Clutch or no clutch?

bosco659

bosco659

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A friend of mine insists that clutchless upshifting my XS from 2nd gear through to 5th will cause no damage to the gears in the tranny and has the upside of reducing clutch wear. I haven’t bought into this 100% so I’m still old school and use the clutch for upshifting all the time. Any intel on this? I know many modern bikes have quick shifter, up and down but I’d think the gears or tranny were built a special way to accommodate this.
 
I have not done it on my XS but I’ve done it on modern bikes without a quickshifter. The way I’ve always done it is while accelerating I’m giving a little pressure on the shifter, when I roll off the throttle that pressure pops the bike into the next gear and so on. It’s hard to explain and kind of a little dance. Can’t say whether or not it’s good for the bike, just that I’ve done it haha. I can tell you i never did it to reduce clutch wear, and I don’t think that would be my main reason for switching. I’d continue doing what you’re doing but give it a try if you’d like! It’s fun when you get the hang of it
 
Yeah, shifting does cause clutch wear... though not near as much as slipping in first when starting off.
Shifting without the clutch will eventually round the corners off the gear dogs.
Guess which one's easier and cheaper to replace? ;)
I been known to shift without the clutch from time to time, but I wouldn't recommend making a habit out of it.
 
Ditto with Jim about rounding off the gears. You can’t tell me you didn’t cringe when you’ve missed a gear and ground it for a second.
 
bosco659 said:
A friend of mine insists that clutchless upshifting my XS from 2nd gear through to 5th will cause no damage to the gears in the tranny and has the upside of reducing clutch wear. I haven’t bought into this 100% so I’m still old school and use the clutch for upshifting all the time. Any intel on this? I know many modern bikes have quick shifter, up and down but I’d think the gears or tranny were built a special way to accommodate this.
Click to expand...

Something I always do with my vehicles. Not all the time, enough to get familiar with, it both up and down gears, to know where the rev range is, especially changing down. In case I need it if the cable or something else breaks.

Drove a car over 100 miles after the thrust bearing shit itself when I couldn't afford the time to stop to get it fixed.

Learned this when learning to drive an old 42 ford, Jailbar Grill, V8 with no syncro. Changing up we had to doudle clutch and changing down had to double clutch a well with a rev to get the gears to mesh or it wasn't going to change
 
I would guess it has to do with load. Cars and bikes are different. I have gently upshifted and down shifted on bikes well away from the power band (and revs) in years past. I do not do that in my 48 year old XS650. Trucks with tons of torque are regularly shifted clutchless and after driving Mack dump trucks for a while I took to clutchless shifting of my car/truck. But a car/truck trans is entirely diffent than a motorcycle trans. In each case however the watch word is gentle. YRMV
 
I'm not keen to shift up or down without the clutch on my '74. I did shift gears once without the clutch on my TX when the clutch cable broke about 4 miles from home but the transmission didn't like it at all. Now, if I had a fancy Ducati... ;):):)
 

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