Hey guys, just got an 01 f4i. My only other bike was a 1983 Suzuki gs850g. Maybe I'm just inexperienced with this type of bike. The shifting seems really harsh/stiff. Like there is verr little play, either the clutch is out or in. Making it very easy to stall from a stop. Also when shifting thru the gears, it seems that gears 2 and 3 are almost identical. What I mean is that when I shift from gear 2 into gear 3 at a constant speed, there is almost no drop in rpm. This may be just me showing my inexperience with this type of bike, but I figured this would be the best place to find advise.

 

You have problems. I'd start with a clutch inspection.
In good order the clutch is so easy to modulate I literally don't have to raise the rpm at all starting from a stop. Just let clutch out and add throttle as I go. Shift action itself is a bit notchy/clunky [it likes a good hard toe when up shifting] but nothing major.

 

You've now entered the world of sportbikes. While the acclimatization takes a little while, you'll learn to love it soon. What's your mileage and condition of the bike?

Generally, I find the clutch throw on these bikes to be rather short and at the end of the lever travel. Practice modulating it, and giving the bike consistent gas until you learn the bite point. I don't find this bike has much of an issue getting rolling if you evenly let the clutch out. You can mess with the free play a bit and move the bite point slightly by using the adjuster near the bars, or down below on the clutch side if you can't get it there. I didn't even have to take my fairings off to reach the clutch side adjuster. That being said, a short and fairly abrupt clutch works wonders for fast shifting, and catching the super fast RPM drop as I'm sure you've noticed - you just need to grow accustomed to being quick and deliberate with the on/off between clutch/throttle. You could very well find some new adjustable levers could help the overall feel, and I'd suggest grabbing a pair of 7 clicks from the2wheels. They're relatively cheap with free shipping, but they work perfectly and give a much improved lever pull over stock. Covered 10,000km on my last bike with them and they never let me down.

The gearing with these bikes is meant for fast acceleration, and also happens to be close ratio. You'll find your shifting is better and more consistent if you wind the bike out a bit. Generally, I'd try and avoid shifting until you're somewhere approaching 6000+ RPM and seeing how that goes. You're not going to hurt it, considering the 14,000RPM redline. I cruise around between 4-5K, but try to reserve shifting for 6 or 7 thousand. The lower your RPMs, the less you'll notice a change in them when you switch gears. The change in RPMs is dictated by the speed you're going when you change into the gear, meaning of course that the higher you are up the range, the bigger the difference will be hopping into the next gear. Trying to switch gears at low RPM will have little noticeable change and likely be way more jerky than it oughta.

You may also be wise to preload the shifter before going through the motions (to quicken things up) and consider clutchless shifting after 2nd gear if you're really winding it out.