ive never tried to shift w/o using a clutch, how do you do that?

 

Just shift. Move the shift lever the same way as using the clutch. Be smooth but firm, and it should go into the next gear. Make sure to let off the throttle. If you wanna try it, 2k seems to be the sweet spot. Any RPM should work, but 2k seems to be the smoothest.

 

If you think about how synchronizers work, you will see that they either speed up the gear set you are shifting into, or try to slow it down. If you get a good enough feel for the gearbox, you will see that at certain speeds shifting is easier. Shifting up, usually simply feel the shift lever a little while letting off of gas a bit. At a certain speed, it will slip right into the higher gear. Shifting down, too, but it may bump a little as you need higher RPM for lower gear, but you can make it almost seamless.
When you get the timing for it just right, the synchronizers won't even work at all, let along wear out. The shift will be seamless because the speeds of gears are nearly perfectly equal, so the synchros don't have to speed up / slow down anything. Just try it, don't wrestle it into a higher gear. I start by using clutch at different speeds, then you feel where it is easier to shift, and can try no clutch.
-P

 

I use 1st even when drag racing, well, I used to before I started making more power than my clutch can clamp down. I would just launch in 1st, kepp it to the floor as I rowed into second, and so on. It wat stupid fast when I took off like that, but hard on parts. I would need a dual disk ceramic to do that now, and I would lift just a little because now it wraps higher than I am comfortable with (freewheeling). I guess if I had a mondo clutch I could take off in 2nd and might be faster.

 

I do the same thing, but I still use the clutch... the synchro is still going to be speeding up or slowing down the gear without using the clutch, but it's going to be doing it moreso because the input shaft is still spinning the same speed as the engine... if you clutch it, the input shaft is allowed to slow down.

I never force a gear, I double-clutch and match revs on downshifts and still use the clutch.

it's just easier on the synchros

 

I like to start in first gear in most cases, second seems to have to put a little more work on the clutch I want to get the most out of it before I crawl under with the wrenches one more time.