Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Hey folks,

I'm looking for a little direction with my rev matching. I down shift, as I pop the clutch I'm blipping the engine, but still my change does not feel smooth - I can feel the rearend twitching as if it's gonna lockup. Maybe I'm thinking about it too much, or still my timing is off not sure.

Any pointers???

Your timing is probably just off. relax and just let it happen if you over think it you are farked. I learned how to do it in the late 1950's, but I always road half lit which helped. I would not recommend riding that way, however. Just keep practicing and it will come.

Your blip needs to be high enough to match the revs, and you need to release the clutch fast enough to catch the revs before they fall.

Are you used to riding at high revs? If not get used to it so you don't feel squeemish about it.... Your bike will be fine... Assuming you're outside the break in period.

The way I used to practice it was to ride at a constant speed (not slowing down) and to change gear over and over with the goal being smooth changes at all rev ranges and gears... Eg from 6th throught each gear to 2nd gear and back at 70km/hr.

Now I'm spoilt having a bike with a slipper clutch.

Hope that helps.

oh yeah, another way to think about it.... Don't blip the throttle, but to start with hold it at a constant high rev and slowly release the clutch.

The smoothness you feel there is what you're going for with a blip, but to get there you can shorten your blip time more and more as you get better at matching the revs

tim wrote:Your blip needs to be high enough to match the revs, and you need to release the clutch fast enough to catch the revs before they fall.

Are you used to riding at high revs? If not get used to it so you don't feel squeemish about it.... Your bike will be fine... Assuming you're outside the break in period.

The way I used to practice it was to ride at a constant speed (not slowing down) and to change gear over and over with the goal being smooth changes at all rev ranges and gears... Eg from 2nd to 6th gear at 70km/hr.

Now I'm spoilt having a bike with a slipper clutch.

Hope that helps.

Hey mate cheers,

I'm hitting 7 - 8000 rpm for gear changes, so I'm probably not catching the revs when i pop the clutch, I have to admit that I'm a bit concious at poping it too quickly.

Just with the practice, I'm with you on the changes at a constant speed, although a bit nervy droppping from 6th to 2nd at 70km ,but does this not cause huuuuge engine breaking not to mention my little 250 shitting itself with revs?

oldman wrote:Your timing is probably just off. relax and just let it happen if you over think it you are farked. I learned how to do it in the late 1950's, but I always road half lit which helped. I would not recommend riding that way, however. Just keep practicing and it will come.

i don t mean 6th to 2nd in one go, i mean one gear at a time match revs maintain speed, next gear same etc.... 2nd should be fine at 70 yeah? What's 1st do on a baby ninja?

Ps, edited my original post to explain this better

You keep saying "Pop" the clutch. This may be just your words leading me to a different conclusion, but.......A clutch is not a switch! It is a tool which should be used in a smooth and progressive manner. If you are just letting it "pop" back out, then this is why you are lockign or chirping the rear end. Try and release the clutch slower and smoother. This will allow the clutch to pick up the gearbox and slide the torque loading in slowly, rather than dumping it.

Smooth is the key to being fast!

OR.......just lean to ride through the rear end moving around then take it anouther step and start using the rear brake at the same time. Learn to hold it sideways into the corner and you'll be the racer in no time

tim wrote:i don t mean 6th to 2nd in one go, i mean one gear at a time match revs maintain speed, next gear same etc.... 2nd should be fine at 70 yeah? What's 1st do on a baby ninja?

Ps, edited my original post to explain this better

Ha, cheers for the clarification mate, I was getting a bit nervous with the thought of that. I'll definately give that a go though.

I do allot of cummuting with not that far to go, it would seem that I have started to develop a bit of an unwanted habit of not using the entire gear range, she'll def do 40, 50 at a push but shes screaming, past day or two I've been purpposley opening her up, and using the 'remainiing' refs. I think this has come about firtsly beacuse the engine has is not propoerly warmed in the morning so not really wanting to trash it first thing and sceondly some days the traffic is a nightmare - but definately getting more out of her using the extended revs.

Cheers for mate

Strika wrote:You keep saying "Pop" the clutch. This may be just your words leading me to a different conclusion, but.......A clutch is not a switch! It is a tool which should be used in a smooth and progressive manner. If you are just letting it "pop" back out, then this is why you are lockign or chirping the rear end. Try and release the clutch slower and smoother. This will allow the clutch to pick up the gearbox and slide the torque loading in slowly, rather than dumping it.

Smooth is the key to being fast!

Yeah for sure, wrong terminology. I do look to releasing the clutch as smooth as possible, maybe i could be even smoother as you say.
I have an adavnced riding course up Mnt Cotton next month, I think some external eyes on me to see where I am going wrong is going to help - probably be able to make the correction easier when i know eaxctly what to correct.

Cheers for your input dude.

Blurr wrote:OR.......just lean to ride through the rear end moving around then take it anouther step and start using the rear brake at the same time. Learn to hold it sideways into the corner and you'll be the racer in no time

hahaha mate I'm still working on the fundamentals of getting rid of my chicken stripes , getting used to the movement aspect is a whole new level skills

slipper clutch is definitely a nice luxury

I recently put a pirelli diablo on the back (got it for cheap, was strapped at the time. a very hard tyre, lol) and the rear end has started to move around a lot more even with the slipper. going from a pilot race rear to a diablo was a big big change haha. Kind of getting used to the rear moving a lot and enjoying it now though especially round tight roundabouts and hard down-changes from 3rd ---> 1st (even with blipping and the slipper)

my advice is the same as the others, learn to ride the back end movement and you will appreciate it on your next (bigger) bike, and learn to be smooth with your changes and you will appreciate it on your next (bigger) bike.

when you know how to be smooth you can have fun when you're a bit rough on her