I just noticed today that I can go from neurtal to 1st or even 2nd gear without hold the clutch in.  Is this normal.. or does everyones bikes do this?

you can select any gear without holding the clutch in, the clutch just seperates the engine from the gears  so that it is easier to select a gear, don't select first without the clutch whilst the engine is running that would be bad 

Quote from: ddcsteven on February 14, 2006, 03:14:54 AM
I just noticed today that I can go from neurtal to 1st or even 2nd gear without hold the clutch in.  Is this normal.. or does everyones bikes do this?

I assume you're doing this while the bike isn't running?

A friend of mine calls this speed shifting - shifting between gears when the RPM is high, that way, you don't waste time pulling the clutch in.  I've tried this on my '04f, but no luck

yea use the clutch to get in to gear


if you want to do cluctchless shifting here is how you do it

in first whind it out to about 8.5-9k then roll off just a little then kick the shifter up to 2nd but make sure you keep the pressure on the shifter untill it getin to gear or you will mis shift. thenn when you feel second in then get back on the gas.

all that shoudl be seamless and smooth all the way to 6th

This topic has come up before a few times. Some people say it is fine for your bike others disagree, i am a fan of the argument that if you didn't need to use the clutch they wouldn't have put it there. It does add the wear and tear of your bike. I guess the question i would ask is why do you need to save a fraction of a second on the road by not using your clutch? I could understand if you were racing but other than that...

Quote from: Tyson on February 14, 2006, 09:52:19 AM
...why do you need to save a fraction of a second on the road by not using your clutch? I could understand if you were racing but other than that...

then again, why would you race on a gs500? 
yes, use the clutch. personally I think is a really bad habit to develop not using the clutch

Quote from: Admiral Crunch on February 14, 2006, 07:10:27 AM

Quote from: ddcsteven on February 14, 2006, 03:14:54 AM
I just noticed today that I can go from neurtal to 1st or even 2nd gear without hold the clutch in.  Is this normal.. or does everyones bikes do this?

I assume you're doing this while the bike isn't running?

If so, it's normal.

Though I consider knowing how to powershift an essential skill, once you've got the details figured out (when to roll off the throttle, when to roll it on again, how much pressure to preload the shifter with, how to avoid a false neutral, etc.), keep it to a minimum. It's a skill you'll need if your clutch cable breaks in the middle of nowhere, but otherwise, it only adds needless wear-and-tear to the clutch, transmission, and drivetrain. If you adjust your clutch properly, you can shift with little wasted motion; not using the clutch at all can lead to problems down the road.

I usually only use the clutch when going from a dead stop to moving and downshifting. all my upshifting is clutchless. you can do clutchless downshifting too, but it's more dangerous as I don't wanna hop the back wheel. Hell I have broken a clutch cable on the way to work before and just went to work and came home at the end of the day. It's all in timing and RPM.

Yea i was driving down the road and at about 5k rpm and went to shift up and slipped on the clutch and it went into 2nd.  so when i was slowly going down the road (about 15 mph) i put it into neutral and then hit it to go into 2nd and it went fine...

it kinda worried me because i didnt think it was normal.  i guess it is.  but ill stick to using my clutch