Bad Habit?

[djwilpers]

I've been riding all sorts of bikes for over 50years now; but, this is my first Big Dog. I happened to notice in the owner's manual that you are warned not to increase or "burp" the engine speed when down shifting the Big Dog. This is something that I've done forever with all my other bikes to make down shifts smoother. I don't even think about it usually. By habit, if I'm going from 5th to 4th for example, before I make the shift I'll typically increase the engine speed to where I think it will be running in the next lower gear before kicking the shifter down there. If you get good at this, the bike won't spin the engine up from it's inertia and it will feel like a smooth transition. I think I initially started doing this on bikes with poor or no syncronizers.

But, If I read correctly, Big Dog doesn't want you to do that? Do you suppose that the cross cut gears that the Baker apparently has is more subject to damage from this than other typical transmissions? Anybody else happen to know the answer?
dale

 

[stlmikie]

Good question dj.

 

[DRBarnhart]

To save me some time looking, where does it say that in the manual?

Thanx,

Dennis

 

[Roaddawg]

Well, I can say that I do it and have never had a problem. But I've only got about 25 K miles on the '05 chopper so far.

 

[lee]

I used to do it on mine too til I replaced the clutch - shifts down nice and smooth now

 

[Gas Man]

It really doesn't have anything to do with the clutch itself... it more to do with syncronizing the rpms to the speed and gear you are about to go in. Before slipper clutches it was mandatory in sportbike racing so you didn't step the rear end out with a messy downshift.

 

[bdmridgeback]

I have always done it too. If you don't do it on the Dogs, they make a "slam" into the lower gear. Blipping the throttle makes it MUCH smoother.

 

[kornfed]

Does it hurt anything when it slams into the lower gear like that??? It just sounds horrible.