How could I lose 10 mpg in a week of BETTER driving?!

[alvaro84]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Fully released or fully engaged is fine. I never worn or lost a clutch in my life, easily managing over 120 k miles with a lot of traffic jams and city driving. Nor did I ever lose a throw-out bearing. It is the one thing that bearing was designed to do, it should be able to.

I've killed Teresa's throw-out bearing. She was 111k km-old back then and I don't have the faintest idea how long the bearing would have lasted if I didn't coast with disengaged clutch this much (speaking about a motorcycle it's hard to get on and off neutral while rolling at higher speeds). The part was dirt cheap, the labor wasn't.

On the other hand, the clutch plates are older than the ones I had worn before I started coasting and they work fine. Well,

matching engine and gear revs before releasing the clutch

helped a lot. When I started riding I didn't do this but shifted through the gears while engine braking. Now I rarely use engine brake, but coast a lot. My FE became much better and I still use much less brake than the average rider.

[UltArc]

Originally Posted by RobertISaar

holding the clutch pedal down(clutch fully disengaged) won't wear the clutch disk..... it will wear the throwout bearing though.

I am not familiar with that. Could you explain a little more? I know I can wiki/google it, but I would like to know it's importance/relevance from a fuel economy point of view.

[RedDevil]

Motorcycle clutches and car clutches are hard to compare. Don't know if Teresa has a wet clutch like most bikes. Sure it was no lubrication failure?

Single cylinder engines might strain a clutch. I once had a Suzuki XF650F. Big fun.
Never got to wear the clutch, totaled it when a driver changed lanes without consulting the mirrors...

[alvaro84]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Motorcycle clutches and car clutches are hard to compare. Don't know if Teresa has a wet clutch like most bikes. Sure it was no lubrication failure?

Wet clutch, yes. And I don't know of any failure, she's been fine since then.

[RobertISaar]

Originally Posted by UltArc

I am not familiar with that. Could you explain a little more? I know I can wiki/google it, but I would like to know it's importance/relevance from a fuel economy point of view.

from an automotive standpoint:
the throwout bearing is what "disconnects" the clutch from the flywheel when you depress the clutch. there's a lot more to it than this(especially once you start getting into cable vs hydraulic clutches), but the TOB is what does that work.

i wouldn't put too much thought into it, other than if you plan on neutral coasting(or otherwise just having the pedal held down for a while), just throw the shifter inbetween gears and let the pedal out. no TOB wear and the clutch wear from engaging will be nearly nothing since the disk will REALLY quickly accelerate up to flywheel speed since it won't have any significant load behind it.



motorcycle.... been a long time since i've had to replace one of those clutches, i actually forget how they work(on a component level) ATM. they act pretty similarly to the way the clutches in an automatic transmission do.

[Atheria]

So you mean my coasting in neutral....which is what I got a stick shift transmission for....is harming my clutch?! ARGH! :-( This is going to force me to just drive in gear like a normal person and get crappy mileage. :-( I am way too nervous about trying to get it to stay "in-between gears".

:-(

Upset Atheria

[RobertISaar]

i don't understand what's difficult about it.... is the shifter pattern just that tight?

[Atheria]

Actually it is pretty tight, so-to-speak. What if it slips into a gear accidentally? Now THAT would stress the transmission.

So is everyone POSITIVE that my gear stick sitting somewhere in-between 2-3 or 3-4 (for example) isn't going to hurt something else?

Atheria who is stressed

[RobertISaar]

trust me, having the shifter between gears with the clutch pedal out is no problem....

ever idle with the clutch out? it's an identical situation. the clutch disk and flywheel will be at identical speeds, the input shaft of the transmission will be spinning, but pretty much nothing else will be. i can't speak of specifics with your exact transmission, i have no experience with it.

i'm used to a shifter with some noticable resistance(and prefer it that way), so having it jump into an unintended gear has never happened to me, though i've been in some cars where i can certainly see it being an issue, they felt like a gust of wind would make the shifter flip between gears.

[Atheria]

I've sat with my car idling, but only in 1st gear with the clutch pressed or in neutral without my foot on the clutch.

Atheria