I got my first sport bike. YAY. but couple of noob questions.

1. I would like to know at what rpm you guys start shifting gears at each level. I kind of feel shifting too fast!

2. I am kind of feeling slight pain or stress on my writst. I am guessing my riding position is not right.

I will post my pics this saturday.

 

Adjust your clutch? Shift wherever you feel comfortable at. Just ride more and u'll get to see what powerband u'd be shifting at. I commute a lot so I drive speed limit and try to save gas so I shift at about 8ish.

 

As long as you shift before 15,000 RPM, you're fine.

Seriously though, when riding around the city, I'm usually in 6th by 40 mph. If traffic is moderate to heavy, I usually keep it in 2nd or 3rd in case I need to get out of tricky spots. I'll keep the damned thing in 1st if I stumble upon rush hour so all the crazies hear me at the very least.

As for your wrists hurting, that's normal. Try squeezing the tank with your knees when coming to a stop and while riding. Squeezing the tank with your knees and holding yourself up with your abs will save your wrists from taking all the weight of your body. And ride scooted all the way up against the tank, and this will put you in the most up-right position you can be in on the bike.....also saving stress on your wrists.

But you'll learn with time. I would highly recommend taking an MSF course if you haven't done so already. This riding season has already started off terribly with crashes and fatalities, and the last thing we want to hear about on here is another rider going down.

 

i usually shift at whaaaaaaah, not whaaah. some people like to shift at whaaaaaaaaaaah, but personally, unless trying to get away quickly, it's not necessary.



as far as your wrist problems, try not jerking off in the morning. i had the same problems, but switched my jerking to night and all was good, so my wrist was fresh in the am.



best of luck!

 

Nobody with experience uses a tach for shifting purposes...Most of us don't need it except to know when we are redlining. It's all about feel bro. After you spend enough time on your bike, you will get a feel for where you feel comfortable shifting, and it's based on noise (as Papi indicated) and feel (vibrations/speed/torque). For routine transportation purposes or residential areas, I like to generally keep the gear about 1,000 above the point that it would start stalling and fluttering. Learn your bike...you need to figure it out. If you can't properly satisfy your throttle, you have no chance of seeing a woman's O-face.

 

holy st!t shortbus. that was awesome. good thing i **** via sound then huh?

i used to think that i shifted wrong on my f4i because after the bike warmed up and i was cruisin around town, it would make a very loud scratchy noise from my engine if i went above my usual shiftin areas (around 5.5 to 6k). i figure now that it was just annoying extra engine noise and it was fine because my f4i was a beast, but it worried me

just learn to know your bike, shift when comfortable and remember no one is going to ride past you laghing cuz you shift at 6 instead of 9k

 

As long as your engine is not "lugging" you will be fine. You have a 15k rpm range... use them

 

Nice to know that I have a huge RPM range! Thanks for the response guys.

 

Like everybody says, go by sound/feel. When I first started riding I used to look at the tach when I thought about shifting to see where the rev's were. I realized I would normally shift about 5-7k. You want to learn around what rev's you're at by sound. Most of the motor's power is in the higher end of the powerband (9-11k), so if you're around there, steady boy, steady....

Practice my friend. You'll be Stoner in 45 days or your money back...guaranteed.

 

Probably one of the funniest posts I have seen in a while!