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Upshifting

J

jemmons

New member
I struggle to get a clean shift from 1st to second when I'm getting on it. It seems to clunk into second instead of the smooth shift I get in the upper gears. I have better luck barely pulling in the clutch when I up shift. I see there a technique to doing this when your upshifting from a hard acceleration
 
Between 1st and 2nd up or down it's going to clunk - fullstop.
I tend to avoid autoshifting this combination. If however you are talking about manual upshifting between 1st & 2nd, then I don't seem to have this issue.
A.
 
I have been experiencing that too with my 2017. Thought there is something wrong with my gearbox.


jemmons said:
I struggle to get a clean shift from 1st to second when I'm getting on it. It seems to clunk into second instead of the smooth shift I get in the upper gears. I have better luck barely pulling in the clutch when I up shift. I see there a technique to doing this when your upshifting from a hard acceleration
Click to expand...
 
Well, Going 1st to 2nd (or visa versa) is also going through Neutral so there is a wider gap for the gear shift selector to traverse.

Two things may help.

1st to 2nd: Shift with a firm and deliberate movement. You have to get the selector all the through the shift change movement of 1st/neutral/2nd. A "limp ankle" (gun reference) movement will cause some issues.

2nd to 1st: Shift into 1st Between 10 and 5 mph. You will find that it will snick into 1st without any drama as the gear to engine speed is well matched.

This is my experience shifting with the clutch on a 2017 R1200GS anyway!
 
I have same problem on my ‘16 1200gs, but when you go up from first to second at 5-10 mph clunk disappear


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
kevinsclo said:
Worth the investment? I have been sitting in the fence about this option...
Click to expand...

I added it to my 2015 RT. I like it a lot, and use it about 50% of my riding time. I always use a clutch from 1 to 2, and 2 to 3. After that, smooth and comfortable. All downshifts are smooth with a closed throttle. SAPro was great at a track day, BTW.

I think it works better on 2017s and newer due to a transmission change...something called judder damper.
 
kevinsclo said:
Worth the investment? I have been sitting on the fence about this option...
Click to expand...
Not for me. It came with the bike so I have it but I feel I can shift much more smoothly without it than with. We all have our little quirks, and smooth shifting is one of mine, when I get it right the only "tell" is a change in engine speed, no chassis movement at all.

IMO, SAP takes more effort on the shifter to downshift, and while the auto-blipper is cool to listen to the shift itself feels jerky. I sometimes ride a F700 and clutchless upshifts and downshifts on that bare-bones bike are smoother than on my GSA with SAP. If I'm going to have to pay attention to road speed, throttle position, and engine loading to get a smooth shift anyway, I'd rather not pay to do it.

There's always the possibility I'm using it wrong too. I've never been able to get it to work as well for me as the people who say it's the best thing since sliced bread. Having to work at using somthing that's supposed to make life easier doesn't make sense.
 
For shifting into 4th, 5th and 6th gears it is very smooth. Sounds like a F1 car when under hard acceleration.
 
I use GSP frequently for downshifting my '16 R 1200 R, 6 to 5 to 4 to 3. That's it. Too often when trying to go from 3 to 2, I get NEUTRAL!!! Bad juju. Never bother with it for upshifts.

OP - your experience is normal. Use GSP higher up in the gear range.
 
On 1-2 upshifts, I also find that a slight preload on the lever yields a very smooth shift...snicks right into gear. I was also skeptical regarding Pro shift...until I decided to start using it. Now, it's probably 70% of my shifts. I love it and it's smooth at butter.
 
I rode a new RS a few weeks ago, and found the gearbox to shift precisely, up and down, shifting manually. I did notice a "ching" sound on each upshift, and wondered whether this was due to the thin oil bath, shared with the engine.
 
I have a 2015 with about 10K miles. I’ve had it for about 1K myself. When trying to get the hang of the SAP I’ve found that on the up shift if I back off the throttle to just a true neutral setting that matches the current speed the SAP works instantly and smoothly. Downshifting with a slight reduction in throttle also provides the same smooth and instant shifting. When up shifting with positive throttle position my bike seems to refuse to allow the SAP to occur - the shift lever feels locked into position. Do you think I have a problematic shift sensor on the lever? I’ve never ridden another RT to have a personal comparison.

Paul
 
kevinsclo said:
Worth the investment? I have been sitting on the fence about this option...
Click to expand...

For me yes, well worth it. I’m a good smooth quick shifter, but Gearshift Pro is nearly instant once you get the hang of it.

Interestingly, shifting improved significantly in first and second gear after adding AF-XIEDs, which smoothed the engine and increased torque between 1100 and 3500 rpm—which I knew would happen. The surprise was the improvement in Gearshift Pro.
 
Like some of the others, I find it a little clunky, but I'm told it's user error.

And like some of the others, I find just a tap on the clutch and a slight change on the throttle makes a huge difference. Because they're so automatic from a few decades of riding far lesser machines, it may be it's really just the throttle work that's doing it, and I could leave off the clutch entirely. But it's hard to break habits.

If the bike hadn't come with GSP, I wouldn't have added it. But it's on the bike, and it's kind of nice.
 
I noticed ExGMan said something about adding shift assist to his 2015. I have a 2016RT and am curious if this can be added to mine as well or if you have to have a specific package already on your bike to make it compatible.

Thank you
 
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