That Ideal Rod is a truly weak and flimsy item and many of the replacement Gear Linkage kits provide a far stronger hard wearing and adjustable replacement. Beta Boyz provided me with a good example and the replacement pivotballs that go into the nice new bushes. Do this job thoroughly and you can end up with a smooth precise gear shift with a long throw by modern standards. Also pay attention to slop for the pivot on the subframe which can be carefully adjusted away after strip clean grease re fit.
Fixing the gear linkage makes a huge difference to Beta driving and really is time well spent.
Eric
PS I have the mythical Beta Boyz short throw shift conversion that Mark W will one day re-produce.
