When do you guys shift ?

[Rich500]

I dont shift. I ride around in 2nd gear all day if im in the inner city. Stop lights and everything. When I ride out to my house on the far west edge of Calgary (highway mostly) I rail the shaZam! out of it. Never shifting below redline. I do however use only the best lubricants, filters, gasoline, and have more than needed maintnance done on it so I dont wreck too much.

[Black Snowman]

If I'm riding hard I know I need to shift when I hear the valves start to float   Still need to work on that. I TRY to shift around 10k when riding hard. Otherwise I keep it around 6-7k so I still have some power for dodging unobservant cagers.

[dgyver]

I have clutchless shifted alot on different bikes (and even my car) but limit it to only when needed.

How can you do that in a car    Except when it has a sequential transmission (like a motorcycle, or... a rally car ) it will take a lot of force to move the shiftlever and I don't want to imagine how the synchro-rings look after this  

You can shift a normal transmission without the clutch. You have to put very light pressure on the shifter and it will shift. This can only work at a certain rpm, somewhere around 1800 in my car. The transmission and the engine are spinning at the same rpm and it just drops in gear without any grinding. Forcing it will grind the gears. I only did this because I had to.
The clutch bearing seized and the shop couldn't work on it for 4 days. I had to drive it with using the clutch as little as possible. When I finally got it into the shop, they had to push it into the bay. All of the fingers on the pressure plate were gone.

[JeffD]

Theres a whole theory on why you should "trash" the engine when you first start riding.


Here is my brief and quick reference to it.


The cylinder walls are machined with little valleys/ridges to hold oil and when the piston rings slide over the valley that has oil in it it lets the piston slide by easily.  If you baby the engine there isn't alot of force on the rings to the cylinder walls to get them to wear evenly into the wall.  Whereas if you run the engine hard it will force the rings into the walls causing them to wear in together.  The only main problem with not getting the rings to seat into the cylinders is lost compression, and maybe blow by, and higher oil consumption.


I know this isn't everything but I dont have the article handy.

Another theory is that most warrantys on motorcycles are for what a year?  so say it takes you 3-4months to put on 600 miles, that means the manufacture only has to worry about the engine lasting another 8-9months before the new owner gets stuck with the bill. (unless of course you spend the $400 on the extra warranty)

[alerbaugh]

Good points there.  I'll keep that in mind when I buy my next bike come spring

[Turkina]

Hey Rich500, where'd you get that them there Tanuki avatar?  I know I've seen it somewhere!  I'd run away like a little girl if I saw a giant tanuki with a set of monster nuts!  Feared!

badgerbadgerbadger mushroommushroom

Oh, as for on topic... I shift at about 5 to 6k.  Many times I shift earlier though, if I'm just puttering along and want to keep the racket and the vibrations down, keeping my rpm's pretty low.  I usually don't shift up high unless I am accelerating on the highway

[The Antibody]

If your engine is going to blow up from running hard, it's gonna be in the first year. As Jeff said it's covered. I babied mine for about 100 miles, and then I couldn't take it anymore.

 -Anti

[pattonme]

yes, the manufacturers don't want to ziinging the 100HP motor into the atmosphere and leaving you wildly out of control. Oh wait, you only got 43hp. Same principle though. You can break a motor in within 3 rides but you have to do it right.

revving beyond 10k isn't smart. you're past the power anyway. there is no limiter on the GS but if you listen to the motor all of a sudden it sounds really awful and that means you had better shift, now!

clutchless shifts do no harm to your gears unless you're a complete maroon. What it DOES tend to bend are shift forks unless you're consistantly good at it. Yes, Yammie's round off their 2nd gear for no good reason but by in large shifting problems are with bent forks.