Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: motorcycles, traffic condition, gear lever

Question
At the last couple of days, i have been searching how to shift gears on a motorbike. I just wanted to know how to shift down and stop in an instant...?

Answer
Apologies for the delay in replying. I've been moving home.

Principle first: gears are for going; brakes are for stopping. Although you may change down to a gear that is appropriate for a particular speed or traffic condition, you should not use the gears as a tool for slowing the bike. They only work on the back wheel and braking is far more effective at slowing the bike as 75% of braking is done on the front wheel, where most of the bike's weight is under deceleration.

So, for example, on approaching an intersection or roundabout, you do not need to go down the gears one by one. Maybe just dropping down one gear on approach for greater flexibility is sufficient.

As you approach the junction/hazard/roundabout or whatever, you will be making a decision about your likely exit speed, based on the information you have gained through your observation on the approach.

Use the brakes to bring the bike's speed down to what is appropriate. Then, and only then, decide what gear you need to accelerate away and out of the situation.

You can go from the gear you are in on approach to the one you want to accelerate away in by doing what is called a BLOCK gear change. This is where you bring in the clutch and just firmly tap the gear lever once for each gear that you want to go down, e.g. if you are in 5th and want to ride away in 2nd, just bring in the clutch and tap, tap, tap and you are in 2nd. Then you let the clutch out again.

Judging road speed and engine speed for the new gear are important and come with increasing experience. If you find the bike is lurching forward when you put it into the lower gear and let out the clutch, you need to bring the engine speed up during the gear change by blipping the throttle. This is sometimes referred to as a "blip throttle gear change". It increases the engine revolutions to those required as the rear wheel turns in the newly chosen gear.

Regards

Alec
www.alecgore.com