Go to your phone’s stopwatch and try to stop the timer at 0.1 seconds. Seems like a very small duration, right? Well, it is, but this same tenth of a second can decide whether you finish tenth or first in a motorcycle race. Thanks to this, race engineers go the extra mile on their bikes to shave off even the finest milliseconds. And one such technology birthed from the said outlook is a quickshifter that, as its name suggests, makes upshifts (and downshifts) quicker.

In these modern times, however, quickshifters have progressed from something you'd find on race-only bikes to a staple on production motorcycles as well—whether it's just to relax your left hand or get the feel of a racer. Manufacturers even plonk these from the factory itself, rather than selling them as accessories. But how exactly does a quickshifter achieve this result? Well, read on, as that's exactly what we're tackling today.

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How Does A Quickshifter Work?

Triumph Street Triple R Quickshifter
Triumph
Close up shot of Triumph's up-down quickshifter

Imagine you’re on your motorcycle, and you need to shift up. The usual process would go something like this - roll off the throttle, pull in the clutch, apply pressure to the gear lever, leave the clutch, and get back on the gas. Though this takes some time to write and read, the whole process happens in a couple of seconds. But as mentioned above, each second is crucial in racing and this is where the tech comes in. In layman's terms, a quickshifter omits the use of the clutch and lets you keep the throttle pinned as you upshift into the next gear, thus decreasing the time spend on gear shifts.

On a deeper level, a quickshifter comprises a transducer, clamped onto the shift rod (near the gear lever). The transducer pairs up with a preloaded spring to sense the change in pressure and tension on the shift rod, so it can send a signal to the ECU to cut the fuel supply (or spark) to the engine. This mimics the clutch action and throttle roll-off of the rider, which unloads the gearbox, thus enabling you to select the next gear. Some top-of-the-line quickshifters - mostly on high-end motorcycles - also employ strain gauges for more accuracy and even faster shift times.

Much like other motorcycle tech, quickshifters have also progressed in recent times. Instead of just upshifts, modern-day setups enable clutchless downshifts as well, a tech commonly known as auto-blippers. These have a similar working, but raise the RPM (instead of cutting power) when it senses a downshift, basically, to mimic what we call a rev match.

Benefits Of A Quickshifter

Ducati Multistrada V4S
Ducati official
Ducati Multistrada V4S off-roading

The key benefit of a quickshifter is faster gearshifts, whether up or down. On a race track, these make a sizable difference in lap times, especially if it’s a tight track with constant upshifts and downshifts. The milliseconds saved become tenths and the latter makes a vast difference over a lap, even more so in a race. But that’s not all. Quickshifters also serve as a creature comfort as it lets you relax your left hand. Just imagine not using the clutch on your burly cruiser motorcycle with a hard clutch lever. Feeling relaxed already, right?

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Similarly, this tech makes sense on adventure bikes too. You see, off-roading is pretty hard on your body and there’s a high chance you have your hands full (pun intended) with steering, and moving around to stay upright. So a quickshifter and auto-blipper can at least give you one less thing to worry about - clutch action. Besides these, high-performance nakeds (like the Ducati Streetfighter V4) and sports bikes (like the BMW S 1000 RR) are perfect picks to plonk a quickshifter too, given their sporty nature and race bike-derived tech.

Do You ‘Need’ A Quickshifter?

MV Agusta F3 Quickshifter
MV Agusta
Who'd guess this small element can make you a lot faster on a race track?

Ah, the big question. Considering the benefits, a quickshifter makes perfect sense for a motorcycle, right? Well, all isn’t hunky dory. The biggest problem with quickshifters is the accuracy. These work best when you have the throttle pinned and let’s face it, you can’t do that all the time without breaking some laws. So at slower speeds, they can be a bit sluggish or result in false neutrals. Though high-end motorcycles rarely have these issues, small offerings employ basic quickshifters which lack calibration (we’ve experienced this firsthand on the KTM 390 Duke). Some examples - like the India-spec Yamaha YZF-R15 - even have a quickshifter that doesn’t work below a set speed.

And if your motorcycle doesn’t come with one, a good-quality quickshifter can cost you anywhere between $200 and $500. Not too sensible, if you’re not chasing tenths. Thanks to all this, we believe quickshifters are a nice addition and provide an unmatched race bike-like gearshift experience, but it’s not something you can’t “live” without.