Back wheel locking up down changing from 2 to1

[Unfazed]

Hi there, just back from a "spirited" 4 days in the Germany/Luxembourg area and I found a rather hideous problem when I was down changing using engine braking into hairpins, especially on the downhill sections when the back wheel locked up momentarily when going into 1st. At lower revs, not a problem but when in the higher rev range having trouble. Sometimes it refused to go into 1st at all leaving me free wheeling and grabbing a load of brake! This is the first time I have given the bike some real welly as the mileage before was all commuting and don't get too many mountain passes on the A2

I've always had 4 cylinder bikes and this was not an issue, never had a twin and when I was dirt bike riding on a single the engine would lock up if down changing too rapidly. Is this a triple issue? Even tried gently letting the clutch out and it still locked up. I know the bike doesn't have a slipper clutch or anything that fancy. Sometimes it got stuck in neutral and was reluctant to even shift back up to 2nd.

These are not the experiments you want to try hurtling into a wet mountain hairpin at speed! (BTW the plastic Dunlop stock tyres are shite. After the long weekend I REALLY know it from experience!)

I've ridden numerous sports bikes (4cyl) and not had this problem before, I'm down changing between 5 and 6K revs on the Tracer,

Also, as I was shitting bricks and putting on some brakes to help, the back break pedal seemed to lift up for a pulse.

Just putting this out there, see if anyone else had a similar problem with engine braking.

BTW the bike is an animal in mode A. First time I tried it, it felt like a different bike, very exciting! Seemed to have sorted out the suspension by having 1 ring showing on the front and second hardest setting on the back. Might even put full pre-load (no rings showing) on the front to try it out. Damping is 4 clicks from fully soft on the front and 1 1/2 turns on the back. Might try 1 3/4 turns from soft as I could still feel a bit of bounce on fast undulations

Very good trip in the Ardenne/Eiffel region and will be going again this year with better rubber

 

[JD87]

Give the throttle a little blip before you let the clutch out. The pulse in the rear brake is the abs.

Sent from my XT1072 using Tapatalk

 

[Steely]

... I found a rather hideous problem when I was down changing using engine braking into hairpins, especially on the downhill sections when the back wheel locked up momentarily when going into 1st. At lower revs, not a problem but when in the higher rev range having trouble. Sometimes it refused to go into 1st at all leaving me free wheeling and grabbing a load of brake!

I generally don't change down to first gear until I've practically stopped, and I don't think I ever use first for engine braking. On downhill stretches, I doubt you'd really need first gear.

 

[bobh]

The manual of every Yamaha I've owned says not to rev the engine when changing down, but I've always ignored that - downshifts are always sweeter if you match the revs to the road speed, particularly on Yams which are known for clunky changes. Also the gap between 1st and 2nd is always wider than between the other gears, so you need a good blip. On a four, with very little flywheel effect, it can be difficult to know how much of a blip to give, but the MT-09 engine feels as if it has a heavier flywheel, so it doesn't rev up quite so quickly, making it easy to judge.

Personally I wouldn't be changing down at those sorts of revs in the low gears (except maybe on track). "Brakes are for slowing, gears are for going". The MT has plenty of low-down grunt from 3K upwards, and on slippery hairpins with the OEM Dunlops you don't want loads of torque at the merest touch of throttle. In fact I'd possibly be using a bit of rear brake in the bend to tame the engine a bit.

 

[Unfazed]

Cheers guys! After a bit of trying to work out why the bike was tying it's self in knots at the back I did indeed give a bit of a blip when changing down and it worked out better and avoided crunching into first unless going slower. Getting used to a new bike at speed on challenging roads can be fun.. (some of those corners were EXTREMELY tight and the pace was high) Probably need to smooth it out a bit.
My last couple of bike trips to that area was on a VFR12 and apart from the weight, no problems at all with the gears and the PR4's were exemplary. Think there's another offer on with Michelin so will be going with the tyres again and adjusting the gear changing for a lighter bike.

Great roads BTW, in case I didn't mention it before!

 

[Shaun64]

You say it was reluctant to go in gear from neutral maybe your clutch wants the slack taking out of the cable at the lever,2-3 mm play at lever,has the bike got after market adjustable levers on?my gears were a little stiff after a 400 miles and it was just the clutch lever needing adjustment.

 

[Unfazed]

Might try that, the clutch action is pretty short. I was thinking about after market levers, still running the standard offering and think the clutch lever could be closer to the bar for more control, seem to be letting the last bit out with the tips of my fingers... It seemed to be a problem shifting down at higher revs, lower revs not a problem but started blipping the throttle a bit now.

 

[Dug]

As with the others I agree that avoiding downshifting to first on this bike unless at a near standstill. Of course up shifting is a different thing and need to be going much faster. This bike has enough torque and power to slip the clutch in second to help raise the revs, and is probably less clutch and gearbox wear than hard downshifting into first.