F4i missing gears when downshifting
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F4i missing gears when downshifting
Has anyone had this issue where upon braking and rolling off the throttle a bit and then pressing the gear shift lever down, it goes down but without engaging any other gear. Not even a sound, just goes down smooth. Yet while the clutch is still in, I can take the pressure off the gear shift lever and it will downshift the second time I press down. My F3 doesn't do this. I recently changed the oil to see if that would help but no cigar. The bike only has 10k on it.
I have heard to blip the thottle a bit before the downshift to make the gears mesh but that sounds screwy. I have never had to do anything but press down to make any other bike downshift. Thoughts? Adjustments?
I have heard to blip the thottle a bit before the downshift to make the gears mesh but that sounds screwy. I have never had to do anything but press down to make any other bike downshift. Thoughts? Adjustments?
July 2008 ROTM
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From: Milwaukee
Sounds like it's just getting caught in between gears. Something may be wrong if it's happening consistently. What exactly, I dunno.
For what it's worth, when I down shift, I will pull in the clutch, blip the throttle and shift the gear, then let the clutch out, all in a fairly quick movement. The throttle helps to rev match the lower gear, and may also help the gear meshes line up more (don't know, guessing). Nothing screwy about it.
For what it's worth, when I down shift, I will pull in the clutch, blip the throttle and shift the gear, then let the clutch out, all in a fairly quick movement. The throttle helps to rev match the lower gear, and may also help the gear meshes line up more (don't know, guessing). Nothing screwy about it.
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So if you are coming into a corner hard and need to downshift, you would quickly roll on the throttle even though you are squeezing the brake lever. Is this only an F4i thing? I have never needed to roll on the throttle to downshift with other bikes. ???
July 2008 ROTM
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From: Milwaukee
Yes, I can blip the throttle and squeeze the brake lever at the same time. Usually I try to do my downshifting before the brake (especially if I'm doing a twisty run or something), but I can do it.
It's not an F4i only thing, you should be able to squeeze the clutch and push your shifter down to change gears like any other bike. As I said, I dunno if you have something wrong or not, I suck at mechanicals. Just giving my viewpoint of how I do things, in case it helps in some way.
It's not an F4i only thing, you should be able to squeeze the clutch and push your shifter down to change gears like any other bike. As I said, I dunno if you have something wrong or not, I suck at mechanicals. Just giving my viewpoint of how I do things, in case it helps in some way.
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Giving the throttle a little blip saves wear on your clutch, if you just dump the bike into a lower gear then the clutch has to deal with the strain of forcing the final drive rotation speed and the tranny/motors rotational speed to come together and match each other. The clutch is being forced to compensate for the difference between the two. If you blip the throttle after pulling in the clutch the differences in speed between the two systems is very minor and the clutch won't take the strain of forcing the two to match, they already will. When downshifting to slow you want the Motor slowing the bike, not the clutch.
Also a smooth jerkless up/downshift is vital if you ever end up having to shift mid lean for any reason. Either way will work. But your tranny will take a lot less wear and tear if you goose the throttle a hair when you downshift. Goes like this, Clutch in, blip throttle while downshifting, clutch out. Voila, smmoth perfect shift. There was a whole other thread around here on this subject recently. Should go look into it if your really curious.
Also a smooth jerkless up/downshift is vital if you ever end up having to shift mid lean for any reason. Either way will work. But your tranny will take a lot less wear and tear if you goose the throttle a hair when you downshift. Goes like this, Clutch in, blip throttle while downshifting, clutch out. Voila, smmoth perfect shift. There was a whole other thread around here on this subject recently. Should go look into it if your really curious.
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From:
To add to the whole blip the throttle technique, this technique is used and can be important for bikes that has a 'wet' clutch (like ours) because our bikes are not equipped with a 'slipper' clutch. With wet clutches, if the speed is high and you quickly downshift into a lower gear, the final drive can have too much power and actually over-spin and can cause the back wheel to loose control or spin out or do something to make the bike very unstable. With slipper clutches, that problem is sort of solved and if you are at a high speed and downshift, then the slipper clutch won't make the final drive go out of control, it will automatically compensate for the difference in the speed/gear ratio.
But Rotaxhippie, are you saying that when you downshift that it just skips from like 4th gear down to 1st gear smoothly in one shot without going into any other gear?
But Rotaxhippie, are you saying that when you downshift that it just skips from like 4th gear down to 1st gear smoothly in one shot without going into any other gear?
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if you down shift with out rev matching it could cause it to shift lock i did it once in the rain not cool but just ride it out. You should do it on any thing thats a manual cars trucks bikes Ect... it will save your *** when riding or driving along with wear and tear.