To Clutch Or Not To Clutch? That Is The Question

[YamaRider]

I don't see any feasible way to "blow" your motor by shifting without the clutch. Even if you manage to totally fubar the transmission, nothing is going to affect the actual working parts of the engine. That's purely a coincidence. I don't even know how you could break off a gear shifting without the clutch, unless you, through some lack of intelligence, were doing this with the throttle still open.

And racers don't replace their gears all the time, to whoever said that. I know guys that race and never replaced a piece of the transmission yet. Sure, you get to the national pro level, and some of those guys practically replace their entire quad every race. Know why? Their sponsor pays for it, and their logic is that replacing anything that can fail after every race reduces the chances of a breakdown. Know how many racers actually run on a national pro level, and actually do that? Not even a blip on the radar compared to how many of us shift without the clutch every day and never replace a single piece.

The only time I ever heard of racers breaking gears is when they do throttle-on landings. That's landing a jump with the throttle pinned, so they get a boost of speed when they hit the ground. Even when they break a gear doing that, it's usually because they came up short on a jump, cased it, and basically stopped the engine dead from 10,000 rpm.

 

[01blaster_freak]

Shifting without using the clutch is called speed shifting, i use to do it on my blaster when i raced MX. you just have to learn the right RPM to shift at.


An as far as you blowing your motor by speed shifting...im not gonna say its impossible but i highly doubt thats what caused it unless you was in 1st gear at WOT trying to shift into second.

There's no way you can break a peice of one of your tranny gears off an it get into your topend because it's sealed.....im assuming you've never split the cases because if you have then you would see that it's sealed an not even oil get's into the topend because of the seals so how would a lil chunk of something be able to get in there if a liquid can't??

 

[crusty4365]

ACTuALY NO THIS CAN HAPPEN EXCEPT BACKWARDS!!! I HAVE DONT THIS IV TAKEN TOP AND BOTTOM APART AND FOUND THE PROBLEM WAS OK NO MORE CAPS LOL uh my whole engine blew so i took it apart heres why even ur lower end is seized-
i see you dont premix u still have the gravity fed oil resevuar HA and you blew ur top end due to lack of oil dont be surprised if your top end has grooves in it i was lucky mine didnt but anyway.. your piston blew and fragments of your piston fell down into the space into your crank shaft and that is what is seizing your lower engine. what you have to do is remove the engine take off the head, jug and then put the motor upside down and shake it until the cranks shaft moves when u pull down on the kickstart... then if it still doesnt move keep shaking it until more metal comes out if not tape a thin magnet to a thin stick and stick it down the crack that the shaft is coming out of then try to get the metal out. then that should work if not a rebuild is necesary but anyway then you buy a top end kit fix that start it up make sure it works then buy an oil injector block off kit and remove that god forsaken oil pump before this happens again. oh and btw dont premix 32-1 you tend to get a carbon deposit on the spark plug wich makes the piston go alot slower and it tends to stress the components more try 40-1... only do 32-1 if you plan on draining your gas after every ride and then shaking the gas can thouroughly then re-filling the gas tank next time you want to ride beeen there done that!!

 

[suprex]

ACTuALY NO THIS CAN HAPPEN EXCEPT BACKWARDS!!! I HAVE DONT THIS IV TAKEN TOP AND BOTTOM APART AND FOUND THE PROBLEM WAS OK NO MORE CAPS LOL uh my whole engine blew so i took it apart heres why even ur lower end is seized-
i see you dont premix u still have the gravity fed oil resevuar HA and you blew ur top end due to lack of oil dont be surprised if your top end has grooves in it i was lucky mine didnt but anyway.. your piston blew and fragments of your piston fell down into the space into your crank shaft and that is what is seizing your lower engine. what you have to do is remove the engine take off the head, jug and then put the motor upside down and shake it until the cranks shaft moves when u pull down on the kickstart... then if it still doesnt move keep shaking it until more metal comes out if not tape a thin magnet to a thin stick and stick it down the crack that the shaft is coming out of then try to get the metal out. then that should work if not a rebuild is necesary but anyway then you buy a top end kit fix that start it up make sure it works then buy an oil injector block off kit and remove that god forsaken oil pump before this happens again. oh and btw dont premix 32-1 you tend to get a carbon deposit on the spark plug wich makes the piston go alot slower and it tends to stress the components more try 40-1... only do 32-1 if you plan on draining your gas after every ride and then shaking the gas can thouroughly then re-filling the gas tank next time you want to ride beeen there done that!!

this was the hardest thing i have ever read.

 

[Dbrock]

I always clutch inless i'm riding on ice... If you don't like to clutch buy the auto kick, where you don't have to clutch, just shift...

 

[BLASTER POWER]

yea clutch i know someone who never clutched and now his quad slips out of gear when he drives it??
So i would advise clutcheing...

