Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: hard shifting, 2006 suzuki gsx, gixxer 600

Question
I have a 2006 Suzuki GSX-R600. This will be a two part question one not related to the other. First question is when shifting from 1st to 2nd I sometimes miss second and get in neutral.  Then when shifting up to 2nd it sounds as if I am putting alot of stress on the clutch and it sounds like I am grinding into second gear coming out of neutral. Is this a normal sound and is there some way to prevent the grind or abruptness of the shift. When I shift straight from 1st to 2nd and miss neutral it is a smooth shift. Second question. When coming to a stop from 6th gear it is not always adequate to shift through the gears while coming to a stop is it okay to hold in the clutch and just shift through the gears down to neutral or 2nd when coming to a stop (in other words skipping gears)? Thanks

Answer
Second question first: yes it's okay to skip gears, and to just squeeze in the clutch and downshift without releasing the clutch.

First question: it is my experience that bikes, especially sport bikes, are reluctant to shift unless you're accelerating, being a little aggressive with it. However it is difficult for me to describe to you why. I'll try.

If you just kind of smoothly wind the motor up and increase your speed to, say, 20 mph in 1st and then try to shift to 2nd, yes, it will resist. The Gixxer 600 is a race bike, not really useful on the street, and is meant to be accelerated hard up to 40, 50, 60 mph in first gear, and then shifted. (I am NOT recommending you do this on the street!) It is this type of shift that is smoothest.

So where does that leave you? To improve the smoothness of the shift, I recommend you accelerate (roll on the throttle) just before you roll off, squeeze the clutch, and upshift. If you're at a steady throttle it won't want to shift. You don't have to roll on that hard, but the action of having the motor spinning forward (increasing rpms) and then suddenly spinning backward (roll off, squeeze clutch, rpms decrease) puts the transmission in sort of a "happy spot" where the shift is easy. It is that transition that you're trying to achieve: power on--transition--power off. Experts do it so well that many times they don't even need to use the clutch.

So, when you want to shift, here are the steps:

Start out in first gear, winding the motor up the speed you want to shift at. When you reach that speed:
1. Roll on harder for a half-second (just to get the engine momentum going "forward."
2. Roll off (engine momentum going "backward"), squeeze clutch, and upshift simultaneously.
3. Roll on and release clutch smoothly.

I hope that makes sense. The down-low is that if you're not accelerating/increasing speed, the bike doesn't need to be shifted. The Gixxer 600 wants to spin at 6000-10000 rpm. You're probably shifting on the low end of that, with a steady throttle, and not an open throttle.

Pat