AE Pilots - Shifting technique - blip the throttle or not?

[06FJRAEPILOT]

That pretty much says it all. Do you blip the throttle while upshifting, or just hold steady and let the elctronic chip do it's thing? I enjoy riding mine either way, was wondering what other real-life riders do.

I take it you mean downshift? I don't think I've ever blipped a throttle on an upshift - unless I was trying to double-clutch a dump truck, or somepin.

The Yammie rep at WFO said the best thing to do on upshift is just hold a steady throttle and shift. I don't know if that's what the manual says. It seemed to work well for me on the demo rides.

Show's you what the Yammie rep knows! Not much.....

As a newbie here, I did the research in the manual on paes 5-2 and 5-3. The manual specifically states the following
"Always return the throttle to the closed position while changing gears to avoid damaging the engine, transmission, and drive train, which are not designed to withstand the shock of forced shifting"

The bolding is the manuals not mine. I have tried this approach a little and quite honestly, I would rather have a clutch if this is required to avoid damaging the bike. What does work is just shifting when required and letting the computer figure out the clutching. In fact, that works unbelievably well. Also, I do not percieve any clutch slipage or other feedback that would sugggest any problems with this approach. Of course I am not shifting in the higher power bands of the bike.

Has Yamaha gone on record anywhere else beside the owners manual to address this question?

CaryB

Ya, right! That will make for smooth shifts every year or two!

I have over 10k on the bike and have tried every way I can think of to be smooth when up shifting and have came to the conclusion that bliping the throttle is the way to be as smooth as you can be. Also I've learned short shifting to 2nd & 3rd gear will also help you be smoother. I've also found that I cannot out down shift this system. If you just close the throttle and push the button it is very smooth, now if Yamaha can get the upshifts to be so smooth and easy they will have really developed something very special. This system is not what Yamaha wants it's customers to believe. You can be very smooth IF you work the system, as you would with a manual clutch, or it can be very jerky just as you can be the a manual clutch. I believe it's a good system that needs to be improved upon as I'm sure Yamaha will. Overall I've gotten use to the system and enjoy this bike very much. RIDE SAFE

My "AE" has 9K and I find shifting up or down to be extremely smooth. The bike is everything Yamaha said it would be!

 

[bikerkash]

Those who are still in doubt about this system need only to read the 11/06 edition of MOTORCYCLIST to see what they think about the new AE bike. Personally I think they are a little overly critical of the AE bike but they do make some good points. They rate the Honda ST1300 first and the BMW K1200GT second over the FJRAE. I do not understand why they use the AE instead of the manual shift FJR. It appears from their artical, if they would have used the clutch bike, that it may have came out differently. In any case I believe the AE system has flaws and problems that need to worked out but once you understand the strong points of this system and learn to use these strong points to your advantage the system works pretty well and is a lot of fun. RIDE SAFE

 

[AG BULLETNOSE]

That pretty much says it all. Do you blip the throttle while upshifting, or just hold steady and let the elctronic chip do it's thing? I enjoy riding mine either way, was wondering what other real-life riders do.

The surprising thing is that you do not even need to let up on the throttle while you are going through the gears. It just goes Zoom-Zoom-Zoom-Zoom-Zoom. Talk about feeding your passion for power and performance this bike is just amazing!