 

[YamaRider]

Well, if you're an idot and force it into gear without using the clutch, then duh you're gonna bend a shift fork and it won't stay in gear. Simple common sense goes a long way here.

 

[01 fmf blaster]

yea i use it and u should or u will mess it up after a good while

 

[wrench man]

I only use my clutch to start and stop.
It's obvious that some of you know how to do it and some of you just like to destroy sh*t!

 

[crusty4365]

i dont use the clutch when im showing off to all my friends who dont ride (sounds badasser when u dont clutch) rather than zzzzzzzz----zzzzzzzz its zzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzz like it goes real quik and it jerks a lil bit around 3 into 4 and sounds sickkkk

or when im dragracing stupid f*cking dirtbikes who think there sh*t is the fastest sh*t out god i hate them!!! f*ck

 

[blasterfreek30]

crusty how do u really feel about dirtbikes lol!!

 

[I2fast4u]

ok i dont see y people dont use the clutch its just like driving a 5 speed car or truck if u dont pull in the clutch ur gonna eventually rip out da transmission just in a car u will do it a whole lot sooner

 

[blasterfreek30]

im not gonna say that its bad or good, cause i sometimes do sometimes dont use the clutch, depeneds on situation! but think about over the road truck drivers do you think they use clucth shifting thru 28, gears, just to start and stop, again at the right rpms it shifts just as smooth, as if the clutch was used

 

[blaster82]

i dont always use the clutch, if im on a staright stretch that it is easy to use the clutch ill use it, if im doin some technical sh*t, i dont use it unless i have time to grab it, mine is an 02 and it aint the easiest to pull in either. i aint sayin that anyone is wrong but i say do what you want, if it messes up your tranny, oh well, your fault. if not good for you. id just use it anyways cause its there and it may or may not help wear and tear on the tranny. im not gonna take any chances so im usin it when i can. my advice is just use it

 

[YamaRider]

ok i dont see y people dont use the clutch its just like driving a 5 speed car or truck if u dont pull in the clutch ur gonna eventually rip out da transmission just in a car u will do it a whole lot sooner

It's not really "just like" a 5 speed car. The transmissions are completely different. As i've said already, quad and motorcycle transmissions are constant mesh transmisisons. You won't have gears grinding and banging together like in a car. Cars have synchronized transmissions, and yes you're right that you'll mess up the transmission in your car real quick if you don't use the clutch. (except in a piece of crap 86 honda crx, you can slam that shifter any which way you choose without even taking your foot off gas and you won't bust it, trust me I tried lol)

 

[crusty4365]

idk i only use the clutch EVERY TIME when im riding sumone elses quad or bike and its expensive... as for my blaster or a friends sh*tty little crf100 idc il throw it in 5th with only like 2000rpm lol

nahh that wouldnt work... i tried it today and it bogged out i went from neutral and just hit up up up up up as many times as i could and it jerked like alota power but it bogged out... so idk i think just from doing that i realize it doesnt matter if you use the clutch but after all that one second of pulling the clutch takes the load off ur enine for that instant and gets ur rpm's up a little higher so when they do pull onto a higher gear it will continue acceling like butter and wont bog out...


sorry about the f*cking essay i just went off lol


IN SIMPLE
the clutch is to maintain rpm and slightly reduce engine wear...
DONE.




ps yes i like dirtbikes but i hate the pricks that ride them.

 

[blaster82]

so it is a constant mesh tranny but when you shift without the clutch do you have to let off the gas or can you just shift at the right time with out letting off the gas? my friend races motocross and he never lets off the gas and doesnt use the clutch and he bent the shifting forks on his kx250f.

 

[crusty4365]

well i gues since its a big 4stroke maybe thats why

but blasters are madd easy to power shift and so are little dirtbikes

 

[YamaRider]

so it is a constant mesh tranny but when you shift without the clutch do you have to let off the gas or can you just shift at the right time with out letting off the gas? my friend races motocross and he never lets off the gas and doesnt use the clutch and he bent the shifting forks on his kx250f.

You gotta let off the gas to shift, you will mess stuff up if you don't take the load off the gears before you shift.



For you guys that still think you have to use the clutch no matter what, I also wanted to make a point that 2 major manufacturers, Dynojet and Dynatek, both make ignition modules with an optional "shift kill interrupt" feature that momentarily cuts power to the engine when shifting. This is basically the same thing as releasing the throttle, shifting without the clutch, then getting back on the throttle. With these kits you don't even need to let off the throttle anymore, they have a sensor on the shifter so when you lift it to upshift it kills the spark momentarily.

Now, would 2 major manufacturers both be offering this if these transmissions couldn't be shifted without clutching? I don't want to start this argument again, i'm just saying...

 

[blaster82]

good point and how much do these things cost cause i might be interested in one if they arent too expensive