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I used to allways change up 2-3-4-5-6 without the clutch on the gixer but the vtr is not as easy. How do you change gear ?

With my left foot lol


Can't ride but it don't stop me trying

Most Storms take a clutchless change easily enough, but never first to second, it'll bounce out again.
Occasionally 5th to 6th can be awkward as well.

All the middle ones are fine, useful for the drag strip 'cause they're the ones you need.

Depends on the individual bike.

But it also depends on how the gearchange linkage has been set up.
Try to get a 90 degree angle between the arms and the rod at rest, and you get the best chance of a good change.
Fitting rose joints and a bronze bush in the lever pivot also improves things immensely.

But none of this matters if your selector forks are worn, of course.

Same as Tony says, never 1st to 2nd, and never down shifting, but for the middle gears it works fine as long as you get the rhythm of the bike.

I don't do it all the time, only when I am really streaching the throttle cables on each gear change.

But in slight contradiction to Tony, I have started to set the the lever arm on the gear change 1 spline forward of the perfect 90deg position, to give it a shorter lever movement (although this will mean an increase in pedal effort by the same proportion).

But getting all the slop out of the linkage with Rose joints is the 1st task before trying anything else

Another thing to do is don't fully shut the throttle. This will smoth things out as well

Fireman on a Storm wrote:Another thing to do is don't fully shut the throttle. This will smoth things out as well

the new chain and sprockets and oil change with castrol power has made an improvement no end, changes with out the clutch as easy as the gixer now

Why not downshifting...

I know it's harder then up on IL4's, but is there a reason you should not doit on a V?

MissEd wrote:Why not downshifting...

I know it's harder then up on IL4's, but is there a reason you should not doit on a V?

rear wheel lock up maybe an issue, esp dodgy if cornering at the time

huh???
up & down, i do it all the time.... doesnt lock the wheel up at all unless youre daft enough to drop 3 into 1st on a wet road!
it does wreck the box tho... eventually

Surely with crotchless you don't have to worry about skidmarks....

benny hedges wrote:huh???
up & down, i do it all the time.... doesnt lock the wheel up at all unless youre daft enough to drop 3 into 1st on a wet road!
it does wreck the box tho... eventually

thats interesting. was surmising (hence the "maybe"), having never tried a clutchless change either up or down but been a bit sharp on clutch release occasionally & thats how its felt, to me

I did clutchless changes up and down for many trouble free miles. It's all about the right amount of blipping the throttle on the done change

Wicky wrote:Surely with crotchless you don't have to worry about skidmarks....

I don't see why not either. Managed OK on the Blade.. Not tried on VTR yet.

Cant see a reason why you can on some bikes and not others.

I only clutchless downshift on strokers and dirtbikes....don't know why, I just never do it on 4stroke road bikes...

I am sure if you do it right it will work just fine on the VTR.

Not a problem, as long as you don't mind stripping the engine out and rebuilding with new selector forks.

Not too big a deal, it'll take three or four days to complete.

And save you .something of a second each time you shift.