fred_jb
Registered user
Yes, this is what happens in a synchromesh. Even though there is no synhromesh in the dog box you still have to match shaft speeds so you either cut ignition or dip the clutch to move up a gear and speed up the input shaft when when going down a gear. By loading the ring gear to the next gear you are trying to match the gears and a momentarily pause in power transmission aids the selection to move the gear over to a new ratio.
The function of a gearbox is to convert the input rpm to either lower or higher output rpm. In the case of motorised vehicles it usually is a lower rpm which has the effect of increasing torque and thus affecting the power output for a given rpm. As confusing as it may sound to some but the gearbox input and output shaft speeds are indeed a product of the engine rpm and reduction ratio of the gear set and has nothing to do with road speed. For shifting gears in a gearbox the shaft speeds are the concern, not road speed.
Technical gobblygook.
Yes - but input and output shafts link rear wheel rotation and engine rotation speeds via a pair of gears, so at the end of the day engine speed, via an engaged clutch, is locked to road speed via the whole transmission, with the ratio between the two controlled by which pair of gears are engaged.
Change which pair of gears are engaged and you change the ratio, thereby potentially introducing a mismatch between engine speed and road speed. This makes changing ratios difficult, hence technologies like synchromesh to help gears turning at different speeds to engage. However just successfully engaging a different ratio does not eliminate the mismatch, it just moves the problem elsewhere. The mismatch therefore has to be eliminated one way or another, normally by allowing momentary slippage between the clutch plates, otherwise you would have wheelspin, forced clutch slip or something like the drive shaft or gearbox could break.
So, when you change gear, road speed and engine speed cannot both remained unchanged - the mismatch has to be eliminated one way or another. Either your road speed has to change or your engine speed has to change, or a bit of both. By operating the clutch during a gear change you are allowing slippage between the engine and transmission clutch plates until both sides are rotating at the same speed and the clutch can grip again.
If you don't use the clutch, and do nothing else to help equalise engine and transmission/road speeds, then on a downchange due to the new ratio you will get a chirp from the rear tyre as it tries to instantaneously make the engine turn faster to match the unchanged road speed. On an upchange you will get a lurch as what is now an unsuitably high engine speed for the current road speed tries to instantaneously accelerate the bike to a road speed which would match the engine speed.
In other words either the engines tries to make the rear wheel rotate faster, or the rear wheel tries to make the engine spin faster to suit the new ratio between them. GSAP attempts to smooth out clutchless changes by cutting engine torque on up changes to make it easier for the engine speed to drop and so minimise the lurch, and blipping the throttle on downchanges to speed the engine to avoid the rear wheel momentarily under-rotating.
Fred

