Is there any way to activate the clutch w/o shifting on an FJR1300AE?

I have an '09 AE that I really like, but it would be nice to be able to put the bike in neutral and coast for a bit, e.g., after passing and building up considerable speed. Any way to 'depress' the clutch without shifting?

I don't have an answer, but why would you want to do that?

obijohn said:

I have an '09 AE that I really like, but it would be nice to be able to put the bike in neutral and coast for a bit, e.g., after passing and building up considerable speed. Any way to 'depress' the clutch without shifting?

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No way.
I'd like to be able to, I occasionally come across horses that are sometimes skittish. Pre - YCC-S I'd pull the clutch to coast by them. Now I don't have the option.

I did once find myself coasting. I was stationary in a queue pointing downhill, let the bike roll without opening the throttle. Got to about 35 or so. Couldn't change up, had to rev the engine quite a bit to get it to engage. (Couldn't slow without upsetting loads of vehicle drivers behind.)

I try to avoid coasting. When coasting you're in a state of semi-control, with no input to the rear wheel.

I was going to share some of my wisdom but, Mc said it all.

Coasting is illegal in most states, due to the lack of control. Also, never forget that coasting a vehicle with an automatic transmission is very bad for your tranny. With an AE, just put it in 5th and let it stay there. That will reduce engine braking but also not have you coasting.

Agreed, having the bike in gear gives the rider much more control, with or without AE... One should never be in neutral unless at a stop...

Pick a gear, roll with that, neutral gives no positive or negative control in more situations then I care for...,

Warpdrv said:

Agreed, having the bike in gear gives the rider much more control, with or without AE... One should never be in neutral unless at a stop...
Pick a gear, roll with that, neutral gives no positive or negative control in more situations then I care for...,

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Mostly I agree, except you should never be in neutral at a stop light. You should be in first and ready to move if someone coming up behind you is texting or otherwise not going to stop in time.

GaryK

Should, yes, but can't with an AE. It auto shifts to neutral at, what 10 mph?

sath182 said:

Should, yes, but can't with an AE. It auto shifts to neutral at, what 10 mph?

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Not sure which message you're responding to.

It never autoshifts into neutral. At low speed it will disengage the clutch, but will still be in the same gear it was in before.

Coasting down Pikes Peak would have been fun...and a lot better on my gas mileage.

Was replying to you, Mr Rider. But gixxerjason provided better incite which did two things; showed me to be incorrect since he owns an AE, and that it keeps the clutch disengaged while coasting till you revmatch the engine (aggregate info there). I guess the answer to the OP would be to stop on top a hill and let it coast from there.

sath182 said:

Was replying to you, Mr Rider. But gixxerjason provided better incite which did two things; showed me to be incorrect since he owns an AE, and that it keeps the clutch disengaged while coasting till you revmatch the engine (aggregate info there). I guess the answer to the OP would be to stop on top a hill and let it coast from there.

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The clutch disengages at about 1 mph with the throttle closed. Give it a little throttle, and the clutch starts to reengage at around 1300rpm if it's in gear.

So the answer is No... you can't manually disengage the clutch. Why would I want to? Zipping from 50 to 90 by the time I pass a car in 4th, then it would be nice to be able to coast back to 70 or so before re-engaging in 5th. I like my AE, but think the Honda DCT system as found on the VFR1200 is most likely a better design. It would be nice if Yamaha designed the system with a clutch lever on the left, let you pull the clutch, but used YCC-S to re-engage it when you let go of the lever. That would be the best of both worlds.

obijohn said:

So the answer is No... you can't manually disengage the clutch. Why would I want to? Zipping from 50 to 90 by the time I pass a car in 4th, then it would be nice to be able to coast back to 70 or so before re-engaging in 5th. I like my AE, but think the Honda DCT system as found on the VFR1200 is most likely a better design. It would be nice if Yamaha designed the system with a clutch lever on the left, let you pull the clutch, but used YCC-S to re-engage it when you let go of the lever. That would be the best of both worlds.

