I drove 18 wheelers for 20 years, and only used the clutch when starting and stopping. You can absolutly shift any manual tranny without the use of the clutch without harming anything! IF..you know what your doing. The problem comes in the practice. It's all about matching transmission gear speed to road speed. If you know how and do it right, there's no grinding and and shifts are as easy as with the clutch. When riding my bikes, it depends on how I feel. One thing is, you can't shift FAST without use of the clutch! I still drive my old 83 F250 that way, it has 285,000 miles and trany is fine.

 

In drag racing cars (when I had a gear jammer) I never used the clutch either after the car was moving. Gas down clutch shifting (power shifting) and no clutch shifting is fairly common in drag racing. If the transmission has syncros in it (most do) there is no need to use the clutch. Actually I know know if syncros help with no clutch shifting. Truckers used to "double clutch" before syncros.

I don't know about all bikes in general but I have done it on bikes (Honda) and never had a problem. Most people are just not familiar with how to do it smoothly and that's okay too.

 

If the transmission has synchronizers, use the clutch, otherwise it doesn't matter. Synchronizers "pay the price" for shifting without the clutch.

 

the only tiem i have ever Not used the clutch is when ym cable snapped 10 miles from home, i wasnt pushing it nore was i calling a tow truck. shifted quite a fe trucks ithout the clutch, but i wont shift the biek without a clutch unless i have no choice

 

I'm with you on that one, BucketAss! One trany replacement when I was a kid broke me of all the gear jamn. I've only had to replace discs, throwout bearing and pressure plates since. I've never had a badly scored flywheel. Never turned one as of yet. I've done all my own clutches in my cages because I can! I hate to risk the trany in my scoot either. I still can shift many vehicles through the gears without grinding them, but I'm familiar with what I'm driving.
This being my first Harley, I felt compelled to stir the pot and find out what was in it!


I'm off for the afternoon so...

 

I have shifted metrics without the clutch,never tryed it on the Harley yet !!!
Owned and operated a 18 wheeler for years only used clutch when takeing off not to shift gears,put over 700k on it no problems !!!
Most big rig drivers don't use the clutch to change gears !!!

 

I do it now and then on my Z1000, but never even thought about doing it on my HD-NEVER! I still use the clutch 95% of the time on the Z1000. Clutchless shiffting can bend shift forks/DOGS and can grind down gear teeth.

 

What you folks are not realizing is that 18 wheeler and M-21 or M-22 transmissions are not constant mesh gearboxes. What that means is, in a constant mesh gearbox there is only a neutral in one position of the shift pattern, not between all the gears. Meaning, in a standard gearbox such as a car, you can find N no matter what gear your in. On your Bike's gearbox, you can't go from 4th or 5th to neutral, you have to go all the way down to first to get there.

On a standard car trans you can go through the gears provided,
a) you match the input shaft rotation with the gear you're trying to get too through engine RPM.
b) you have synchronizers in most manual transmissions to help you spin the gears for synchronization that keeps grinding the gears to a minimum.

Either way, you have a way out to neutral im most cases.

Examples of vehicles with constant mesh gearboxes are F1, indy cars, most newer Ferriri's and Lamborghini's and of course our beloved motorcycles. Most of these cars have clutches for stopping, but they also have is a shift assisting electronics system that releases accelleration (cuts ignition or fuel for a slit second) during that moment of shifting through the gears. This allows for smooth shift without harsh jolting on the driveline. This electronic shifting control is also available on motorcycles to allow for quick shifting without having to use the clutch.
http://www.powercommander.com/powerc...k_shifter.aspx

That doesn't mean you can't shift without the clutch, it just means that the more accelleration or load you put on the trans and driveline, the more potential failures you going to have without this ignition cut off. Unless you're racing, I don't know why you would even entertain clutchless shifting anyway.

At low speeds, going from gear to gear is relative to which gear with regards to how smooth the transition is. Personally I don't like the jolt from gear to gear. It does get better as you travel up the gear pattern.

Bottom line, I use the clutch. My racing days are over..
Sorry for rambling..

 

Drove trucks for the family trucking business, and paid my way through college using a clutch to shift each and every time on all of the Petes I drove. Father was adamant that a clutch has a purpose...USE IT!!!! 27 years in the business and over 25 Peterbilts later...he never had a transmission problem one. He fired drivers for not using the clutch on each and every shift....pretty persnickity about it.

Father's brother (my uncle) was the service manager at our local Peterbilt dealership, and took great joy in pointing out to everyone who would listen each and every tranny that was demolished due to driver's not using a clutch to shift, and there were many.

Have ridden all levels and makes of bikes...offroad, street, strip....and always used a clutch to shift. Never have had tranny problems....

On another note: When I picked up my Ultra, the H-D dealership GM was pretty adamant when giving me a walkaround that I use the clutch each and every shift.

 

Hey guy , Harley uses straight cut gears, it only takes one chip to start the destruction. You do the math.