azarus' page

Motorcycle Quickshifting

Date: 2018-11-02

I've recently gotten a motorcycle, and have been learning how to ride.

The most interesting thing to me right now is how to operate a motorcycle transmission efficiently and smoothly, and I have some tips for that:

Upshifting

To upshift as quickly as possible, skip using the clutch. When accelerating, pull up gently on the shift lever before you want to shift, and when you find the optimal point in time to shift, quickly close the throttle for a split second. The next gear will fall right into place.

Now, if you want to shift quickly, but not risk screwing it up and damaging your transmission, use the clutch right before you want to shift. To get it to be smooth, release the clutch with feeling.

Downshifting

There are two methods of smoothly downshifting (take your pick):

Quickshifting with blipping the throttle

This method is quicker, louder and allows you to use engine braking more, which is pretty helpful on steep downhills or city riding.

To do this, as you are decelerating by using the front/rear brake:

Pull in the clutch
Blip the throttle (basically open it just enough the hear the engine rev a tiny bit)
Push the gear lever down
Release the clutch

All in a split second. It might appear tricky at first, but it becomes muscle memory pretty quickly. You can and should do the first 3 things simultaneously.

Normal downshifting

It's basically like normal downshifting, but instead you do all the things more sequentially.

Pull in the clutch
Push the gear lever down
Release the clutch ever so slowly, letting the engine catch up to the drive wheel.