Is clutchless shifting bad for your bike? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Is clutchless shifting bad for your bike?

WESTBZERO

WESTBZERO

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Just curious, is upshifting, without using the clutch, bad for your transmission? I accidentally did it a few weeks ago and it was bar far smoother than when I normally shift with the clutch. I have noticed that when I ride for longer than 2 hours, it becomes harder to pull in the clutch and I just get lazy so I just chill in like 3/4 gear. I do normally shift between 4k-6k RPMs. At the higher RPMs, I feel like the bike is pulling me and I'm literally trying to hang on.

So ya there's that question and is that pain in the wrist from pulling in the clutch just temporary? I remember when I first learned to drive standard, my knee would always be sore, now no pain at all. Will this wrist pain go away in time as I ride more? At the moment, I go out for 2-5 hour rides whenever i can.
 
depends how you do it.

Done well, it does no harm. Botch it and yes you can break stuff.

Use of the clutch helps isolate hard parts from the mistakes the operator makes.

Order yourself a new clucth cable and lube it well then install it. The clutch shouldn't be hard enough to pull that it causes you discomfort, unless you are riding an old Ducati.
 
omnivore said:
depends how you do it.

Done well, it does no harm. Botch it and yes you can break stuff.

Use of the clutch helps isolate hard parts from the mistakes the operator makes.

Order yourself a new clucth cable and lube it well then install it. The clutch shouldn't be hard enough to pull that it causes you discomfort, unless you are riding an old Ducati.
Click to expand...

The clutch is easy to pull in but after 2 hours of doing it in the city with stop and go traffic, it hurts a bit. Im taking it to Z1 Cycletech later this week so I'll see what they say about my cable.

So i realized that going down to 5% throttle when changing gears, it'll be smoother compared to 0% throttle. I read on other sites the same thing that you told me but i felt like it from those speed junkies that go up to 15,000 rpms all the time. I wanna know if its ok to do for when I ride it in a conservative manner. I rarely go past 10k RPMs.

Whats the proper way to shift without a clutch? Also is it bad for me to pull the clutch in, downshift, then slowly let go of the clutch (without reving it) to match the road speed? Should I learn to rev match it or is the way I do it ok?
 
WESTBZERO said:
Whats the proper way to shift without a clutch? Also is it bad for me to pull the clutch in, downshift, then slowly let go of the clutch (without reving it) to match the road speed? Should I learn to rev match it or is the way I do it ok?
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I would blip the throttle on the way down, so you're not using your clutch instead of your brakes.

-Jamie M.
 
toysareforboys said:
I would blip the throttle on the way down, so you're not using your clutch instead of your brakes.

-Jamie M.
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Any tips on how to do it smoothly? I tried it before and every time i rev it, i pull the brake lever in more. I wanna know how those guys who brake and downshift do it. Braking while down shifting should increase the life of my engine, no?
 
WESTBZERO said:
Any tips on how to do it smoothly? I tried it before and every time i rev it, i pull the brake lever in more. I wanna know how those guys who brake and downshift do it. Braking while down shifting should increase the life of my engine, no?
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If you pull the clutch in and use 100% of your brakes to slow down, then yes, I would say it's super slightly increasing the life of your engine. What you're doing currently is wearing your clutch a lot. Normal engine braking with throttle blipping doesn't wear your engine much/at all.

I apply the front brakes with my index and middle finger, and pinch the grip with my thumb and ring and pinky fingers, this allows me to control the throttle separately from the brakes.

When you're first getting the hang of blipping use the rear brake. Then you can concentrate on how much to blip and once you get that down pat you can work on front braking and blipping at the same time.

-Jamie M.
 
WESTBZERO said:
Sounds doable, thanks a lot.
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And if you find you're having to twist the grip too far to get enough of a blip out of it, check the slack in your throttle/throttle cable. I've seen some terrible bikes recently where there was LOTS of play in the throttle (dead space where you move it and it does nothing). I know on R6/R1 it's super easy to adjust, just after the throttle grip (on the throttle cable), there's a rubber cover, you slide it back and there's a nut and adjuster in there. Snug it up so the throttle has next to no slack and you'll have much more precise and direct control of the throttle.

