I've been riding my bike for about 3 weeks now. And it seems like I'm shifting too early. There's no grabbing or lurching, and the engine sounds fine. It just feels like I should be shifting later. I do a cross between heavy traffic and wide open country, and I'm just wondering what speeds/gears I should be at/in for pretty easy riding.

 

Personal preference. Shift whenever you want, be in whatever gear you want. Personally when cruising around, I'm in at least 4th gear. 6th gear if I'm above 45 mph.

 

I think these bikes are pretty unhappy with the revs below 4000 or so. Beyond that do what you want.

 

Bikes are fine below 4000, it just depends on what you're doing. You don't want to give a lot of throttle in a high gear at low RPMs. Basically if you give a lot of throttle and the bike just kinda sputters at you and/or barely goes much faster, you need to shift down.

 

I could have been clearer -

It's not going to hurt the bike, but the throttle response is lousy and it make very little power, so there's no compelling reason to be below 4k.

 

Sounds to me like you are shifting the way you are supposed to shift. I read on one site that when shifting you release the clutch to the grab point and then ease in as it grabs. If you shift earlier is when you might see a lurch more easily in my short experience although you can do it pretty much at any time.

The book says shift 1st gear at 13 miles an hour and second at I think it was 24. I try to follow that when I am leaving the house so I do not PO the neighbors too much. But I agree with what was said above that the bike likes it above 4K and I have read that the most fuel efficient zone is around 5K.

If you wind it out to say 10K in town you probably will only get to use maybe 3 gears and depending on how rural perhaps only 2.

But if the bike is not bucking when you go into gear you are shifting at a good point. If you are trying to get moving a bit quicker just wind it out a bit more. For me that is when my acceleration is a bit more erratic because my throttle control is not there yet. Very easy to be using too much or too little throttle. Again it sounds like you have that coordination down.

 

Makes sense. But if you're at a cruising speed where you likely won't need to give more or less throttle, below 4000 is fine. Just make sure to downshift if you want to go faster.

 

All right. I appreciate all the input. Yeah, Aken, I seem to ride like you. I can be on road, with a 45 speed limit, and be at 52 in 6th. Or if I'm on back roads or twisties, I might even leave it in 5th just for the response.