I was in a 5 mile plus, downhill ride through a ton of curves,,,view was awesome so I just put the bike in neutral and enjoyed the desent. A few miles downhill my "security" icon lit up(red key)and the bike idled fine. I don't have security. Should I have been in a gear with clutch pulled in or is neutral ok?

 

Should be in gear with clutch lerver out. Find the gear that works for the grade you are on. Should have just a touch of a twist on the throttle so any increase of grade/speed can be burned off just by releasing the throttle. Rolling in neutral is not advised for a lot of reasons besides the fact that in most states it is actually illegal. One of my worries on the bike would be when the hill changes you do not know which gear would be correct and you either over rev or lug the motor.

 

Yeah, once you get moving faster than you expected, it's really hard to shift into the appropriate gear without some issued. Coasting down a hill in neutral is never adviseable.

Why your light came on... I have no idea unless it thought the bike was standing on it's nose.

 

What year bike do you have? Cannot tell by your User panel?
All laws out the window, 5 miles with clutch lever in would be no fun. I am still trying to figure why light came on. When you put it in gear did light go out or did you need to turn off key switch and back on to reset it? If it was your coasting a long ways in neutral that did turn the light on, the ecm which turned it on knew gear was neutral and also knew rolling input to the odometer was happening. ECM must have thought you fell off back there somewhere.HA
Sure is was not the red battery lamp to the left of it. These bikes do not charge much at idle and volts could have been low.

 

I haven't figured out why you kicked it out of gear???? How fast were you going?

 

I typically try to find the best gear for the conditions and leave it there. On real twisties second or third is a good gear range for my 07 Ultra Classic.

 

It's never a good idea to coast down hill in neutral and actually illegal. Did you have to turn the bike off for the light to go out? Mine has come on before too (I don't have a security system) and I had to shut her down for it to go out. I don't know why it came on though.

 

Always be in gear!!!

 

I've done it before and enjoy it. I usually turn the bike off and roll in silence. It's a unique feeling.

Legal? I don't know, but I know not having my lights on isn't. But then again, speeding, passing on the double yellow, and a host of other things commonly done by many are illegal. Is it smart? Probably not. Neither is riding without a helmet or ATGATT for that matter. Sometimes you just gotta say "What the hell" and do something stupid. Flame away.

(disclaimer - don't do anything I do because it's dangerous. Stay on the couch and be totally safe )

 

Like others have said, you should rarely if ever be coasting in nuetral (or in gear with clutch disengaged) for any period, let alone five miles worth. The throttle is one of the key elements you have for the control of your bike. Throttle input is just as important as any other control mechanism, i.e., brake input , steering input, etc. Without throttle control you have sacrificed some of your control of the bike. This is the textbook answer. But I'm not one to go "by the book" always anyway.

As for the legal implications of coasting, I remember years ago (mid 1980s) a trip I was on with a group of about 10-12 riders. We were all on sport bikes. We road (or raced) a few hundred miles to Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, CA to attend a F1 bike race event. On the way home we all shut off our engines and had a coasting race at a downhill stretch. Wouldn't you know it, a CHP cruiser observed some of our group coast on by and proceeded to pull them over. Two or three guys in the group actually got tickets for coasting or whatever it was called.

I'm not sure how the law is actually written, but in this case it was clear the bikes were not under power because the engines were silent. If your engine is actually running, I don't know how anyone could determine that you are coasting inappropriately.

I agree with something said in the previous post too. There are times when I might do anything I feel like doing and who cares if it's right, wrong, legal or illegal. What a boring life it would be if we all followed all the rules all the time.