Not so green is the web site for everyone who has ever looked out an airplane window and wondered what they were looking at. We sort through the thousands of aerial photographs posted on photo-sharing sites like Flickr, and create a global map showing the locations of images from around the world.Here's the entry for my photo. Cool stuff.
DownshiftsI got a message from James Lickwar about questions regarding downshifts. James is my main instructor in the afternoon portions of our school, and has a lot of knowledge and sound techniques. As some of you may know I don't ever spend anytime in chat rooms or forums, but I wanted to see if I could be of some help if possible and get some of your questions answered - Hope that is ok. I want to add beforehand that whatever works best for you is great, and this is just another way of looking at something. RPM management is absolutely everything to me and how I ride.
Reading some of your posts, there are many of you that understand the way we teach downshifting at STAR schools. I like that someone wrote that I’m not NOT advocating blipping the throttle, because blipping the throttle totally works and I use it. Before we explain the technique I try and teach, lets figure out what causes bad downshifts.
We all know not enough RPMs when going to a lower gear are what makes our bikes act up upon corner entry, but why? First off there are three things that kill our RPMs: rolling the throttle off, pulling in the clutch and applying brakes. All three of those things cause the RPMs to die and therefore we have to blip to bring them back up.
What I try to teach is this: When we initially roll off the throttle, too many of us wait too long to click our first downshift - hence we lose RPM. Say we are going down a 4th gear straightaway into a 2nd gear corner. If I’m @ 11,000 rpm with a redline of 14,000 rpm in 4th gear, couldn’t I theoretically go to 3rd gear without doing too much? Think about that - I clicked a downshift but I never had to blip. If I’m at 13,500 rpm then I will roll the throttle off a couple thousand rpm to allow the motor not to over-rev into the red zone. My throttle is closing but my RPMs are going up and working for me. Now that I have gone to 3rd gear the time I take to get down to 2nd is very short. I want to have all the RPMs that I can use to help slow the bike down while I am braking.
Someone else wrote how they caught themselves pulling in the clutch lever a bit too far. That is very observant. By only pulling in the clutch lever half the distance that most of you do, that is RPM gained to help you with your downshifts. Go to your bike and start it. Pull the clutch in, put it in gear and let the clutch lever out in super slow motion. Look how much clutch you release before your bike starts to roll away. Now think how many RPMs you lose when you pull it to the bar on each downshift.
This is a bit harder to explain in writing as opposed to where I am normally teaching this in the classroom. If you go to any of the links of our
onboard videos of me buzzing around the tracks of America, listen closely how quickly the first downshifts are getting done when the motorcycle begins to decelerate. Where I do blip it is usually when I’m coming from a wide open 5th or 6th gear straightaway. Getting down to 2nd gear while heavy braking sometimes requires a blip as my RPMs are going down so fast it is needed. Listen and you will hear that.
The last part of this is realizing you don’t DROP the clutch, you RELEASE it. Once I’m in my lowest gear you will hear and see that I am very deliberate on how I get the rear wheel and engine on speaking terms. We all have heard how smooth equals fast, and being smooth on your downshifts will help you to set a consistent entry speed into corners.
In closing, here are a couple things to remember. The earlier you can get your bike into the gear you want to roll thru the corner, the better. Don’t make downshifting the last thing you do before turn in. An unsmooth downshift or release of the clutch will upset the bike as you try and turn it in. We all know what false neutrals are. Wouldn’t it be great to not get them when we want to turn the bike in? By getting my downshifts done earlier, I can correct a possible false neutral while the bike is upright.
I’m sure there will be questions but I hope that I have been able to help in some way.
Thanks and ride safe
Jason Pridmore
www.starmotorcycle.com
I think the misunderstanding that many people have -- and I had it myself, before I carefully analyzed the videos -- is that this technique can be applied for every downshift, and it's not.
Jason even states as much.
I like that someone wrote that I’m not NOT advocating blipping the throttle, because blipping the throttle totally works and I use it.
Z3n hit the nail on the head:
It works because as he's rolling out of the throttle, for a moment it's at say 50% throttle, he engages the clutch, the RPM's spike up (as the engine unloads), and downshifts and lets the clutch out. Shift completed with no blip. Now, once the throttle is completely closed, it's back to blip downshifts as usual. This technique is not used for every downshift, only downshifts in that particular situation.
In a sequence of downshifts -- whether from 5th to 2nd, or 4th to 1st, or whatever -- how many of those downshifts in which the technique can be used depends in part on how quickly you need to be slowing down, and how quickly you can bang down the gears during the time the throttle is still open.
In a race/track situation, in which you are striving to be always either accelerating or braking -- never coasting -- your main objective coming into a turn is to slow the bike down in as short a distance as possible. As such, as soon as you finish rolling off, you need to be ramping up on the brakes. How many downshifts can you bang down Pridmore-style during the short timespan it takes to roll off to zero throttle? For most of us mortals, I would say one, maybe two. The remaining downshifts would need to be done via blipping or feathering, because you need to be on the brakes by then, and RPMs are rapidly decreasing. But that's OK, you executed one smooth downshift before ever touching the brakes, and therefore one less downshift to worry about as you're rapidly decelerating toward the corner.
In fact, study some of Jason's videos that have data overlays. Coming from a high speed straight, throttle is at 100%. Then you'll hear the engine overrev -- he's just downshifted once, maybe twice -- and then throttle goes to 0%, and he starts braking. From that point on, ALL subsequent dowhshifts are achieved via blipping (you'll periodically see the throttle position jump from 0% to 30% or so).
In a street situation, where you're (ostensibly) not racing, you have the liberty of beginning your deceleration process a lot earlier and stretching it out. In the original thread somebody mentioned using the Pridmore technique on long highway offramps, and that is a good example. Let's say you're on the freeway cruising in 5th gear. You take the exit, and *gradually* begin rolling off. The throttle is still open, maybe 60%, so you quickly clutch in and click down to 4th. A second or two later you're still rolling off, maybe you're at 30% throttle now, you clutch in and downshift again to 3rd. At this point you're off throttle and begin squeezing the brakes. The remaining downshifts you'll need to do with blipping or feathering, but you were able to bang down 2 gears before you even touched the brakes. Smooth.
