Total Motorcycle Community Forums

anyway... i trust my mechanic, if he says it's ok, then i'll practice it.

A trustworthy mechanic? Never met one.

oh yeah he is trustworthy.

i was gonna ask him to mod my rear brakes... he'll get paid for it.

but he had doubts so reserched it and called other mechanic buddies of his and they said it's not a good idea to do it for my bike in particular bec of the slipper clutch.

so he told me that and said, it's my choice. so i cancelled that plan of mine.

18 wheelers are designed to be shifted with out using the clutch. It is not power shifting it is called shifting. If you continue to shift your bike in that manner the cincronizers will wear to where you will have rough shifting that not even cluthing will smooth out. Just my thoughts on the subject. Take it for what it is worth. Have fun riding.

The reason why you clutch out to shift is to temporarily remove the load on the gears so they mesh easily. "Speed" shifting, as I guess it's called, accomplishes the exact same thing if done correctly. The gears are under load while you're accelerating or maintaining speed, then you blip the throttle and, for a split second, the load on the gears is removed. If you wait another split second, a load will be placed back on the gears, only this time it will be in the form of engine braking. If you can shift during that small window when the gears aren't under load from acceleration or braking, it's the same mechanically as shifting with the clutch pulled - and no damage will come from doing so.

There's a difference between a car and a bike tranny though.

In a car you pop the tranny out of gear and either rev it up to match engine speed to the lower gear to downshift, or let the throttle out so the r's fall enough to match engine speed with the higher gear to upshift.

On a bike there's no neutral between gears to allow for this, so it's always a jerk when it hits the new gear. This is hard on the engine, tranny(gears), chain, sprockets and tires, if you're at the edge of traction when this occurs it may cause you to lose it.

I've tried clutchless shifting on my bike and it's doable.

Personnally I say practice only enough that you can get it home in a snapped clutch cable situation (Or dumped it and snapped off the clutch lever), and practice it like that's what happened and you're "limping" home.

My .02

thanks.

that's a good idea to practice it but don't do it all the time once i got it.

but when i give my bike a quick blip, i get jerked around so it's kinda hard on my bike.

can i do a slower more smoother blip? will it still work?

Seetrout wrote:There's a difference between a car and a bike tranny though.

In a car you pop the tranny out of gear and either rev it up to match engine speed to the lower gear to downshift, or let the throttle out so the r's fall enough to match engine speed with the higher gear to upshift.

On a bike there's no neutral between gears to allow for this, so it's always a jerk when it hits the new gear. This is hard on the engine, tranny(gears), chain, sprockets and tires, if you're at the edge of traction when this occurs it may cause you to lose it.

I've tried clutchless shifting on my bike and it's doable.

Personnally I say practice only enough that you can get it home in a snapped clutch cable situation (Or dumped it and snapped off the clutch lever), and practice it like that's what happened and you're "limping" home.

My .02

Well, that's where we differ. I wouldn't dream of shifting a car sans clutch. I've been riding quads and such since I was seven and have shifted without the clutch as the primary means of shifting, and never had a problem. I don't do it on my Vulcan, though, mostly because of its size.

ZooTech wrote:The reason why you clutch out to shift is to temporarily remove the load on the gears so they mesh easily. "Speed" shifting, as I guess it's called, accomplishes the exact same thing if done correctly. The gears are under load while you're accelerating or maintaining speed, then you blip the throttle and, for a split second, the load on the gears is removed. If you wait another split second, a load will be placed back on the gears, only this time it will be in the form of engine braking. If you can shift during that small window when the gears aren't under load from acceleration or braking, it's the same mechanically as shifting with the clutch pulled - and no damage will come from doing so.

Yeah, that's correct. Done right, all the time, it's no more wear on your engine and transmission than normal shifting. Not doing it right, like a new rider is liable to do, can cause lots of expensive shiny bits to show up in the oil pan.

VermilionX, you need to worry less about learning newer techniques and work on keeping that shiny side up. Go read Hough's books again and actually apply them. It will be much more rewarding in the long run than riding a beat up bike.

Seetrout wrote:There's a difference between a car and a bike tranny though.

In a car you pop the tranny out of gear and either rev it up to match engine speed to the lower gear to downshift, or let the throttle out so the r's fall enough to match engine speed with the higher gear to upshift.

On a bike there's no neutral between gears to allow for this, so it's always a jerk when it hits the new gear. This is hard on the engine, tranny(gears), chain, sprockets and tires, if you're at the edge of traction when this occurs it may cause you to lose it.

I've tried clutchless shifting on my bike and it's doable.

Personnally I say practice only enough that you can get it home in a snapped clutch cable situation (Or dumped it and snapped off the clutch lever), and practice it like that's what happened and you're "limping" home.

My .02

You can do 60mph in first. I don't think you need to shift THAT much to limp home. LOL

Sevulturus wrote:
You can do 60mph in first. I don't think you need to shift THAT much to limp home. LOL

even more... i read it can go around 98mph even w/ just the stock settings on the K5 and K6.

yep, not much limping indeed.

but i still would like to learn it though.