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I sometimes want to manually disengage the clutch, mostly at slow speeds. I compensate by finding neutral. Not nearly as elegant as what you propose.

palerider said:

obijohn said:

So the answer is No... you can't manually disengage the clutch. Why would I want to? Zipping from 50 to 90 by the time I pass a car in 4th, then it would be nice to be able to coast back to 70 or so before re-engaging in 5th. I like my AE, but think the Honda DCT system as found on the VFR1200 is most likely a better design. It would be nice if Yamaha designed the system with a clutch lever on the left, let you pull the clutch, but used YCC-S to re-engage it when you let go of the lever. That would be the best of both worlds.

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I sometimes want to manually disengage the clutch, mostly at slow speeds. I compensate by finding neutral. Not nearly as elegant as what you propose.

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Here's the neat thing about my suggestion... all the left-hand lever would do is to control a switch (just as the right-hand lever controls the brake-light switch). If you pull the lever, the switch is turned on and the clutch disengages via YCC-S. When you release the lever, the clutch engages according to Y-CCS. If the switch fails, the bike reverts to current Y-CCS functionality. There might have to be some changes to software, but this is basically like a shift.

gixxerjasen said:

Coasting down Pikes Peak would have been fun...and a lot better on my gas mileage.

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gixxerjasen,

I have two considerations for you, on coasting down long hills.

When brakes get too hot, the brake fluid can boil, which applies the brakes more and more, until the brakes lock. If there is any water in the brake fluid, that happens a lot sooner. Once the pads begin touching the rotors, you can't stop what happens next, unless you can stop the bike immediately and let the calipers cool down. There will be almost no warning signs; you might notice that one of the brake levers got impossible to move, just before the bike seems to "lose power." Then the brakes lock. The FJR is a heavy bike. It is a big load to slow down, using only the brakes. Engine compression braking can do the job safely, without a heat problem.

If the bike is in gear with the clutch disengaged, half of the clutch assembly is being turned by the road speed. Even though the engine is idling, it is easy (when coasting in the lower gears) to run up the RPMs of the clutch very high. Releasing the clutch then will take the engine RPMs very high, and the rev limiter will be no help. It would feel like you slammed on the brakes. If the clutch comes apart at high RPMs, you probably will not be able to shift into Neutral, and you may have to deal with a locked rear wheel.

These are extremely serious considerations. Coasting is illegal in most places, so any mishap can be just the start of your troubles. You might "get away" with it briefly, but the dangers are still real, and waiting to dump on you. The risks exceed the rewards.

My $.02 worth,

Infrared

infrared said:

gixxerjasen said:

Coasting down Pikes Peak would have been fun...and a lot better on my gas mileage.

Click to expand...

gixxerjasen,
I have two considerations for you, on coasting down long hills.

When brakes get too hot, the brake fluid can boil, which applies the brakes more and more, until the brakes lock. If there is any water in the brake fluid, that happens a lot sooner. Once the pads begin touching the rotors, you can't stop what happens next, unless you can stop the bike immediately and let the calipers cool down. There will be almost no warning signs; you might notice that one of the brake levers got impossible to move, just before the bike seems to "lose power." Then the brakes lock. The FJR is a heavy bike. It is a big load to slow down, using only the brakes. Engine compression braking can do the job safely, without a heat problem.

If the bike is in gear with the clutch disengaged, half of the clutch assembly is being turned by the road speed. Even though the engine is idling, it is easy (when coasting in the lower gears) to run up the RPMs of the clutch very high. Releasing the clutch then will take the engine RPMs very high, and the rev limiter will be no help. It would feel like you slammed on the brakes. If the clutch comes apart at high RPMs, you probably will not be able to shift into Neutral, and you may have to deal with a locked rear wheel.

These are extremely serious considerations. Coasting is illegal in most places, so any mishap can be just the start of your troubles. You might "get away" with it briefly, but the dangers are still real, and waiting to dump on you. The risks exceed the rewards.

My $.02 worth,

Infrared

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Yes, you're correct about all of this, and it's likely a factor in why the Yamaha engineers decided not to offer a manual clutch-disengagement button, although I'd be willing to bet they considered it. Although there are certain, limited moments when I would find such a thing handy on the AE, it would no doubt be abused. There's also a chance something like a clutch-disengagement switch could malfunction.

Um. I was kidding. Though I doubt you'd be that hard on the brakes for that long to get to that kind of situation. Actually the engine braking of the big AE was wonderful, I hardly touched my brakes at all except when stuck behind the scaredy pants lookey loos in their cars.