Clutchless Gear Change

apatia77

apatia77

apatia77

Soldato
Joined
25 Mar 2005
Posts
5,064
I can't believe I never knew this was possible and that it is safe to do so and than many people actually do it.

Does it work well for any motorbike ie 125/600/1000cc

I am going to try this once on the road again.

To change gear we roll off the throttle and pull in the clutch lever, kick up the gear lever then engage the gear selected by releasing the clutch lever and rolling the power back on.

There is another way when changing UP from 2nd gear and above:

Leave the clutch lever entirely alone. Roll off the throttle and kick up the gear lever then re-apply the power. Modern gearboxes are so smooth that a slight closing of the throttle will enable you to change gear smoothly without using the clutch.

Many gearboxes will allow you to change down without using the clutch but this is generally less smooth.

If you intend to try this for the first time then start by changing up in the higher gear ratios first rather than from first to second. For example: change up to fourth in the normal way and accelerate to the speed that you would normally change to fifth. Roll off the throttle and immediately kick the gear lever up to fifth and be ready to roll on the throttle soon after that!

Advantages of the clutchless gear change is that it is quicker, smoother and less wearing on the mechanics of the bike.
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Yes it'll work on pretty much any bike with gears.

I do clutchless upshifts, but always clutch 1st to 2nd and all downshifts.

If you've got a quickshifter then it's a different story :)
 
Clutchless gear changes will cause no extra wear on a gearbox. Even my race bike which has been thrashed and brutally slammed through the box with sudden full throttle has no visible wear when I took it apart this winter for a bottom end check.

They make your riding smoother and quicker with pretty much no downside. An excellent skill to practise.
 
Agreed, I did this all the time on my CBF125 and had it down to be ridiculously smooth. I'm less in practice on the F800s, but it does work when I get it right.

I do need to adjust the gear lever down a bit though, my feet don't always want to push it all the way up and I get stuck in no-gear-land.
 
Managed to give it a go on my way home and OMG this is amazing, it is so smooth, quick and easy (apart from few tries from 2nd to 3rd) but with practise I am sure I will get it done correctly every time.

It feels strange though at first but it's only a matter of getting used to it I suppose.
 
I do it sometimes, not often though to be honest. I just... don't. It's worked just fine on all my bikes except the Pegaso, it works on it but it doesn't work well.

MX bikes are amazing, you can do what you want with those boxes. Up, down, throttle on, they don't really care.
 
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