Quote Originally Posted by iegod View Post
I've heard this before but don't really buy it. It's like popping your standard transmission into neutral in a car and coasting to a stop relying entirely on brakes to slow you down. Brakes are cheap. Engine parts are not. The only benefit I can even see to blipping/gearing down in turn is a quick reaction out of a deceleration, but if you know your gears well enough you can easily pop it where you need it and get back at it in the clutch-holding scenario.
Ummm NO.

The benefit that you state is the "only" one also happens to be an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT one.

A manual-transmission car has an H-pattern shifter that can easily be placed into any gear of my choosing at any time and do so directly without going through any other gears. It is also a synchromesh transmission that can readily be put into a gear while stopped. If I'm coming up to a stop and something happens that warrants accelerating away, regardless of which gear it happens to be in at the moment, I'm one stab of the clutch pedal and one non-ambiguous motion of the shifter away from being in second gear (or whatever other gear is appropriate for the road speed).

A motorcycle has a sequential shifter without synchromesh. It is reluctant to shift while stopped. If you are downshifting with clutch pulled in, there is no feedback concerning which gear you should be in, you could easily have downshifted too far or not far enough. It's far better to do the shifts one at a time with audible and visible (on the tach) feedback concerning whether you are in the correct gear or not.

For what it's worth, decelerating with the clutch engaged (back-driving the engine) does not cause any meaningful amount of engine wear (as long as the engine is below redline). The engine is just spinning, it's not under load. The oil pump is running, the water pump is circulating coolant, a film of oil separates all of the moving parts.