Hard to down shift

[Ulvetanna_imp]

So...what am I doing wrong or right?: I approach a turn at, say, 50mph in 5th. Pretty sharp corner with a posted 'recommended' speed of 20mph. I pull the clutch lever, drop two clicks to 3rd, apply front brake, pull clutch and drop another click to 2nd, trail off the brake and roll on throttle and exit the turn. Heck, I'm not even sure that's what I do as I type it out, though. LOL. I'll need to record myself sometime, but in the meantime, what did I screw up?

For you guys who do multiple down-shifts without re-engaging the clutch between shifts: Do you blip the throttle each time before you depress the shift lever to match the engine speed with the rear wheel speed? If you don't, do you hear a lot of noise coming out of your transmission?

For you guys who do multiple down-shifts without re-engaging the clutch between shifts: Do you blip the throttle each time before you depress the shift lever to match the engine speed with the rear wheel speed? If you don't, do you hear a lot of noise coming out of your transmission? No, absolutely not. No reason to do anything with the throttle. Just allow the bike to slow down a bit and click down to the next gear.

Well yea you'd either have to hitting the brakes hard and have a slipper clutch or in the case of going from 6th to second, you would be super hard on the brakes if you don't have the slipper, as that would be going from 140 down to maybe 50 or 60 in a short span of time, you couldn't come in at 160 and downshift 4 times and let out the clutch without all manner of bad things happening to the trans, to the tires, to stability and to the rider probably. THought that was understood.

Even on the CB going from 6 th to second would require you to scrub off massive amounts of speed before you could safely use second.

Things to keep in mind about shifting:

-CB1100, especially five-speed, has a fairly wide-ratio gearbox. It doesn't shift like a track bike but it does respond very well to the blip at high RPM, in the upper third of the tach. I like to ride it like this sometimes.

-Late-model production racebikes like the R1, ZX-10R (WSB champs again, way to go!) and so on have ECU control of shifting for both up/down shifts. No need to touch the clutch, the ECU matches the RPM for you. It's just not that simple though. A lot of guys think this is the bee's knees and it'll shave all kinds of time off their laps, but no. Being in the right place at the right time on the racetrack and having your reference points worked out is much more important. Once that's done and you are within a few seconds of the lap record for your kind of motorcycle, then maybe.

-1000cc MotoGP bikes have a "seamless" gearbox coupled with ECU RPM-matching, one can hear how stupidly smooth the shifting is. The clutch is never touched once out of the pits.

-True RPM matching can only be done with ride-by-wire and quickshifter. Otherwise it's either the fan or the blip.

To shift with the "blip" technique you've got to be in the upper third of the RPM range where the engine is nice and stable. It's all done by feel, and happens in a tenth of a second or so, very quickly. One does briefly roll the throttle on at the instant the clutch is released.

-The "fan" technique is done at lower RPM, one simply holds steady throttle and pulls the clutch partway in to soften the gearchange. Works great at lower engine speeds and for street riding.

The blip video. Hitting about 140 mph, upshifting to 5th, back down to 4th, then 3rd.