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I was out for a ride last night. Came up to a big Honda VTX 1800. We nodded heads and he took off and I followed him shortly behind. I observed his handling of his big beast when I notice his clutch hand wasn't squeezing the clutch when he went from 2nd to 3rd to 4th etc. That intrigued me. Anyone else tried this? Since most bikes have wet clutches, is there any mechanical harm in doing this? From the sounds of the transmission, it doesn't grind from gear to gear like a car.

it can be done petty easy and harmlessly if you match revs acordingly. I've done it. Mostly because I had to, but sometimes you can be lazy it during it during regular driving as well.

I honestly think that the reason manufacturers still put a clutch on a bike is because we need to use it. I'd rather wear out and have to replace a clutch then a transmission, so I use mine every time.

i do it sometimes.

for me, it's a little harder to do it from 1st-2nd but all the others are easy.

my mechanic said it doesn't hurt the transmission.

Who pays for it when you blow your tranny?

Sevulturus wrote:Who pays for it when you blow your tranny?

thanks for the visual.


thats pretty gross, but I'm assuming the Tranny pays for it, unless Verm is even weirder then I thought. Actually, thats pretty wierd alone.

Sevulturus wrote:I honestly think that the reason manufacturers still put a clutch on a bike is because we need to use it. I'd rather wear out and have to replace a clutch then a transmission, so I use mine every time.

+1, even though the clutch lever on the vtx can get to be a bastrd by the end of the day. it's good exercise for guitar playing though, makes hammer-on's easier.

Racers, especially, use clutchless shifting all the time because it's faster than shifting using the clutch.

But then again, most racers don't pay for parts or maintenance on their bikes so they couldn't care less if clutchless shifting harms their transmission.

Sevulturus wrote:Who pays for it when you blow your tranny?

Damn, I would hope he's the one getting paid to blow a tranny.

I don't think I could do it for any amount, though. Yikes.

Priceless.