Total Motorcycle Community Forums

hehe I do that too, hit N at least once a ride. Surprisingly I did not do this on my latest ride out

Maybe its a subconcious thing? When you're just out cruising and managng your ride, you can be deliberate in your inputs to the bike because you are working on a smooth muscle memory mode with less concious thought.

But if you start thinking about doing each input correct "Ohh my gosh, I hope I don't mess up ___ as I have to get out of the car's way" then I think you jinx yourself and the concious effort on the inputs actually reduces the smoothness and force from a solid strong action.

I guess it pretty similar if you scutinize a technique that you do regularlyand all of a sudden you can't do it right because you're thinking about it too much.

Kal wrote:It happens a damn sight less now than it did back then. It all comes down to making a full upward movement with your foot, in time it wont be a problem - trust me.

+1
I did this a few times due to my inherent laziness. Just make sure to push the lever through the full range of its motion, and it shouldn't happen unless theres a mechanical fault. Other gears you only need to half shift and the tranny will complete the movement for you... It just doesn't work from first gear

storysunfolding wrote:Shift to third?

Ride angry?

I don't think either is good advice for learning to ride or really... ever...

Yeah, hopefully he knew I was joking. But he does need to shift more assertively. The important thing is to consciously make sure every shift is good and thus commit that action to muscle memory.

Shifting to third??? That is a horrible idea! If you are on a bike that doesn't have very close ratios (like mine, with very tall gears), you'll jolt and sputter if the rpm drop puts the engine below where it is comfortable (or it could shut off). I might have done that once...

a similar thing happened to me all the time on my v star. it had a heal toe shifter and I'd accidentally tap the heal part bringing my foot off the ground, I found myself in neutral all the time.

with my ninja, it had a very stiff shifter. shifts had to be very deliberate, which i liked a lot. never once shifted incorrectly on that bike. so I'd argue the design of the shifter is a factor here.

It happens sometimes to me. I really hate it when I'm pulling away in first, want to shift into second and all I hear is my engine screaming but my bike's not accelerating. That's when I see my neutral lamp is on and I quickly shift up to second and it works out, but I really don't like doing that.