shifter itself that dictates the throw. A shorter knob means your hand is much closer to the shifter shaft so your hand doesn't have to move as much to shift gears but the shifter is still travelling the same distance as before.

In my masterfully drawn diagram below you can see this. A shorter knob does shorten your hand movement distance (green line) at the expense of (probably negligible) increased effort, but does nothing to reduce the shifter movement distance (blue line), which is what really shortens the throw.

[XKxRome0ox]

by the arguments presented here, there is a way to shorten the "throw" without changing anything
just grab a hold of the shifter BELOW the knob and shift
that'd be the equivalent of shortening the shift knob significantly without changing the actual shifter

[DrivenByE30]

Lol this thread!

Its like the mute speaking to the hard of hearing....

Its just a question of perspective, but essentially we are all saying the same thing but in different language...

@XKxRome0ox you are correct. Lol

[Emilim]

Originally Posted by XKxRome0ox

by the arguments presented here, there is a way to shorten the "throw" without changing anything
just grab a hold of the shifter BELOW the knob and shift
that'd be the equivalent of shortening the shift knob significantly without changing the actual shifter

Yeah. I think people is confusing smaller hand movement with a shorter throw. A shorter knob merely gives you the illusion of a shorter throw but mechanically the shifter assembly underneath is still going through exactly the same movements as before so you're really just trading a longer leverage for a shorter one at the expense of increased effort to move the leverage. Just basic physics.

Some people do find it "easier" or even faster to shift with a short knob because their hand don't have to move as much and they don't really notice the increased effort (or even assume it's because of the "weighted" knob). But that's purely a personal preference, not a mechanical improvement.