Engine Braking

[hunterfz6]

I did this very thing once. I was turning of a highway, onto the street going into my neighborhood. I was at a stop waiting for my turn to turn right. While leaning into the turn, I pulled the clutch, engaged 1st gear and dumped the clutch in mid turn. Very scary skid for a few seconds, then I pulled in the clutch and regained control. That kind of stupid chit will get you killed. I have engine braked my bike from day 1. When I drive any manual vehicle, I always use gearing and braking to slow me down. It felt naturally on my fazer from the day I owned it. I know that in the abrupt and sudden emergency stopping, they say pull the clutch in all the way and just front/rear brake it, slow squeezing as you build up the pressure and leaning into the front tire. But normal stopping and going into turns, I hardly ever shift when I ride twisties.

 

[hamslice01]

im a neb too as you say but i use both of my brakes all the time. i would rather have them wear out and have to replace them then my tranny, clutch, so on and so forth as well as rear wheel "locking" which has happened to me so practice with your brakes not your engine

 

[GConn]

do not do this with your car!!!!!!! You can over rev it and drop valves, which is not a good thing! Go to some honda forums where the guy misses a shift and does it......... warranty is null and void when your ecu tells the mechanic it hit 10k right before the boom

I wasn;t suggesting he blows the engine up.... It only takes a try to see how it happens, not necessary to do it on full scale :Flash:

 

[gomd3]

if you guys are skidding your rear wheel when using engine braking, then you are def doing the wrong shift points. Try to match it with your engine speed and it'll be your best friend. I use it all the time and never had any troubles, it doesn't harm your engine if you do it right, this means the rpms shouldn't jump over 6 or 7k tops when you downshift and release the clutch.

 

[HavBlue]

I've got a problem with everyone saying that downshifting too fast can "lock the rear wheel".

So do I but this is a common way of expressing what those riders are feeling. In actuality the rear tire is chattering in terms of traction, which is caused by the mismatch of engine rpm relative to transmission rpm. Done right, I think many would be very surprised just how fast you can go from 6th to 2nd without causing the chatter of that rear tire to occur.

 

[GConn]

In less words: to avoid this, you need to adjust your engine speed before releasing the clutch.

Ummm...lonesoldier84 was worried that the bike would flip him over. Stupid me said "lock" not "slide" and the thread was on fire

 

[HavBlue]

Ummm...lonesoldier84 was worried that the bike would flip him over. Stupid me said "lock" not "slide" and the thread was on fire

Yeah but hot fires burn out quick.... Different people call things different slang names or terms based on their respective geographic location. It just takes some getting used too.

 

[Trouble]

gomd3 is right - if you're in danger of slipping the rear wheel you aren't matching rpm's and wheel speed.

Another possibility is that you are using engine breaking in tandem with use of the front brake. As your forks compress it unweights the rear wheel. This makes the smooth transition from high gear to a lower one harder to match, and more critical. Different bikes make it harder too. My last ride was a Monster 900 and that had a lot of torque. It was much less forgiving on the downshift - I had to hit that sweet spot right when dropping a gear or the rear wheel would slide. Likewise it had a huge amount of engine braking.