When operating the motorcycles, some users shift to neutral gear to hold the clutch when going downhill for the purpose of saving fuel cost, especially on long slopes and they only use the brake (mainly the rear brake) to control the speed. Now let’s analyze the disadvantages of this operation method, to make users understand the harm of it and also get to know about the correct operation method.
1. It’ll cause discoloration to the rear rim: If the rear brake is used to control the vehicle speed for a long time, the temperature of the rear rim will exceed the rated range, it will cause annealing, discoloration, strength reduction and even fracture risk.
2. It’ll increase the maintenance cost and cause potential safety hazards: The overheated rear rim may cause abnormal wear and early damage of the rear rim bearing seat, making the rear wheel swing, which affects the vehicle operation; the high temperature may also damage the brake plates and brake disc, affecting the brake performance.
3. The fuel-saving effect is negligible: For a certain vehicle, the actual test results on fuel consumption according to different downhill operation methods are as follows:
|
Ref No. |
Experiment Method |
Speed-Control Method |
Speed |
Slope |
Load Weight |
Fuel Consumption (L/100km) |
Average Fuel Consumption |
||
|
1st |
2nd |
Average |
|||||||
|
1 |
3rd gear downhill |
Gear + Brake |
20 |
-8 |
150KG |
0.86 |
0.89 |
0.875 |
0.635 |
|
30 |
0.58 |
0.58 |
0.58 |
|
|||||
|
40 |
0.46 |
0.44 |
0.45 |
|
|||||
|
2 |
3rd gear clutch downhill |
Brake |
20 |
0.78 |
0.75 |
0.765 |
0.562 |
||
|
30 |
0.52 |
0.51 |
0.515 |
|
|||||
|
40 |
0.42 |
0.39 |
0.405 |
|
|||||
|
3 |
Gap |
Brake |
20 |
0.76 |
0.77 |
0.765 |
|
||
|
Downhill |
30 |
0.5 |
0.52 |
0.51 |
0.557 |
||||
|
|
40 |
0.4 |
0.39 |
0.395 |
|
||||
The test results show that there is little difference in fuel consumption among the three downhill modes: "gear + brake", "neutral + brake" and "clutch + brake". The fuel consumption difference of 100km is 0.078l when the third gear is used as downhill compared with the neutral gear. The difference is only CNY0.6 when the fuel price is CNY7.7/L.
According to the above analysis, we can see that shifting to neutral gear or holding the clutch lever when riding the motorcycle downhill (especially on long slopes) and controlling the speed only with brake is harmful to the vehicle, risky to the rider, and not economically worthwhile.
In a word, always use “gear + brake” to control the vehicle speed when riding downhill.
