Hey guys! I got my first bike on Monday... a 2007 Candy Plasma Blue 250! I love it!

Here's my question.

In the Owner's Manual, it suggests upshifting at the following speeds:

1->2: 12mph
2->3: 15mph
3->4: 19mph
4->5: 21mph
5->6: 28mph

It states nothing about RPMs.

For downshifting it suggests the following speeds:

6->5: 15mph
5->4: 12mph
4->3, 3->2, 2->1: 9mph

So my question is as follows.

Let's say you're going 30mph in 6th gear and approaching a turn. You want to downshift before the turn so that you can accelerate into the turn. Let's say you want to take the turn around 15mph, so you downshift from 6th to 5th. Now you're going 15mph but you want to be able to accelerate through the turn. Doesn't the bike now want to be closer to 3rd gear? But you're not supposed to downshift to 3rd until 9mph??

What's the correct course of action here?

Thank you!!

 

www.msf-usa.org
welcome to KF take the course^^^ you'll be glad you did

 

Yeah, I'm signed up for the course at the end of next month. But I have my permit now and would like to ride without worrying that I'm doing damage to my engine.

Thanks.

 

Working in that low speed, you'd be more worried about falling over.

try this:
Look at the red line on the tach.(probably 8k) Cut it in half. (now you're at 4K)
Now, do everything at that rpm. Shift up when you get to 5k, shift down when you get to 3k. Start getting a feel of what the bike is doing. The speed, the sound, the handling. Riding is not about exact #'s, It's a feeling. Knowing that you're doing 35 mph in 4th gear and can't roll on the throttle for acceleration without down shifting.
It just takes lots of miles to get it right. And being a new rider, stay on "your" bike!!! All bikes are different. You jump on somebodys zx6, it'll throw you off like a bull rider.

 

hmm im new to riding too, but im in only 2nd or 3rd while cruising at 20mph. i go by the engine sound, if it strains in a gear, shift up.

 

The manual's talking bollocks. Your problem is that during break in you need to keep the revs down. On a new bike I would'nt go past 5K for the first 100 miles, and in the three higher gears I wouldn't go below 3K. Add 1K for every hundred miles you do.

You'll have to shift a lot. That's good for breaking in the gearbox. with a little practose you'll soon know what gear you need to be in to be at around 2K revs for a 15 mph corner - you won't be in one of the three higher gears so 2K is OK.

For this sort of corner in town, slow on the brakes with the clutch in and downshify as you slow so that if you do need to accelerate you've got a gear selected commensurate with your speed.

If it isn't a new bike, shift up at around 5K anyway for normal riding, but use higher revs when you want to go faster. Use the tacho to shift, not the speedo, but use the speedo when you're slowing with the clutch in to tell you what gear you should be in under those conditions.

Rob

 

Basically, you want to be in the highest gear you can be in without lugging the bike. As long as you are not above 14,200 rpm's you can't really hurt it. High rpm's (above 10,000) will consume some oil, which is very normal, btw, so if you do ride around at high rpm's check the oil level a lot.
Every bike breaks in a little different, and has slightly different shift "sweet spots". So it's really hard for anyone to tell you exactly when to shift, so just learn the feel of the engine and you will soon find your bikes own sweet spots.

scootertrog

 

Hey everyone. Thanks for the replies. Although it's a 2007, it's been well broken in with 11,200 miles on the odometer. The first guy who owned it used it as his sole means of transport so this bike's been well ridden!

Upshifting based on the tach and the feel of the bike makes a lot more sense than upshifting based on speed. Thank you for that clarification.

I'm trying to work on rev matching while downshifting. It's a bit tricky because it's against my instict to brake and rev the engine at the same time! I suppose it just takes time.

Thanks again!!

 

Congrats on the bike! Hope you have good gear on. My suggestion- take the course first before you develop habits by learning by yourself. Shifting up and down is about feeling. You can't keep looking at the tach/speedo to tell you when to shift up or down. I occasionally I downshift before/while I slow down to prepare for a corner. Most of the time I don't downshift at all. I just make sure I get all my braking done way before the entry then just roll my way through while not lugging the engine.

Question- how are you cornering? Counter-steering or using your body to lean the bike?

 

Ok...Stupid question - I'm new to the biking world (my bike should be here any day now :-) I have seen the work lugging twice in this post and I have absolutely no idea what it means, Could someone please enlighten me.

Thanks