Motorcycle ‘blipping’…

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember53456]

[This posting has been removed]

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember53456]

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

I used to have to blip the throttle while changing down and double declutching on vintage cars without synchromesh. Blipping while stationary might be necessary on a racing bike with "cold" plugs to prevent oiling.

I suspect most riders just like the noise!

Russell

[VicParticipant @vic]

Russell has it right. It’s just mental thing with bike riders, they all seem to do it.

[Fowlers FuryParticipant @fowlersfury]

Not with modern bikes I suppose but with my old Brit bike, when stopped and ticking over you had to blip the throttle once after pulling the clutch lever to free the clutch plates in order to engage 1st.

Irrelevant addition follows:-
Multi-plate clutch with cork inserts running in oil – terrible combination. Adjust clutch push rod when cold & clutch wouldn't release when hot, adjust when hot & it would slip when cold……or was it t'other way round??
I once rebuilt the clutch plates with new cork inserts supplied by spares seller which were composition i.e. like cork table mats. Five miles from home and the plates were seized together necessitating bike rescue. Once home I acquired numerous bottle corks and had to slice them all to fit but no more trouble.

[John ReeseParticipant @johnreese12848]

Rednecks do it in cars.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[colin branniganParticipant @colinbrannigan54160]

Sorry my attempt to add a photo failed.

 

Edited By colin brannigan on 03/06/2019 16:51:59

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

A bike that is properly set up and in good condition will idle quite happily, worn carbs make achieving a slow idle very difficult. If the engine is tuned and has lightened flywheels/crank then it can be impossible to get a slow speed idle. As said above it is just nice to do it. As bikes tend not to have heavy flywheels it is useful to blip the throttle when changing down as the engine slows very quickly when the throttle is closed and so blipping the throttle matches the engine to the road speed and makes a much smoother downchange.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 03/06/2019 17:01:10

[ronan walshParticipant @ronanwalsh98054]

Because Amal carbs , as fitted to older british bikes, are made of metal that makes lead look like through hardened die steel. They wear quickly, so if you set up tick over when the engine is cold, the tick over is too high when the engine warms up. Then if you adjust the tick over when the engine is hot, it won't tick over when cold.

But with modern bikes with fuel injection, electronic ignition and all sorts of electronics monitoring everything 200 times a second, blipping is not needed.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember53456]

[This posting has been removed]

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

I've ridden bikes for 55 years and still do. I think Haggerleases comments have very little grounds for reality. I and most others I know ride sensibly and with a desire to ride again tomorrow.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

A bike is not just transport, it is very satisfying to push the bike and yourself and explore the limits, you may say that should be done on a racetrack but to my mind that is a different experience. With a modern sports bike capable of near 200mph there are not many people who would be safe at that speed and nobody if you are sharing the road with other users. Speed limits are very artificial and implemented for a variety of reasons. The IOM TT course is a closed road where In normal times some speed limits apply, an average speed of over 130mph through many towns and villages shows what the machines and riders can do. Fans can taste the experience on Mad Sunday when the mountain section is made one way and no speed limit, most people do survive this and I would say this is some of the best fun you can have without getting undressed. Well it is if you’re a biker

Mike

[JAParticipant @ja]

Posted by ronan walsh on 03/06/2019 17:37:07:

Because Amal carbs , as fitted to older british bikes, are made of metal that makes lead look like through hardened die steel. They wear quickly, so if you set up tick over when the engine is cold, the tick over is too high when the engine warms up. Then if you adjust the tick over when the engine is hot, it won't tick over when cold.

I got the tick over back on my two old British bikes by fitting new AMAL carburettors. They are being made again and the same rubbish die-casting alloy appears to be used. Someone will have the same problem in about 30 years time. The alternative to AMAL is to fit a Japanese Makuni. They are made from good aluminium and are altogether better designed and made.

JA

[Paul KempParticipant @paulkemp46892]

Posted by Chris Evans 6 on 03/06/2019 18:33:26:

I've ridden bikes for 55 years and still do. I think Haggerleases comments have very little grounds for reality. I and most others I know ride sensibly and with a desire to ride again tomorrow.

Try driving London bound on the M2 / A2 in the morning and the opposite way in the evening! I unfortunately have to do this fairly regularly and having ridden bikes myself I still have palpitations watching the antics, get on centre white line between lanes, open throttle and try to weave between anything that may be in your path – it's worse on the multi lane sections if you are in a car at 60 (you can rarely get to 70 and more often 15 is optimistic!) but at 60 you can have the pleasure of being both undertaken and overtaken by bikes on either side between the adjacent cars – not even waiting for a gap! I have had my mirror clouted twice in the last fortnight and saw one come to grief. Maybe things are different in your neck of the woods! I rode bikes for many years and did a few track days but the way bikers behave now scares me!

Paul.

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by Haggerleases on 03/06/2019 14:52:26:

Can anyone tell me why it is that motorcycles are seemingly unable to achieve a stable tickover? Every time I see a motorcycle stationary with it's engine running, or slowing down, the rider seems to have to 'blip' the throttle repeatedly.

