Clutchless Shifting

Me too Rick. no need to do this unless you are racing.

 

well, im a half and half person, when im in traffic or have a rider on the back i use the clutch religiously, but when running on the open road i tend to put my clutch hand on my knee and pop the gears with a little throttle bump, very smooth if you get em timed right, hellishly harsh if you dont.

 

In 40 plus years of riding I have rarely used the clutch to upshift. Also I rarely "scream through the gears". In particular my XS11 has a VERY loud clunky shift using the clutch, without it you cannot hear any noise from the tranny while shifting, it is smooth, quiet and effortless. My 650 Maxim is about the same. Downshifting is a little different, works well at lower speeds if you know the proper rpm but I don't usually do it that way.

 

it's better to have some experience doing it and feel comfortable with it should the time ever come that you may have to
hotdog buns just don't last too long under the cargo net
the beverage is still too cold to throw, but you need to get to the other softball field
you need to scratch your nose, check your pocket or use your left hand for something else and need to maintain the pace of traffic
it can be done, it won't kill your bike and you should be able to do it

 

God put the clutch on the motor bike for a reason, dont use it and your XJ will go to Hell, its a manual, not an automatic like a kid's 50 cc bike.

 

Done properly, there's nothing worng with it and no damage will occur, I've ridden them for years like this and have yet to damage any gearbox

I remember reading a road test on a XS1100 when they were new and the road tester pronounced the upshift better without the clutch

On my TZ250 superkart it was clutchless both up (igniton cut out) and down (just bash it through)after two seasons racing there was no visible damge at all

 

Very true. The problem is that very few people can or will "do it properly", and doing it improperly will result in premature and VERY expensive gear failure.

 

I tried it out last evening a bit, got the hang of it on the second try with no hitches whatsoever from there on out. That said, I don't plan to make a habit of it, but I suppose it's a good thing to know how to do.

 

This threads been a good read.
I always called it, the perfect shift.
Where you barely pull the clutch, 1/4"-1/2" and tap the shifter.
It goes into gear so smooth and shifts up with no drop in rpm.
Just keeps accelerating at the same pace.
Now I now why this happens.
And you guys are right this shift point is not at 8.5 K.

 

Very true. I used to shift my '63 Corvair up and down all day and only use the clutch to start off. BUT it takes PRACTICE, a lot of it, and you very well CAN break a gearbox while in the "practice" phase (experience here...) My point is that the major hassle of a broken tranny in an XJ IS NOT worth the .10 of a second per shift...the gears DO KNOW the difference if you get it wrong...

 

So are you saying that if I blow up my tranny trying this, you'll fix it for me? :wink:

Dean

 

The practice of shifting gears without employing the clutch is a racing technique.
I suppose when money and fame are on-the-line and the difference between the Checkered Flag and a roll of toilet paper is measured in eye blinks; you don't use the clutch ... you just make the up-shift.

The racers have nothing in common with us.

Their bikes are new, maintained by teams of professional mechanics and the spare bike is all tuned and ready if something should happen to any of the first bike's transmission components.

If a racer develops a transmission problem he parks the bike, mentions it to a Crew Chief, who mentions it to the Top Wrench, who tells the mechanical team to call the Sponsor, order a new engine and put the bad one on the pile.

If you develop a transmission problem in your damn-near 30-year-old bike; you get to park the bike and boot the computer so you can tell the XJ-Bikes Community how you don't have second gear any more.
You'll be able to search the archives and read the stories of everybody who said it was OK and nothing ever happens. Except to you!

Then, you can rummage through the household's "Junk Drawer" for a Magic Marker to make your "For Sale -- Needs Work" sign and wait to see if anybody will offer you short money for what you used to have so much fun riding around before you read the Thread about "Clutchless Shifting" and decided to try it for yourself.

If you start clutchless shifting your old bike; you're playing Russian Roulette!
So what if 99 out of 100 times you survive.
Not win! You don't win playing Russian Roulette. You simply dodged a bullet!

I can't remember there ever being a good news article about something that happened to somebody who was playing with a loaded gun!

 

EGGZACHARY!!!

 

Well put Rick!

 

Clutchless UPshifting is harmless. The whole point of the clutch is to unload the drivetrain while you shift between gears. If you coordinate the upshift with the rolling off of the throttle, there is enough backlash in the gears that they will be transmitting NO power through them, and the gears will shift effortlessly.

 

I remember when I worked on a farm summers during high school. We had an old International dump truck that had no synchronizers in the transmission. I had to double clutch it to get smooth shifts.... those were the good old days. After a while I had that old truck figured out completely and could shift all the gears, up or down, without a clutch (except for first gear and reverse of course).

I have shifted my Maxim a few times without a clutch just to feel it out, and have gotten it to shift smoothly a few times. When you get it right its as smooth as a baby a$$ but when you don't it sounds ugly. But generally I am too busy concentrating on driving safely to allocate so much brain power to shifting without clutch.

 

I shift clutchless quite often... and there's no drag or any advantage or disadvantage... I just go hard off the throttle, change gears and continue.
Doing it out of first/into second would be dumb, though.
No troube in any of the other gears as long as you get off the throttle for a second.

 

Shift responsibly.

 

the clutch is mandatory for starting, stopping, and friction synchronized trannies (not on our bikes).

i think you will find that unless a racer is using a cutout, they will actually use the clutch so the throttle can be held wide open.

with proper throttle control, clutchless shifting is putting no more stress on the dogs than if the clutch were fully pulled in. since i have been doing it more and more i find it to be smoother with less audible geartrain "slap" than if i were to use the clutch.

without proper throttle control, you will be shredding dogs.

shift how you want, as will i. understand how these trannies work/shift/mesh before you preach about the damage a proper clutchless shift is doing.

 

Even not using a cutout, they won't use a clutch, I know I don't and I know they guys I race with dont