Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I completed the msf course and just bought a 2004 ninja 500. Its in excellent conditon with 4500 miles. My question is when accelerating from a stop sign how fast should the bike be going and at what rpms before i shift to 2nd gear? my goal is to accelerate to leave cagers behind as quickly as possible. If anyone has this bike i need your recommendations.

do a pinned throttle launch and only upshift when you hit the red line or until you hit the rev limiter.

that should accelerate you fast.

a pinned throttle launch? i'm sorry but can you explain that. do you mean dont shift into 2nd gear until the bike reaches the red line? I am confused because the manual says to shift into second at a very low speed??

NinjaRyan wrote:a pinned throttle launch? i'm sorry but can you explain that. do you mean dont shift into 2nd gear until the bike reaches the red line? I am confused because the manual says to shift into second at a very low speed??

pin throtte means wide open throttle. WOT is the only way to ride.

my manual has a ridiculously early shifting pattern too, i don't follow it.

be careful though... a pinned throttle launch can get pretty ugly if you don't have a great clutch control. haven't tried on my bike yet... im not very confident yet on my launches.



















PS. im kidding about the "WOT is the only way to ride."

gotcha i guess i will try WOT the next time i take out for a ride

I don't know what the manual says, but it's probably written for saving fuel and keeping things smooth.

I usually shift around 6k rpm if I don't have anyone in front of me and I want a non-racing, but pretty quick start. With someone in front of me, I'll shift a little sooner since the throttle is quite sensitive when in 1st. If you want maximum acceleration from the line, you can run it close to redline before shifting; max HP is reached at about 9k RPM on that bike.

You'll find that unless someone is really trying to keep up and has a fast car, it won't take much to leave cagers behind. That thing weighs about 400 pounds (plus you). The 50hp it puts out will get you from zero to too fast in a few seconds with little effort.

VermilionX wrote:do a pinned throttle launch and only upshift when you hit the red line or until you hit the rev limiter.

that should accelerate you fast.

you will either accelerate fast, or you will get dumped on your "O Ring" when the bike loops on ya.

just start out like you normally would then just give it a lot of throttle.

There's also an option 3. You'll get arrested.

Hey Ryan,

If you have to ask this question, you're obviously not ready to be trying to dust anyone off the line. You're probably going to make a complete idiot out of yourself by stalling the bike, or dumping yourself off the back end. Verm has been riding a lot longer than you have, so don't think you can just follow his advice the next time you take a ride on your new bike.

Ride for a while. Take it easy. You will find it very, very easy to leave pretty much any car behind once you've gotten comfortable with your clutch and throttel control. Your bike will tell you when to shift to second if you just listen to it. If you try to force the issue too soon, you'll just end up looking like the newbie you are.

Sorry to be harsh, but it's better than hearing about your humiliations or worse yet, any accidents, later.

I agree with moto. If you've just bought your bike you don't need to be worrying about how to leave cars in the dust, you need to be worried about keeping the rubber side down.

Keep the takeoffs slow and safe to start with. I usually shift around 7,000 RPM's on my EX500, usually just play it by ear. I had been driving a 5 speed car for a while before I got my bike so I was used to shifting based on sound. It'll come to you pretty quickly though.

If Verm says go all out on the takeoff, you should probably do the exact opposite (kidding Verm). But seriously, don't worry about blasting off on takeoffs.