[Jadefoxx215]

I’ll try to describe this as clearly as I can, I’m not mechanically proficient at all and I think I know what i’m doing wrong but don’t know how to correct it.

this is about down shifting and me possibly lugging the engine, which I know is bad especially during the break-in period and it doesn’t happen all the time but I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong…so here it is, sometimes when I’m approaching a red light thats about to turn green or a slow down (not to a stop) in traffic, if I’m shifting from 2nd to 1st sometimes as I slowly let out the clutch and open the throttle, I get severe kickback from the engine jerking me forward a bit. I think I’m lugging the engine but I’m not sure. Did I not open the throttle up enough, would it be safe to stay in second gear if I’m not at a complete stop? What am I doing wrong to cause this, I know its not supposed to do that if I were doing everything right.

[megaspaz]

If you’re doing that, it sounds like you’re opening the throttle too much while in 1st. It’s also safe to stay in second gear. Feather the clutch while rolling open the throttle. Ideally, you don’t want to drop to 1st until you’ve put the final squeeze on the brakes to stop.

This kind of situation is easily practiced in an empty parking lot though.

—
If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…

[Jadefoxx215]

thanks!! I plan on practicing a lot in an empty lot after work today but over my last 2 rides I did it about 3 times and wanted to know what the heck I was doing to cause such a vicious lug of the engine. MUCHO THANKSO!!

[Rab]

You probably know some of this already but anyway…

It’s all about matching your gear to your speed.

An engine can only work efficiently within a specific RPM (revolutions per minute) range; too slow and the engine will labor or stall, too high and you could blow-up the engine (taken to extremes), or at least be wasting fuel for no appreciable gain in acceleration. Your task as the rider (or at least one of them) is to make sure that you always have the appropriate gear selected to keep the engine running within it’s power band (which varies from bike to bike).

1. If coming briskly to a stop (red light), just pull in the clutch and down-change, click, click, click… until just before stopping, you click it into first gear; no need to let out the clutch between downshifts. You may then want to put it in neutral (without letting out the clutch) and let the clutch out when in neutral. Alternativily, you may just want to sit there with the clutch still pulled-in (in first gear) until you get the green light.

2. If just slowing down, you should be able to tell by the engine “note” (sound), that it’s reaching the bottom of its power band and needs a down-shift. If the bike slows dramatically when you let out the clutch, you’re changing down too early; let the bike slow a little more before down-changing.

You might also want to try pulling the clutch in and raising the engine revs a little as you down-change; then gently let out the clutch. If you still dramatically slow down, you have changed down too soon and/or have not given the throttle enough revs (just a little mind), or, alternatively, if you speed-up when letting out the clutch, you’ve given it too much revs. What you’re trying to do is to match your engine speed to the power band allowed by the lower gear.

I hope you followed that, it’s kinda difficult to explain…

[megaspaz]

When slowing down, you can help the bike slow down faster by downshifting and releasing the clutch. It’s called engine braking. You can either go with a hard engine brake by not blipping the throttle, or you can blip the throttle to make the slow down more smooth. You can get the feel of engine braking by not blipping the throttle. You’ll get a pulled back feeling and your engine will definately tell you it’s slowing down. You don’t want to do this leaned into a turn, but if stopping or slowing down in a straight line, it’s ok to do. There is a raging debate on how and to what extent it affects your engine life. I personally love the feel of hard engine braking and my sv650s makes a sexy growl when doing it…

—
If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…

[Author]

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