Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Hi All,

New bike owner. I have a Sabre and Honda's owner manual recommended the following shifting guidelines:

1st to 2nd at 12 MPH
2nd to 3rd at 19 MPH
3rd to 4th at 25 MPH
4th to 5th at 30 or 31 MPH

Other then the 1st to 2nd transition, it would seem like shifting at these speeds leave the engine way underpowered.

I want to treat the trans good can you confirm my clutch work is ok:

1. First gear gets partially engaged clutch with throttle.
2. All gears after are achieved by fully disengaging the clutch with a closed throttle and opening the throttle only after the clutch has engaged and the gear has been changed.

Sound right?

Also it it ok when coming to a stop from forth or fifth gear to ride the clutch while braking and then kicking the gear directly to 1st when stopped? Or is it better to go through the gears one at a time to get to first from fourth?

Thanks,
Kelly

kellystrash wrote:Hi All,

New bike owner. I have a Sabre and Honda's owner manual recommended the following shifting guidelines:

1st to 2nd at 12 MPH
2nd to 3rd at 19 MPH
3rd to 4th at 25 MPH
4th to 5th at 30 or 31 MPH

Other then the 1st to 2nd transition, it would seem like shifting at these speeds leave the engine way underpowered.

I want to treat the trans good can you confirm my clutch work is ok:

1. First gear gets partially engaged clutch with throttle.
2. All gears after are achieved by fully disengaging the clutch with a closed throttle and opening the throttle only after the clutch has engaged and the gear has been changed.

Sound right?

Also it it ok when coming to a stop from forth or fifth gear to ride the clutch while braking and then kicking the gear directly to 1st when stopped? Or is it better to go through the gears one at a time to get to first from fourth?

Thanks,
Kelly

you just gotta get the feel for it. the manuals im sure recomend the bare min. speeds to shift so you acn go above them. as for going directly to 1st? do you mean hold the clutch while braking then once stopped click down through the gears to first? sure you can do that. but its better to keep the gear matchd to your speed. if you hold the clutch and brake and go from 45 to 10 and suddenly the light goes green and you try to accelerate your in the wrong gear and might stall the bike. as you brake click down the gears to keep them matchd to your speed.

If you have lots of experience with a manual transmission in your car, then I think thats already half of the battle. If thats the case, it should be easy enough to fit that experience to a motorcycle.

Having recently gotten used to riding myself, I mainly judged my shifting by the sound of the engine. Cycles do like much higher rpms than a car, so I normally up shifted at 4-4500 rpms.

Down-shifting will become natural very quickly too. If the engine starts to bog a little, just down shift. As you are approaching a red light, shift down a gear, you should feel it stopping your momentum a bit. As your momentum adjusts to the gear your in, down shift again... and so on. Of course you will be front braking at the same time, if you were going fast enough. Controlling all of those things becomes natural before you know it. In this case, talk isnt worth as much as just getting out and doing it.