 

I think the question has been answered satisfactorily already, but I'll add my two penn'orth.

In the days when I used to ride motorbikes (ranging from 50cc to 1000cc) I always blipped the throttle on change downs (for reasons given here), but only ever used to blip the throttle when stationary on the rare occasions when there was a temporary fuel/carb/ignition/breathing problem that meant the engine wouldn't idle steadily and was at risk of cutting out.

As Barrie says, two strokes benefit more than four strokes from being blipped at idle. My memory is hazy, but my feeling was that doing this minimised the chances of the engine "bogging" when power was suddenly called for when you became mobile again. Certainly bogging is sometimes a problem with two stroke garden machinery (which I have a quite a lot of), but I've learned to adjust the factory carb settings to minimize this and create virtually instant throttle response from idle on all the two stroke equipment I own.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 03/06/2019 19:30:34

[David Davies 8Participant @daviddavies8]

For what it's worth I believe that the AMAL GP carburettor, as fitted to racing bikes (Manx Norton, AJS 7R etc), had no stop screw for the slide. The rider had to keep the engine running in the paddock by blipping the throttle whilst warming up prior to the race. The slide was hanging on the cable, which had to have some slack to accommodate handlebar movement so if the twistgrip was released the throttle was well and truly shut.

Rumour also has it that the British motorcycle industry would not pay AMAL enough for them to improve on the inferior metal used for the carbs of production bikes. If the slide had been made of a dissimilar metal that would have helped. In the (impoverished) past I have skimmed AMAL slides and fitted a brass sleeve to them in an effort to improve the fit in an otherwise worn out body.

I don't blip my BMW R75/7 which is 43 years old, has the original Bing CD carbs and ticks over like a watch.

None of this is really relevant to the OP but there you go!

Cheers

Dave

[Roddy ScottParticipant @roddyscott65407]

I'm fairly sure the original question is a little tongue in cheek but as a biker I wonder the same thing. Usually, if it's a modern bike it's 'look at me' (not realising how irritating they are to others) but a very small number of bikes do not idle too well. High lift, long duration cams in a tuned engine can make idle a little erratic but they're few and far between on the roads.

Mostly it's 1 imho

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Some modern machines have automatic ‘blippers’ when changing gear. Just another bit of expensive electronic wizardry available to the serious bike riders. Matching engine revs to gear ratio can be important at high speed. Little different from ABS, traction control, etc on modern superbikes.

[Pete RimmerParticipant @peterimmer30576]

Posted by not done it yet on 04/06/2019 05:40:28:

Some modern machines have automatic ‘blippers’ when changing gear. Just another bit of expensive electronic wizardry available to the serious bike riders. Matching engine revs to gear ratio can be important at high speed. Little different from ABS, traction control, etc on modern superbikes.

I never heard of this. I don't deny that there might be some kind of aftermarket 'blipper' but I never heard of it and know of no factory bike that has the feature nor would I find it desirable.

For fast up-changes you can get quick-shifters, those are quite common but they simply kill the ignition momentarily – usually around 30ms – and I'm sure you can get some which cause a backfire when the change is done because I've followed bikes that backfired on every change though the one I had on my landspeed bike for a while didn't cause it.

There is unit designed for disabled bikers that power-shifts up and down, I don't know if perhaps that has a blipper function for the down-shifts. It's a large ungainly solenoid that most people would not put on their bike if they didn't have to.

[colin wilkinsonParticipant @colinwilkinson75381]

Pete, Ducati V4 has auto blipper and cornering ABS, BMW S1000RR has auto blipper as well. Yamaha R1 is rumoured to be using a seamless shift gearbox from next year as used on MotoGP M1. Colin

[John MCParticipant @johnmc39344]

The new Amal carburettors made by Burlen's are made from decent material and the slides are anodised/plated. Something Amal should have done!

It should be remembered that Amal had to give their customers (the motorcycle manufactures) what they wanted. When BSA wanted carburettor costs reduced Amal needed to react. What we got was the "concentric" replacing the "monobloc". A inferior device but much cheaper to manufacture.

As for "blipping" the throttle, worn carb., incorrectly set, poor maintenance, habit, macho?

John

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Probably just blipping their throttle to revel in the joy of being young and enthusiastic and full of life and promise and joie de vivre. You know?

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

Paul Kemp, I must agree there is an element of irresponsible riders who give the majority a bad name. It is avoiding their type of riding that has given me the pleasure over 50 plus years. Chris.

[A SmithParticipant @asmith78105]

I have a 1960 Matchless G3 (ex AFS) that has covered 56000 miles on the original Amal 375 Monobloc carburettor. No air filter was fitted on this model. It starts easily & runs well. It does require a rebore, new valves and guides. Doing that now.

Unfortunately, there is a continuing supply of chimps that fit loud exhausts & blip throttles, Darwin keeps their numbers in check, at least to some extent.

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