Braking, Clutching & Downshifting W/slipper Clutch

[senfo]

I just read an older article by Keith about proper down-shifting technique while entering a corner. Personally, I learned this technique on my own and have used it with great success since I was a young kid riding dirt bikes in the field. There weren't, however, slipper clutches back then (that I know of) to help with correcting miss-shifts. To this day, I continue to blip the throttle while braking to match engine RPM with the speed of the rear wheel (even on a bike with a slipper clutch). My friends and I were recently having a discussion regarding our technique for entering a corner and any of the newer guys that have never learned proper down-shifting techniques, refuse to blip the throttle while entering a corner. They believe it to be a waste of time (which I totally cannot understand) and simply kick it down sometimes two-three gears at a time without ever blipping the throttle or letting out the clutch until after their last shift.

 

My question is, on a bike equipped with a slipper clutch, what is the proper technique for down-shifting? Do the same rules still apply?

 

Aside from the obvious fact that it's more strain on your tranny and clutch to NOT blip the throttle, I believe it's a disaster waiting to happen when an improperly configured slipper clutch suddenly grabs and locks up the rear wheel without any time for the rider to react. This is why I look at a slipper-clutch as a tool to hopefully correct a miss-shift, if it were to happen.

 

What do you guys think?

 

Thank you in advance...

[Kevin Kane]

Senfro,

I am not the right person to offer technical advice but I will say what I am doing. This is my first season with a slipper clutch and I still blip in case it doesn't slip. Plus, my street bike doesn't have one so it keeps my technique consistent.

 

Kevin

[JeF4y]

I put in a yoyodyne slipper clutch this year, and have tried both ways. The old, tried and true, one gear at a time, blipping is the absolute best. Dropping 2-3 gears at a time will induce a slide, even with a slipper clutch.

 

However, with a slipper clutch, you can go through the gears MUCH faster, but should still do them one at a time, mating the gears by blipping.

 

If used correctly, you won't even notice the slipper clutch is there. Then at some point when you question why you spent $700-1500 on it, you'll realize that you have NO rear wheel hop, NO rear wheel slide, COMPLETE stability into a corner, and you'll also realize that sometimes you forget what gear you're in as the slipper clutch will really limit the revs to around 10-11k, so you could feasibly shift down into 1st without realizing it (I've done this twice). You need to keep track of shifts

[senfo]

Dropping 2-3 gears at a time will induce a slide, even with a slipper clutch.

This is what I was afraid of. Under heavy braking, the rear wheel is limited by traction enough as it is. If I were to come in hot and brake heavy while down-shifting a gear or two (with or without the clutch, mind you), I could easily fathom an instance where there isn't enough back-torque available to induce a slip of the clutch, which could inevitably result in an unexpected slide of the rear wheel.

[senfo]

I'm just curious, what are the professionals doing? Watching Rossi, I believe I see him blipping the throttle, but it happens so fast that it's hard to tell.

[msv]

These days in Moto GP most of the bike have automated rev matching controlled by the ECU, so there is no longer any need for the rider to do anything with his throttle hand to match revs on downshifts. Some of the riders, such as Troy Bayliss, still blip on their own, however.

[supernouht]

What really?? That kinda seems like cheating to me almost... I'm just imagining how easy it would be to ride a bike like that, I guess that's why i've been seeing less crashes in the moto gp lately even though they're going like 30mph faster than they were with the 2 strokes? Personally I think if they're going to allow 990cc 4 strokes, they should allow for a bigger displacemt 2-stroke, like a 700 or 750, then they might actually be competitive again? Oh well not like it relly matters I guess, I'm just a 2-stroke fan, I have a yamaha 125cc 2-stroke flat tracker and an nsr250 2-stroke streetbike.