Hey guys,

Like I said, I'm new to Motorbikes and was wondering how to get the most out of my bike, in terms of economy or performance depending. What RPM should I shift up at? And when are they too low and I should downshift?

 

just use the rev range between 3-8000rpm

For the occasional adrenaline rush i rev it over 10,000rpm, but usually i shift relatively early around 8000ish and cruise at around 4000rpm.

You should be fine with those.

 

That is a very open ended question my friend.
That depends heavily on factors including what you are doing most on your bike (commuter, track, etc) and not to mention how you treat your bike personally.
Even with new sprockets (-1,+3) I realized I was shifting gears at several thousand rpms difference than before.
Around college town I can cruse around 5k in 4th gear, and I guess that sounds a bit weird though.

I will say through personal experience that numbers on paper aren't going to do you as much good as going out and riding yourself and learning the old fashioned way, because though you may not know it, your ears will learn the sounds of the rpms very quickly, so much that early on to riding my f3 I stopped even looking at the instrument panel. If you are new to motorbikes, then I suggest not diving into the performance/economy levels of your bike, and simply just go out and ride! IMO riding your bike will certainly help you figure out the answers to your questions. In the mean time, and since it is winter and sometimes hard to ride in general, it might be better if you also learn small projects like changing oil and flushing the radiator. If you just got an f3 and you're new, chances are that bike has fluids in it anyways that you didn't put in yourself, which is never a great thing on the safety side.

Getting to learn your bike physically is just as important in my opinion because it allows you to understand what exactly is happening between your legs while you ride, not to mention it cuts down on costs so you can spend those extra bucks on hooker--- err new parts!

Though we all have F3's (or modded to/from) all of our bikes perform differently in many, many ways. For example, I've read over 20 ways each of us starts up our F3's (choke + throttle + praying to god + etc) and it ceases to amuse me that we all sit on the same bike

There are many mods, many tutorials, many walkthroughs and many how-to's on pretty much anything you want to do to your motorcycle or want to learn how to do on this forum so dive in and take a look.
IDoDirt is a very intelligent moderator for the F3's that can help or show you from here if you have any more questions.

 

EVERYTHING sounds weird at the moment. I don't know if you meant 5k is weird low or weird high cause I was cruising at less than that...

The biggest problem I guess is I've been commuting +- 140 km (87 miles) a day for more than a year now in my car and have gotten used to how that sounds. Its a 1984 Mazda so mostly it sounds...weird. and different every month, as stuff rusts. So my 97 F3 actually feels new and shiny! and i was also upshifting at 4000 rpm. But the bike's rev range is so huge! I was hoping for some basics, which you've given me. "Rev it MORE. Its not a car!"

One thing to remember about South Africa, we can travel almost anywhere on Highways and freeways with speed limits of 120 km/h (75 Mph) which I think is more like the American interstates? Dunno if that makes a difference. As for the sound of the bike there is a bit of a leak in the exhaust manifold which I need to have sorted. The previous owner liked it that way.