Over the past few weeks, all of my riding has been what I'll call practicing.  I went out in search of quiet roads and practiced my shifting and braking and blah, blah, blah.

Today was the day I decided to ditch my car and run all my errands on the bike.  In less than 40 minutes of total time on the bike, I managed the following mistakes.

1.  In a parking lot, I put it in gear and let out the clutch without letting go of the brake.  Of course, it died.

2.  I came to a stoplight at a busy intersection with lots of traffic behind me.  The light turned green, and I hit the throttle and let go of the clutch.  Nothing happened.  Somehow or another, I had managed to get the bike in neutral.

3.  Continuing with the above episode at the light, I put the bike in gear, eased out the clutch and didn't give it enough gas.  Now I'm stalled.  At this particular moment, I'm very thankful to Kerry for helping me fix that clutch switch, because I'm sure I never would have gotten the bike started in the middle of the intersection if I had to mess with it.

4.  I came around a blind curve and face to face with a pickup truck about to turn left across my path.  He didn't turn left and it worked out fine, but I am berating myself for going around that curve without even thinking about the possibility that someone could be about to turn left there.

40 minutes.  4 obvious errors, one of which could have killed me.  I'm starting to understand how much there is to learn out there.

But oh, was it good.  

Smooth Dave

as long as u learned from it.  If u sdont learn anything then all those circumstances are usless.  Its learning from our mistakes that we get better.

Maybe u should consider revising your username?   :mrgreen:

hehe :lol: good idea marky

A**HOLES aren't we!  Good one by the way  :lol:  :lol:

I've been there and done that Dave and still make mistakes...

You had an "Off" day.

Quote from: SmoothDave3. [...] I put the bike in gear, eased out the clutch and didn't give it enough gas. Now I'm stalled. At this particular moment, I'm very thankful to Kerry for helping me fix that clutch switch, because I'm sure I never would have gotten the bike started in the middle of the intersection if I had to mess with it.

This reminds me of the time my clutch cable broke.  A few blocks later I came to a traffic light (as I decided on the best route to hobble back home).  I had to apply the brakes without the clutch, so of course the engine died as I stopped.

I was turning right (thank goodness) but in my panic to get through the intersection and around the corner I pulled in the (useless) clutch lever and hit the starter button to start my bike again.  (Duh!)

Can you say "Chugga chugga chugga?"  The bike didn't start, but in first gear the starter pulled the bike along a little faster than I could have pushed it.  (Probably not too good for the starter mechanism to do it this way, of course.)

Anyway, something to put in your files for a similar "emergency" situation....

Kerry, I've used the same idea in cars when I've lost use of the clutch.  Granted, it isn't great for the starter, but it will get you home.  It will get you home even better if you have some concept of how to shift without using the clutch.

Don
:mrgreen:

Dudes,

No, no, no, no.  

My name, Smooth Dave, has nothing to do with my skills on a motorcycle.  If my nickname had something to do with my bike skills, it would be Pavement on account of all the times I have laid myself down on it.

Actually, Smooth Dave comes from my days as a fighter pilot because I was so smooth on the stick.    :mrgreen:

Okay, that's not true.  I was never a fighter pilot.     Actually, Smooth Dave was a name given to me on account of how utterly smooth I am with the ladies.  

Okay, that's not true either.  I was never all that smooth with the ladies either.  I was, um, too "nice" and "a great friend."   :x  Until I met my wife.  Then, oh, then, I was, um, well...  

No, dudes, I am called Smooth Dave because I am a bass guitar player, and to play the bass, you have to be severely smooth.  Like butter.  

Someone once told me that if the clutch cable breaks, you can just kick it hard up and down gears.  Is that true?

Smooth Dave
(On the bass, not the bike)
(Like butter)

You have to work with the machine in question to find the right rpm/speed to hit the next gear(I only do this on upshifts).  If you really want to be evil to the transmision, you can just bang it into the next gear(up or down), but this takes real effort, and can throw a motorcycle off balance on downshifts(in my exp.).  I regularly upshift into 6th on my way to work without using the clutch.  I have the room and time to do it without undue pressure on the transmission.  When  I really have to hit the next gear, I use the clutch, mainly because it is easier to change a clutch than a transmission.

Don

Quote from: SmoothDaveSomeone once told me that if the clutch cable breaks, you can just kick it hard up and down gears.  Is that true?

Yeah, you can shift without the clutch.  It helps if you control the throttle so that there's no load on the transmission when you shift.  I don't remember having to "kick it" especially hard.

That's the part of the "broken clutch cable" story that I left out - actually getting the rest of the way home.  I was not quite a mile from home when the cable gave out, but I had to go an extra half mile before I could make that first turn.  I got just lucky enough to catch both traffic lights when they were red  :x , as well as one STOP sign.  So I had to kill the engine 3 times.

Each time I basically pushed the bike to get it started again, shifted up a gear or two, and then killed it again at the next stop.  Kind of a drag, but not TOO hairy....

I find the GS easy to shift down without clutch. As Kerry said, watch load on the drive, it should be just coasting along, no motor braking , no acceleration, and the gears will shift in just smoothly. Remember, this sis a constant mesh gear.

I find upshifting a bit harder to do, but mostly because you have less force in your foot when moving up. Also, my shifting seems to be terribly hard when the engine is cold. I may have a lightly bent shifting shaft.

to be fair only one of those could really kill ya.  the truck thing is the only thing you have to worry about; it's really a state of mind, concentration, forethought type mistake.  whereas your other mistakes will all go away in time with practice.  whenever i used to kill my bike at a light i'd hit the throttle just hard enough to jolt me forward onto the tank.  man, do i not miss those days of racking myself on the tank...