• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

To coast or not to coast

Rugbynerd707

Rugbynerd707

In a Cutting Phase
Joined
Jul 11, 2011
Location
N. Bay
Moto(s)
Yamaha FZ8
Name
Ben
Just a quick noob technique question, when cruising down a hill (specifically Crane Canyon in Santa Rosa area if any know of it) or any hill, is it proper technique to pull in the clutch and just coast down the hill if its steep enough to maintain the correct speed? Main question is, is this bad for the bike/bad form? (obviously not shifting down to N, just holding the clutch in) Just from driving a manual cage for 10 yrs I would but With a stick its no biggie to go from N to 4th/5th etc. just wondering if its different for a motorcycle.
 
Staying in gear will give you much more control of the bike, although i am just learning as well.
 
Bad practice. Maybe even illegal.

As ebRider says, when you're in gear, you have more control. Ideally, when going down a hill you want to be in a gear that requires throttle to maintain speed. That way you can control speed with the gas only. Roll off to slow down, roll on to speed up.
 
DataDan said:
Bad practice. Maybe even illegal.
Click to expand...

According to the CVC:

21710. The driver of a motor vehicle when traveling on down grade upon any highway shall not coast with the gears of such vehicle in neutral.

While it specifically says "...with the gears of such vehicle in neutral" I would bet that being in gear with the clutch disengaged would still fall under this section.
 
I always prefer to coast down hills in my car. On the bike, I've felt much more comfortable staying in gear and doing what DataDan says.

That said, I also have to get used to using the brakes on the bike opposed to mainly engine braking/downshifting to slow down (mostly because I'm terrified of being rear-ended). Just some of the differences between bikes and cars.
 
I admit I'm guilty of this in my car all the time, but I never do it on my bike. When I'm on my bike I want to be in control all the time, when you are coasting, you are not really in control. I don't want to be in the situation where I have to drop the clutch if something pops out at me because who knows what might happen to that rear wheel if I forget to blip the throttle.
 
Thxs for the discussion. Being a super intense EXTREME mountain biker lol, it doesn't feel weird to be coasting down a hill, but I totally agree if that car noses out and you need the throttle to avoid a collision you'll want to be in gear.:thumbup Not to mention I've never ever broken any law so I won't start now... Tanks BARF
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top