[video=youtube;QxglqX40-84]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxglqX40-84[/video]

See if you can find a video for your gixxer.

-Jamie M.
 
A point to remember, if you are downshifting to slow down remember to tap your brake (front or rear, doesn't matter) so your brake light flashes to let traffic behind you know you are slowing down. Many drivers have difficulty recognizing that bikes are slowing without the visual reference of the brake light.
 
Lunatic said:
A point to remember, if you are downshifting to slow down remember to tap your brake (front or rear, doesn't matter) so your brake light flashes to let traffic behind you know you are slowing down. Many drivers have difficulty recognizing that bikes are slowing without the visual reference of the brake light.
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This! I even flash em once I'm stopped too for safe measures.
 
WESTBZERO said:
The clutch is easy to pull in but after 2 hours of doing it in the city with stop and go traffic, it hurts a bit. Im taking it to Z1 Cycletech later this week so I'll see what they say about my cable.

So i realized that going down to 5% throttle when changing gears, it'll be smoother compared to 0% throttle. I read on other sites the same thing that you told me but i felt like it from those speed junkies that go up to 15,000 rpms all the time. I wanna know if its ok to do for when I ride it in a conservative manner. I rarely go past 10k RPMs.

Whats the proper way to shift without a clutch? Also is it bad for me to pull the clutch in, downshift, then slowly let go of the clutch (without reving it) to match the road speed? Should I learn to rev match it or is the way I do it ok?
Click to expand...

In your sig it says you have an '06 gsxr. You don't need to blip the throttle as it has a slipper clutch. Blipping the throttle is mainly for bikes that don't have slippers and will lock up the rear if you don't blip.
 
Xtina said:
In your sig it says you have an '06 gsxr. You don't need to blip the throttle as it has a slipper clutch. Blipping the throttle is mainly for bikes that don't have slippers and will lock up the rear if you don't blip.
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There is still a use for "blipping" even with a slipper clutch, also your slipper may not react the way you'd like from the factory and still lock the rear wheel slightly. It's a skill that's good to learn, don't rely on rider aids like TC/ABS/slipper clutches/and best of all, auto blippers.
 
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Xtina said:
In your sig it says you have an '06 gsxr. You don't need to blip the throttle as it has a slipper clutch. Blipping the throttle is mainly for bikes that don't have slippers and will lock up the rear if you don't blip.
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blipping the throttle WILL NOT CAUSE THE SLIPPER CLUTCH TO REACT IN ANY WAY...you are essentially matching your tranny speed to your engine speed. It may come on IF you do this procedure incorrectly
 
WESTBZERO said:
So i realized that going down to 5% throttle when changing gears, it'll be smoother compared to 0% throttle.
Click to expand...

Depending on the RPM at which you are upshifting, it's quite possible that going to throttle-just-cracked-slightly might be smoother than zero throttle during the shift. But it's probably better yet to go to zero throttle but get the shift done QUICKER.

Road-race and drag-race bikes frequently use a quick-shifter which completely cuts engine power during a clutchless shift but only for about 60 - 80 milliseconds, to give you an idea of the timeframe involved. Clutchless full-throttle upshifts with a quick-shifter are very smooth. They can lead to some miserable driveability issues when you do part-throttle upshifts in street riding with such a device installed, though ... For street riding I prefer to use the clutch to smooth the gearchange; I often don't pull it in all the way; just enough to let the clutch slip for a moment at the instant of gearchange so that it is almost bumpless.

WESTBZERO said:
Whats the proper way to shift without a clutch? Also is it bad for me to pull the clutch in, downshift, then slowly let go of the clutch (without reving it) to match the road speed? Should I learn to rev match it or is the way I do it ok?
Click to expand...

Downshifting? Use the clutch, always. Rev-matching with a quick throttle blip is the only way to make a quick and near-bumpless downshft ... doesn't matter slipper clutch or not.
 
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