Shifting without clutch?

Hi guys, i'm new to the forum and this is my first post. I just recently picked up a 1978 KZ 650 which so far has been amazing. About 20 minutes ago I was riding along and snapped my clutch cable. I rode home in 2nd gear(I think) at 3 1/2 - 4 grand going 25 mph. My question is when I got home, I was able to shift into 1st and neutral thank god. How was I able to do this without a clutch? Was this bad for the transmission?

Thanks

clutchless UP-shifting is perfectly doable, actually that's how i shift most of the time. Shifting down without clutching is trickier, some boxes will just refuse to.

You could obviously have shut down your motor with the kill switch when you got home instead, but unless you made some horrible crunch noises when going down to 1st/neutral, your box should still be fine.

Check your oil for metal debris if you are really worried

TG

Most of us, or at least many of us have been doing it for years. As was mentioned, up-shifting is easy, down-shifting MAY be a bit harder. If you throttle up a tiny bit when you down shift than it makes it simpler. Same as throttling down a bit when you up-shift. These are all synchro-mesh transmissions and the clutch is usually only required for first gear operation. The drag-racers never use the clutch. They have a momentary kill switch that "burps" or "hiccups" the engine for shifting. The clutch is only used to launch. When I ride on the highway I only use the clutch when I down-shift more than one gear at a time. I have a very small rear sprocket and a large front sprocket which allows me to down-shift to second gear at 60mph. This requires clutch use. Shifting up one or down one I never use the clutch. It saves quite a bit on the clutch cable and will not hurt the gears if you don't go crazy.
Oh-I forgot to mention, this is with any and all of my bikes. From my Mini-bike (KZ900) to my KZ1300.

Ok, I replaced the clutch cable, but now there is no tension at all. It's like the return spring on the clutch plate thing is too short. I installed the cable just how it was before, and no tension. I'm very frusterated as I cannot figure this out. I bought a clutch cable for the bike. The spring barely gets tensioned.

Ok, I pretty much made my own return spring which is longer now. I also adjusted the adjuster on the cable all the way out so it is now working fine.

Omaha Rider wrote:

Hi guys, i'm new to the forum and this is my first post. I just recently picked up a 1978 KZ 650 which so far has been amazing. About 20 minutes ago I was riding along and snapped my clutch cable. I rode home in 2nd gear(I think) at 3 1/2 - 4 grand going 25 mph. My question is when I got home, I was able to shift into 1st and neutral thank god. How was I able to do this without a clutch? Was this bad for the transmission?

Thanks

Not if you take it easy. I rode 20 miles home through San Jose with a broken clutch cable shifting up and down through the gears.

Welcome Omaha Rider.
Love to see some pix of your 650.

Omaha Rider wrote:

Ok, I replaced the clutch cable, but now there is no tension at all. It's like the return spring on the clutch plate thing is too short. I installed the cable just how it was before, and no tension. I'm very frusterated as I cannot figure this out. I bought a clutch cable for the bike. The spring barely gets tensioned.

Welcome aboard. You either have the wrong cable, it is not seated properly in the engine's left side cover, or it' is way out of adjustment. I saw that you did a home made fix, but I would still check out the problem to see what's wrong. Do you have a Kawasaki factory manual? It will show you how everything should be seated and adjusted. Ed

I too sometimes upshift without the clutch. But it seems to me that if there is any chance that any additional wear may occur by doing so, a little effort of squeezing the clutch lever could save $ and a pain in the ass. Much cheeper to replace a clutch cable than rebuilding a transmission.

welcome, I shift both up and down without the clutch, just have to learn the rpm band of the bike. as far as the cable, there are 2 places to take slack out of the cable, one at the lever abd the other about mid way down the cable, it may be all the way "out" at that point.

otakar wrote:

These are all synchro-mesh transmissions and the clutch is usually only required for first gear operation.

all true but bike's boxes are definetely not synchro. Car's manual transmissions do have synchros that slow down relative speed between the engaging dogs.

on some bikes though you do WISH there were synchros

TG

Cars use synchros, while most all M/C use a "constant mesh" type tranny. The gear teeth are always meshed, and needed torque is redirected via male and female gear "dogs". There is no need to use the clutch while up or downshifting. All's you need to do is momentariarily "unload" the torque via the throttle to allow a shift to the next gear. There is however slightly elevated levels of abuse placed on the male dog pins under WOT up shifts. I race a CR125 powered shifter kart and we shift clutchless at 12,500 rpm's. A rebuild is usually required after about 200 hours on the gearbox. Motocross bike trannies use extra beefy through hardened tranny gears to withstand clutchless shifting.