aceman1741
Member
Can anyone give me advice if there is a correct way of downshifting gears without making the gears sound clunky or noisy, or is it just me....help
That's a good tip between 2nd to 6th, but I wouldn't recomend between 1st and 2nd.i always try to pre-load my shifter before shifting up or down and that reduces a lot of the clunking and the shifting is a lot quicker and smoother.
Pre-load: put pressure on the shift lever in the direction that you want to shift before pulling in the clutch.
In reality these shift points are crap. Maybe it's good to follow them while running the engine in (first 1000 miles), but after that you want to be shifting up when the torque starts to run off (around 11000 RPM), and down shifting at around 4000.
You will not be able to escape if you are in the wrong gear or not in the power band (6000 - 11000).
I wouldn't say they were crap and it would clearly depend on the rider and just how they are riding. I wouldn't say shifting at 11,000rpm is any better in that you "will" be sucking up a lot of fuel for what?
As far as escaping goes..... Well, you wouldn't need to escape if you had picked up the hazard before it got to the point you were in trouble. Additionally, it's not always speed that allows you to escape. Rather, it may just be the riders ability to understand and act upon those options that are available to be used in the act of escaping. Speed or the gear you are in is only one of them.
True you can poodle along at 2000 - 4000 RPM and when I'm cruising I'm normally doing about 4000 - 5000, but for accelerating this bike performs best in the upper end of the RPM range and for optimum acceleration you want to be shifting just before the torque starts to let up, which is about 11000. Why would you buy a bike with the power and then not use it? That's like buying a top of the range computer to write a letter???? Sure you might write the occasional letter, but you are going to be doing a lot more with it too, or you've wasted your money.
As far as escaping goes..... Sorry mate, you can turn left or your can turn right, but you're not going to go anywhere fast unless you twist the throttle and get instant acceleration, things can happen in split seconds that even the most competent of riders will not see coming, so it's AWAYS good to be in the power band. I'm not saying that braking is not going to be the option of choice at the time, but you can brake at any RPM where as you can only accelerate away when in the power band.
This bike as you call it performs best in the rider's desired mode plain and simple. This isn't to say it doesn't have the ability to do better but for the specific rider, they don't care as it does exactly what "they" want it to do and that's all that counts as it is their bike and their money. I live in Corvette town and I will tell you there are thousands of Corvettes that will never see triple digit speeds but they sure are popular and people still buy them for the 60,000 or so they cost. Again, their money and their desires.
Now, as far as acceleration goes, regardless of the speed or rpm you are traveling at, if the bike goes faster from that point you are in effect accelerating. Granted, you may be taking forever to do so but you are accelerating none the less. Speed or time to speed is but one option in the proverbial bag of tricks that all bikes have. It will "never" be the only option and for me, I think it is often overrated as there are other options many riders fail to use when avoiding a hazard. Furthermore, if you could keep that rider from panicking, locking up the brakes, failing to see the out and a host of other options they may have avoided the incident that took them out but they don't and this is why we have accidents. They often travel too close, fail to comply with the posted speed, look everywhere but where they should and are having some much fun with the other riders in their group they missed that cage that was legally entering the motorway. Riders often bring many of the problems they face on themselves. This isn't to say cagers are faultless, only to say they will almost always be blamed when in fact it was the rider that put themselves in a position to get hammered in the first place.
Here you go:
A simple idea is to hold in the clutch while braking. When you get to about 25 KM/H, you downshift. You won't get any 'clunk' if you shift while stopped.
The guoikkkrekk sound you hear when you downshift is the strain of spinning gears being set by the clutch at a high speed.
I wouldn't say they were crap and it would clearly depend on the rider and just how they are riding.
That and my noisy Scorpions, which do seem to stop me nodding off now that I'm in my dotage years.
Hey, thanks all for giving me such great advice. Especially the intelligent one.
Speaking of which, OneTrack, when are you going to come screaming past the hangar so I can hear those things in action?
(OT I know - sorry)
Hey, thanks all for giving me such great advice. Especially the intelligent one. I appreciate it. I'm actually new to riding this type of bike. My riding experience is dirt bikes and enduros and this is actually the first street racer I have purchaced, and boy what a racer it is. My question was asked because I heard the clunks and didn't like the noise or understand it. I have changed gears (downshifting) from a stop position to actually bumping up the throttle a bit to slip it into gear better. And I say the latter performs better and slides into gear better than at a stop. Upshifting is good for me especially when the rpm's are at a higher rev. I have managed to do both methods, shifting with clutch and without and I'm telling you that without the clutch is fast and smooth but only when you are accelerating very fast but when you just cruise, I prefer the clutch.
This site is very informative and I'm very happy with all the great advice everyone has. It's gotten to a point that I get on this site two three four times a day.... I even have done mods to the bike in which most of all of you have done but I have the bike now for only 3 months, I'm actually waiting for my carbon scorpions to come in the mail :Flash: Dual headlight mod (low and high beams), pazzo shifting levers, puig smoked windscreen, 2007 front fender modified to fit 2006 fz6, and so on. I am so pleased with my bike, it's awesome. Now to learn actually how to ride efficiently and the correct way, I appreciate the help......
aceman