Shifting without the clutch.

det45

Registered
A co-worker told me that the suzuki gixers and busa's can be shifted up and down without using the clutch. I think that would hurt the transmission. Can anyone expand on this dudes claim? ???
 
Clutchless upshifting is fine between 3rd thru 6th. 1st - 2nd most of the time seems to result in a false neutral under hard acceleration...not a good thing. To be honest i've never really attempted downshifting without the clutch...i know racers do it but i believe its more tricky than upshifting clutchless but it can be done. Either way, if you are up or downshifting clucthless the wrong way than its not good for the tranny. But if your doing it right than its fine...it'll actually save your wear on your clutch plates if done correctly.
 
I do it all the time going up.. not sure how you could safely do it down? On a car I can just put the tranny into neutral (without the clutch), rev match, and slide it into gear... but on a bike there's no way to slip into neutral.
 
up is no problem and that doesn't just apply to Suzuki and Hayabusa. Down is a bit tougher to learn. I seldom if ever down shift clutchless but have at times. It's all in the timmig.

I was trying to power shift one of those can-am trikes during a demo ride but it took alot of throttle chop to get it going.
 
upshift 3-6 all the time, clutch needed to down shift or it gets a little squirly
 
Clutchless upshifting is fine between 3rd thru 6th. 1st - 2nd most of the time seems to result in a false neutral under hard acceleration...not a good thing. To be honest i've never really attempted downshifting without the clutch...i know racers do it but i believe its more tricky than upshifting clutchless but it can be done. Either way, if you are up or downshifting clucthless the wrong way than its not good for the tranny. But if your doing it right than its fine...it'll actually save your wear on your clutch plates if done correctly.

+1. I agree

PS I clutch everything, personal preference. I even clutch when clicking gears in the air. Clutch clutch clutch, just me though...

One more thought on that though. Some auto shifters do not use the clutch. They just kill the engine a split second, long enough to slip it into the next gear. You can gain some strip time by doing this. You running and not using the clutch can give you that same advantage. The newer technology can handle it much better than back in the 80's. I still believe in using the clutch myself though...guess that's just a little old school in me.
 
I almost always shift without using the clutch, up and down on every bike I've ridden. Takes a little practice unloading the tranny for a split second but it isn't hard or harmful by any stretch of the imagination unless you start forcing things.
 
i do it up and down. down from 2nd to first can be a little tricky.
 
I know how to and have done it on occasion but it is not as easy on the transmission as clutching it. You are unloading the transmission by a briefly backing off the throttle (on up shifts) which takes the load off while slipping it into the next gear and then back on the throttle. the airshifters do exactly the same thing by cutting the spark to the engine for xx milliseconds and at the same time the air cylinder tugs the shifter into the next gear.

Something just for the track if you really want to shave a little time, but other then that, I say don't be lazy and clutch it. If you aren't proficient at it you will defiantly add wear to the transmission.
 
The only time I use the clutch is taking off from a stop and downshifting. I don't see how you are adding wear to the transmission because when you let the clutch out it is still under the same pressure as if you were not using the clutch.

And this technique does not only apply to gsxrs and busas
 
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I almost never use the clutch to shift up, there's a pretty wide rpm range where it will just naturally shift, and if you do it towards the lower end of that range there's almost no change in accelleration, doesn't feel like you're putting any kind of stress on the transmission.

For downshifting I'm usually slowing towards a stop and then I use the clutch to jump down to netural. If I'm downshifting one gear for more power, I usually don't use the clutch, if you do it just right it seems like you get a pretty ideal amount of power coming into the more powerful gear, feels like it was designed that way.

I've never had any transmission problems.
 
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