So this weekend I put nearly a thousand miles on the GS. I went down to LA, rode ACH for the first time in months, and caught the SC game. Being able to ironbutt the trip up and down AND ride the crest on the same bike definitely made me appreciate the GS. I definitely owe it some love and care in the form of new tires and an oil change soon. I've got two questions after the trip:

1) Clutchless upshifting. Riding over 350 miles in a day can get boring, so I tried to find ways to amuse myself. I decided to try some clutchless shifting. I found that I had to pull in the clutch lever ever so slightly before I moved the shifter up. Is there a mechanical device that prevents the shifter from moving when the clutch lever is all the way out? My technique was lever in slightly, then drop the revs and bump the shifter up at the same time. If done smoothly, which I still need work on, how bad is this for the clutch?

2) Fuel starvation. I think I finally ran into this. I normally cruise along the freeway at 80-85 mph for extended periods of time with no problem... but then I ran into Grapevine. For those of you who aren't familiar, it's a long stretch of highway with a pretty hefty incline. I was going uphill and had the throttle pinned for about a minute before I felt the engine starting to sputter on me. It was like when gas is getting low and needing to be switched to reserve, only more sudden. I made it to the side of the road just as the bike died completely. I tried restarting again, no dice. I had no clue what the problem was, so I was checking fuel, oil, and anything obvious for signs of defects. Everything seemed in order, so I tried to fire it up again. Wahoo, it went, crisis averted. That's when the lightbulb went on and I figured it was fuel starvation. Switching to prime for the rest of the major uphills on Grapevine and later 152 worked like a charm.

My '97 will shift clutchlessly without pulling the clutch lever at all. I just need to make sure I'm neither pulling nor braking with the engine, but that it's spinning along freely in gear. Then it'll pop out easily. Similarly, it seems to slide right into the next gear without hardly any pressure on the gear lever once the engine RPMs drop to match the new gear. Same deal for downshifting, it's just a little harder to do smoothly (hard to blip the throttle exactly correctly).

About whether or not it's good for the transmission, I'm a new rider, so I don't know. But I've always driven standard transmission cars, and never used the clutch except when starting from a stop, and never had any problems there. I know that's a different ballgame, though. I would guess that it depends a lot on whether or not you're able to consistently do it smoothly.

I've heard many people say clutchless shifting is bad and can bend something in the trans making it pop out of gear (I don't recall what that thing is called)...

But, I've especially heard that down shifting without the clutch is REALLY bad...  So, I've never tried it.

As far as up shifting, it's just like you said... Slight pressure up on the shifter, blip the throttle, and it slides right in.    When I'm on my game I can do it so smooth and fast that it's hard to tell I even shifted...  It just gets quieter.   


My Father In Law drives big-rigs and ALWAYS clutchless shifts them and his own diesel truck...  But, their trans is pretty different from the GS.

Sounds like a fun weekend you had.  Here are some solutions for the problems you experienced.
1.  Clutchless up shifting isnt bad for the bike if done correctly.  All you have to do is be cruising along while on the throttle and apply pressure up on the shift lever and close and re-open the throttle sorta quickly while maintaining pressure on the shifter.  If you dont apply pressure before closing the throttle it will sometimes jolt, miss, on not even switch gears, because all the timing is off.   
2.  Fuel starvation is a problem on the bikes as the diaphram in the petcock cannot react fast enough to allow fuel to flow at the rate it needs to.  Just put the petcock on prime when riding it like you were and it bypasses the diaphram and allows the fuel to free flow, not just when the diphram allows it. 

Quote from: Arvy Jackalope on September 19, 2006, 03:47:40 PM
I've heard many people say clutchless shifting is bad and can bend something in the trans making it pop out of gear (I don't recall what that thing is called)...

The shift fork.  The shift fork has a pair of very thin tines that can bend easily, even in a crash.

When I used to clutchless shift, I used to just roll off, shift, roll on.  Or, maybe it was roll off/shift/roll on...either way, the shift happened quickl after the roll off, and you had to be quick on getting back on the roll on to keep the bike from jerking.

Sounds like fuel starvation to me.  Like you discovered, keep it on prime for rides where you're really working the throttle.