SOHC.co.uk Forums > CB500/550

How do you change gears?

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alexdecker:
So was driving recently, and I started wondering what's good for these old bikes. Usually, when I drive a car, I keep the revs fairly low. But on my bike, I do actually like to rev a little higher before I change gears.

Does anyone know what's actually best for these bikes? To shift gears when you reach around 4, 5 or 6.000 RPM? Also, when you do shift gear, do you rev up a little bit before releasing the clutch?

deltarider:
The higher the rpm, the smoother the changing of gears. After 43 years of owning my bike, the gear changing informs me on a couple of things, like when it is time to adjust the drive chain and when there's a minor electrical issue intermittently causing misfires.

Oddjob:
Rev up? only on the down shift, stops the rear wheel stepping out.

Upshifts around 7000 when I was trashing about, most times just as it touched the red band.

McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
I believe that bike gearboxes mostly change sequentially so double declutching to match the speed of the gear hub & clutches does not work.
Only thing I can think of is to try and match the drop in engine speed  by slightly prolonging the time the clutch lever is held in.

I might be talking crap here - in my youth I never bothered with operating the clutch lever I just stamped on the lever.

Oddjob:
I learnt to drive using the double declutching method, it's so ingrained that even now I do it. It's not for the clutch at all Ted, it's so the 2 gear shafts come into synchronisation, the one connected to the drive wheels is going at a different speed to the other and the gears will graunch if you try and select gear until the 2 speeds match, eventually they came up with synchromesh gears where a small ring inside the gear stopped the gear allowing it to engage at any speed. On a bike on the downshift you need to make the mainshaft match the countershaft speed and the easiest way is to blip the throttle and change gear just when you judge the speeds are close to each other, when the clutch is released the sudden speed change in the countershaft then doesn't lock the rear wheel up or make it skip sideways.

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