Clutchless upshifting on 2018 and 2019 401

[stroem]

How many people never use the clutch to upshift on bikes that don't have the quickshifter? It is so easy with this trans. The only think I don't like is the transmission doesnt give much positive engagement so I'm sometimes not sure if I grabbed the gear.

 

[BISavage]

I do downshifts without the clutch when Cruising, and I agree, the tranny's willingness to change gear with just a little nudge on the shifter is totally awesome.

The shift kit made it even slicker feeling.

 

[aitormartin]

Never tried this, isn't it bad for the transmission?

 

[BISavage]

Never tried this, isn't it bad for the transmission?

Yes, if you do it wrong.

When you are smooth with the throttle transition then shifting without a clutch is no problem.

I think alot of people learn really fast if a clutch cable or lever is broken and they want to make it home.

 

[joeprez]

I do it all the time on my 2019 Svart, both upshifts and downshifts. Upshifting is super smooth, you just need to apply a little "up" pressure to the shifter, close the throttle for a bit (less than a second) and up it goes. It works great, a would say, north of 6,500 rpm. If you are going "too slow" for the engine to need the upshift, it wont go. Same when downshifting (I do it while getting to a traffic light): Close the throttle, apply downward pressure to the shifter, not a lot, and when the engine slows enough, it will downshift.

You can do the same with manual cars... it was very easy on my Miata and my RSX, not so much on my 1974 VW Beetle.

 

[BISavage]

not so much on my 1974 VW Beetle.

I had the exact opposite experiance on my 1970 beetle, but then again it did have a short throw shifter... I used to just rest my foot on top of the clutch pedal most of the time.

My last bike didnt like clutchless shifting at all and made a fat clunk 99 perct of the time, but then again it never missed a shift or found a false nuetral... not once in many years.

 

[joeprez]

I had the exact opposite experiance on my 1970 beetle, but then again it did have a short throw shifter... I used to just rest my foot on top of the clutch pedal most of the time.

My last bike didnt like clutchless shifting at all and made a fat clunk 99 perct of the time, but then again it never missed a shift or found a false nuetral... not once in many years.

My Super Beetle was stock, so maybe that could be the difference.

I rode my friends Honda CB500 at the clutchless shifting was not as easy as it is on the Svart, but completely doable.

 

[Dr.Shifty]

It's tricky trying to compare car and bike gear changes. The gearboxes of cars and bikes are very different and bad clutchless shifting has different consequences.

Cars have synchromesh boxes where the teeth of the gears have to slide into each other with every gear change. There are synchro rings that touch first and get each gear spinning at the same speed before the teeth mesh. A bad shift and the teeth grind each other into bits.

Bikes have constant mesh dog boxes where the teeth are always meshed and the gears spin freely on the shaft. A gear change means sliding one gear into the adjoining gear so they lock together with 'dogs' that protrude from the side of one gear and mesh into slots in the adjoining gear. The dogs are not finely machined like the teeth of the gears, just rough cast. A bad shift in a dog box puts added stress on the gears but they are already meshed so they don't grind each other. What happens over time is that the edges of the dogs start to round off. Too much of that and the dog ends up slightly tapered and slips out of gear under load.