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Blah. I am having a lot of trouble shifting smoothly. I can shift up fine, no problem. I just can't get the downshift smooth. I tried blipping the throttle to get the revs up but I don't have a tachometer on the Shadow and I have never used a manual transmission before so it's become a bit of a pain.

The owners manual is useless. It tells me shift up points, then says I don't have to shift down from 5th to 4th until I hit 22mph. Now I'm no motorcycle guru but somehow that seems like too high a gear, and what if I am going downhill at 25 and want to make a turn at the end of the hill? I don't want to be in 5th!

Going downhill today I slowed to about 25mph and shifted into second gear. Fine, no problem there, but as I was going downhill it felt like my bike was bogging. I'm not sure why. The throttle was steady, the gear seems like it was on target..

What am I doing wrong?

I now have this miserable fear of locking up the back tire because I can't downshift right. Now it's just a matter or pride. If I can't learn to shift, the guys will never let me live it down.

Ignore the numbers and think about how the bike feels. You can hear and feel when the bike is in the wrong gear.
Try easing the clutch out slowly when you change down so the revs are able to match the speed of the bike.

When I was a rookie to road riding on an SP 1000 Guzzi an instructer made me ride straight lines just going up and down gears, no brakes, just to get the feel for the bike and also to learn how to use the engine to brake. I think the main lesson I learned from that was to change a lot earlier than I thought. Now I am on a BMW K1200S and I never go from 6th to 5th to 4th and so on, I choose the gear I want for the conditions, but am in that gear as the condition comes up. For example, long straight to sharp corner. Brake, clutch, choose gear, clutch out, off brakes, back on power, give yourself plenty of time for your entry speeds. Engine braking will differ from bike to bike and this is something that you have to learn to feel.

Exactly what they both said. I also found downshifting a bit more perplexing than upshifting in the beginning. It will come much more easily after you have practiced more on your bike. It will all smooth out, and then you won't even notice downshifting - it will beome second nature.

Cheers,
Loonette