Downshifting When Stopping A Motorcycle – Do You Need It? The motorcycle is an awesome two-wheeled vehicle and motorcycling is literally considered as an art that needs consistent practice, developing expertise, and earning experiences as much as possible to get mastered in that art. Hence stopping or braking a motorcycle from rolling also is a set of techniques that also should practice in a précised manner and here the question comes, do we need downshifting when stopping a motorcycle? Let’s find the answers.

Downshifting Technique In Motorcycling – Do You Need It?

Downshifting is a significant term and technique in motorcycling that is related to the decreasing of motorcycle speed through shifting to a lower gear in the transmission system of a motorcycle. Unlike a manual gear four-wheeler, the shifting of the gears in the transmission system of a motorcycle engine is continuous where anyone can shift any gear from fourth to first or first to third by a simple clutch-in in a four-wheeler.

Therefore, increasing the motorcycle speed or while decreasing, the motorcycle rider needs to increase or decrease the gears one after another subsequently to reach the proper speed. Meanwhile, rev-matching is also an important issue which means synchronizing the throttle and clutch in certain gear how much the throttle should keep open or close to matching with the rolling speed of the motorcycle.

Downshifting When Reducing Speed Of A Motorcycle

Now coming to the point; we know if anyone needs to increase the motorcycle speed he/she should upshift the motorcycle gear accordingly after gaining a certain speed in a particular gear. So do we need downshifting when stopping a motorcycle or in time of decreasing the motorcycle speed?

Here basically two different terms have been figured in the above question; is decreasing the speed and stopping the motorcycle from the position of running. So at first, we can talk about decreasing the speed of motorcycles while riding which may occur on the free highways or in the city rides.

Commonly, to decrease the speed of a motorcycle simply closing the throttle is enough while running at a higher speed may be on highways. So if anyone wants to reduce the speed more also can apply the wheel brakes to reduce the speed more and overtaking the reason whatever tended to reduce the speed simply opening the throttle can put him to reach again to the rolling speed.

On the same occasion, in some cases, the rider may need a slight clutch-in to match the rev and the speed. Otherwise, in the cases of marginal reduction of speed, it may need a simple or single downshift of the transmission to overcome the clogging of the engine RPM.

Downshifting When Stopping A Motorcycle – Do You Need It?

Coming to the second issue, downshifting when stopping a motorcycle from rolling literally needs to be habituated with a set of sequential activities. While a rider intended to reduce the motorcycle speed to stop at 0kmph then obviously downshifting is essential to make a smooth stop.

In such cases, the motorcycle rider needs to be habituated with the sequences like closing the throttle, downshifting a gear with a quick clutch-in, applying both brakes with rational pressures according to surface condition, doing the same sequence again getting in a lower gear, and while near to stop should clutch-in completely and get the neutral position in the transmission.

Above mentioned procedures are common and the standard sequence of stopping a high-speed running bike. But anyone can apply a simple method of stopping a bike which is considerably rolling at a lower speed or riding simply within the city traffic. In such cases, simply closing the throttle, applying both brakes, and clutch-in is simply a common practice to stop a lower-speed bike.

So these are the most common basics of downshifting in case of stopping a motorcycle from rolling or reducing speed while on a ride. Here the rev-matching is very important to get mastered in downshifting that needs careful practice. Further, don’t forget to get a glance over the rearview mirrors for rushing traffics before such actions and ensure safety on the road. That’s it.