Hi Guys. I'm a new rider and as such am not completely familiar with my gear shift. So far, I have been riding fine, especially when moving. Today, I had to go to a main road and got stopped by a redlight. Usually, in the process of slowing down I will go ahead and downshift into first gear before I completely stop. However, I did not have enough time to do so. So as I am at the redlight I am trying to downshift into first, but whenever I pressed down, my gearshift didn't move. It didn't make the familiar "clank" feel of a shift, but rather felt soft and hardly moved at all before completely stopping. The light turns green and I just try to go in whatever gear I was in, and my bike almost immediately dies and goes into a stopping skid which I just rode out. From there I awkwardly struggled with the gear shift until I got it into neutral (I do not remember how) to get it started then got out of there because I was so embarrassed.

So, how come when I was at the stop, I could not downshift? Don't judge me too hard.. 

Any recommendations on stuff to read to improve my shifting (timing, appropriate places, etc)?

Some of the gears in the trans need to spin to drop in ,and mesh. When you are stopped,the trans isnt spinning,and won't mesh.
If you ever come to this again ,you can get it into 1st by pumping the clutch...not fully releasing it ,but just to the point it grabs,then squeeze again,and shift..repeat till you're in 1st.
your bike is fine ,and this happens to all bikes.
-CS

The problem was with trying to shift more than one gear while stopped. Sometimes you can just let the clutch out a little bit and it will pop into the next gear, then try to shift into first (or whatever is next). The transmission is made to shift through the gears as the front sprocket is rotating - even if you have to rock the bike back in forth a little bit.

But obviously, just shift into each lower gear as you get closer to the stop, releasing the clutch each time.

Burnchassis beat me to it.........

Thank you very much. I figured I was at fault and not my bike lol. I will continue to try to keep my foot actively shifting when slowing down. But I will also try to get to a parking lot one day and work on the methods you all showed me, just in case. Thanks again, both of you.

Chemist,

As your experience grows you will find that you can pretty well change down while braking, even when braking Very hard. At first you won't think so, but as the gear changing actions becomes more automated within you your speed of clutch in, down shift, clutch out briefly, clutch in, downshift, clutch out briefly, can happen rapidly indeed.

Michael

Hey Chemist (great name btw). We've all done embarrassing things on our bikes while we were learning. It's all part of the process.

There's a lot of good advice in this thread...just remember to blip the throttle with each downshift to increase the engine rpm to match the gearbox speed in the lower gear. Downshifting properly while braking requires a bit of practice, but it's a necessary skill. Practice in an empty parking lot is a good idea.

I'll interject here with... I Never blip while downshifting and have Never had a compression lock of the rear wheel due to poor rev matching. Then again, I don't ride around in the 8,000rpm range where a downshift might put me into red line or something.

Quote from: mister on July 20, 2012, 05:07:11 AM
I'll interject here with... I Never blip while downshifting and have Never had a compression lock of the rear wheel due to poor rev matching. Then again, I don't ride around in the 8,000rpm range where a downshift might put me into red line or something.

Rev matching your road speed is a good thing to always practice and make it become second nature, going up or down in gears... I guarantee if a downshift lock of the rear wheel ever does get you, you won't ever want to do it again.  Its scary, especially if you are new to bikes (not that you are mister, ha ha, but the OP).  Murphy's Law tells us that it will happen on the worse road conditions, full of traffic, you are already running later, and you wore your torn up, laundry-day underwear (the hospital staff will never forget you!)... Rev matching going up in gears is not as hard to mess up, but you just want to be aware of road speed and engine speed at all times.

Also to chemist:  Practice in a parking lot your quick stop/emergency stops right away.  As a new rider, it will be your first line of safety, when you do not yet have full comfortability and skill on your bike... Best advice I was ever given. I know it saved me from a collision or high side the very next day after I practiced them.

- Bboy

Thanks again everyone for the tips and methods to practice. I'll be working on these today. I did note that as the day went on (the rest of the day was on backroads) that I was more aware of what gear I needed to be in based on how the bike felt and was more actively shifting. I'm sure it's just one of those things you just get better at as you get used to the feel of your bike. Thanks everyone and I look forward to being a part of this community.

Quote from: bucket_chemist on July 20, 2012, 04:20:30 AM

There's a lot of good advice in this thread...just remember to blip the throttle with each downshift to increase the engine rpm to match the gearbox speed in the lower gear.

The exception being, when you are downshifting while coming to a stop. If you shift when the RPMs are under 3k, the engine will naturally kick it up a notch.

It's when you are downshifting to get some extra acceleration, that you will want to blip, because you're probably already at 4-5k rpm or something before downshifting.  The engine will probably want to be at 6k+ rpm to mesh smoothly with the lower gear, in those cases.

Otherwise... just wait until you've slowed down to 3krpm to shift and you'll be fine.

Quote from: burnchassis on July 19, 2012, 08:48:02 PM
Some of the gears in the trans need to spin to drop in ,and mesh. When you are stopped,the trans isnt spinning,and won't mesh.
If you ever come to this again ,you can get it into 1st by pumping the clutch...not fully releasing it ,but just to the point it grabs,then squeeze again,and shift..repeat till you're in 1st.
your bike is fine ,and this happens to all bikes.
-CS

It's a constant mesh transmission.

The gear dogs and shifter forks wear, and the oil level and clutch adjustment matter.... Along with some forward motion.

Rider training courses will teach you to always be in first gear and ready to avoid an accident.

Real explanation is pretty simple. The gears in your transmission slide sideways to engage with eachother. Sometimes the gears are aligned in such a way that they can't engage. Either letting the clutch out slightly, or rocking the bike will fix the problem. This is really only an issue when you've been stopped long enough that none of the transmission parts are spinning. There's enough lube in the transmission that the gears just slight against each other while spinning until they pop into place.

If it won't shift at a stop, roll forward or backward slightly and try again. Last week I locked up my rear wheel by downshifting from fourth to second and not matching revs. Left a nice little strip of rubber on Cook Road before the left turn for the I-5 South onramp, so yeah, rev matching is important. Getting some experience in the dirt is really helpful for learning how to deal with slides/lock up and learning to mitigate survival reactions that can make the problem worse.