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Perfect Speed of Gear Shifting

20K views 24 replies 17 participants last post by  Rusty Shackleford 
#1 ·
Just for curiosity plz post at what speed you ppl shift gears upwards..:p
 
#2 ·
You mean what RPM/MPH? That all depends on what you're doing. If you're commuting, you want to shift as low as possible for MPGs. If you're racing, you want to shift as high as possible for max power.

How fast do you shift? As fast as possible. Time between gears = loss of efficiency/mpg/speed.
 
#6 ·
Shift RPM

From what knowledge I've gained from this forum, it appears that 5-7K RPMs represents the most efficient range for transmitting power and accelerating. As such, shifting in this band is preferable -- the upper part of the band or beyond when max acceleration is desired, and the lower part or even down to 4500 RPMs when in a gentle commuting mode.

I have read that shifting at too low of an RPM, say below 4000 RPMs is not desired, as the engine is likely to lug along, which is not good for the engine bearings.

My first day out with my bike, I was lugging a lot, shifting at 2500-3000 RPMS to get used to the manual transmission. In hindsight, boy was that engine lugging back then!

Gary W. (newbie)
 
#10 ·
When you feel the bike stutter like its having an epileptic fit its probably time to bang up a gear.
When it's not going any faster its time to bang it down a cog.
problem with the cbr its got a narrow band between 8500 and 10,000, outside of that it moves slower than Australia Post.
 
#15 ·
I just shift up when it feels right, rarely wring it out beyond 9k tho.

The bigger question is when to shift down, especially if hard on the brakes into a corner. Even with ABS I've had it step out from a compression lock-up quite a few times, so I'm pretty conscious to lean on the front brake, use the rear to balance the bike only and shift down late.

I remember reading about blipping the throttle on downshifts and while I can heel'n'toe pretty well in a car, I don't get how that works on a bike when you have to squeeze a lever and twist your wrist with the same hand. Any advice?
 
#22 ·
when i first got the bike i was similar in shifting quite low. When you are cruising along the same road doing nothing you will definitely want to be at or above 4-4.5k at least, somewhere around 5k is where i sit for normal riding about and i will shift around 6-7 for normal riding or at the limiter for fun riding.

don't think about it too much, as long as you aren't sitting too low in the revs with no power you should be fine and once you have broken your bike in you won't do any harm if you rev the bike quite hard within reason of course :)
 
#24 ·
Generally i ride the crap out of the lil cbr. Usually shifting at 10-10.25k every gear. I still average 50-55 mgp like that. If i am just putting around ill shift about 9k rpm. I guess i just like atleast hitting the powerband every gear for some reason. Under 6k, i down shift to next lowest gear.

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