Gearing and shifting question

Some friends of mine and I had a conversation going that got me thinking. I will not let you know which side of the fence i was on, but curious if there was a right or wrong answer. I am curious not really on what everyone else does, but is there a right or wrong way to not tax the bike with wear and tear. We had arguments on things such as bike wear, to rider preference, to saftey. If one of these do not make sense, please ask for clarification.

1. when you are going, say 70mph and you take an exit and need to come to a stop, do you pull the clutch in and use the brake till your stop then down shift to 1st - Do you down shift a gear at a time as you slow down, while the clutch is in the whole time - or do you brake, downshift, let clutch out, then downshift, let clutch out while braking to the stop. Basically using the transmission to help slow down.

2. I feel comfortable on the highway cruising around 75-80 mph. without a Tac, i am not sure how high my RPM is, but it feels like this bike could use a higher gear. Is there a problem with riding at say, 80MPH for a very long distance, due to the RPM?

3. When you are cruising through town at say 30MPH, is it better to stay in a lower gear, like 3rd, where the RPM seems a little higher, or up to 4th so the bike is on the bottom side of the RPM and it has a lower roar?

4. with so much power, we also discussed stop and go traffic shifting alot. down to first to stop or close to a stop, then it seems like i am going up to second and then third within seconds, then the next stop sign comes, back to first gear, and start all over again. is there anyone that only goes to second gear on a slow rolling stop and then lets the bike chug out from there?

At 80mph on a Touring you are probably turning 3150 +/- 150 RPM in 5th. It isn't an issue to cruise at 80+ all day long. Yes, a 6th gear would be nice but it isn't really necessary on this bike.

When I am going home every night I have to take an exit off of the freeway, I approach at 75-80, clutch in, down two gears and use engine braking and then throttle to maintain appx 60mph through the first curve and by then it is downshifting/coasting/gentle braking to the stop sign.

My exit: The Interstate is on the right of the pic, Stop sign at end of second little curve.




I don't chug on purpose, ever.


bob

Bob R said:

At 80mph on a Touring you are probably turning 3150 +/- 150 RPM in 5th. It isn't an issue to cruise at 80+ all day long. Yes, a 6th gear would be nice but it isn't really necessary on this bike.

When I am going home every night I have to take an exit off of the freeway, I approach at 75-80, clutch in, down two gears and use engine braking and then throttle to maintain appx 60mph through the first curve and by then it is downshifting/coasting/gentle braking to the stop sign.

My exit: The Interstate is on the right of the pic, Stop sign at end of second little curve.




I don't chug on purpose, ever.


bob

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Using the tranny to slow you down doesnt put a stress on the motor?

Riding where the rpm seems higher feels odd. What is an unsafe rpm level?

Jeremy said:

Using the tranny to slow you down doesnt put a stress on the motor?

Riding where the rpm seems higher feels odd. What is an unsafe rpm level?

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What is Engine Braking (and Why you Should do it)

One thing though, there isn't an overabundance of engine braking on this engine which I think is the result of it being a fairly low compression engine. (Someone who knows will be along to correct me if I am wrong).

The R3 has a governor on it, someone will correct me but I believe it cuts off your ability to accelerate (cuts power to coils?) when the engine hits a certain RPM, I believe 6500 rpm but I haven't hit it in a long time, I shift between 5500 and 6K when hooning. I think it would be hard to overstress this motor in stock configuration, or close to it. It is a tank. Detent spring, maybe not so tank like.

bob

Bob R said:

What is Engine Braking (and Why you Should do it)

One thing though, there isn't an overabundance of engine braking on this engine which I think is the result of it being a fairly low compression engine. (Someone who knows will be along to correct me if I am wrong).

The R3 has a governor on it, someone will correct me but I believe it cuts off your ability to accelerate (cuts power to coils?) when the engine hits a certain RPM, I believe 6500 rpm but I haven't hit it in a long time, I shift between 5500 and 6K when hooning. I think it would be hard to overstress this motor in stock configuration, or close to it. It is a tank. Detent spring, maybe not so tank like.

bob

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Interesting read, thanks

Use the gears to help slow you down. You should always be in the gear you need to be in.

30mph is not a problem in top gear. The engine should not be laboring.

1. Definitely downshift through gears to slow down, don't pull the clutch in, free wheel and brake.
If you don't engine brake you're missing half the fun of riding a bike. All bikes are built for engine braking. All bikes.

2. You could run it at 100 all day with no problem, so 80 is no sweat at all.

3. Use 3rd if there's a lot of traffic. You can stop quicker in 3rd than 4th and acceleration to get out of trouble is better, too.
I have a standard and on level ground with no traffic, 2000 rpm is perfectly fine

4. There's no easy way to deal with stop and go traffic.
If you don't drop below 1800 rpm in 2nd you should be ok.
Since you don't have a tachometer, (I'd never ride a bike without one) if the bike shakes a lot when you 'chugg'
you are lugging the motor, very bad.
Given wheel diameter and gear ratio, you should be able to calculate engine rpm off of road speed in each gear.

idk said:

Use the gears to help slow you down. You should always be in the gear you need to be in.

30mph is not a problem in top gear. The engine should not be laboring.

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Good to know, but adversely, if 30mph is not bad in top gear, is it better or worse than 30mph in 2nd gear?

Is there a rule of thumb for constant speed vs. Gear?

IF you are in 2nd gear and the bike is buzzing like hell, up shift into 3rd.
You have to learn to listen to and feel the bike, grasshopper.

Just be gentle. The bike has just so many gear changes in it. It's like you have just so many heartbeats in you. The brakes pads are cheaper to fix than the clutch or transmission.

I use the shift down rarely to pass. Downshift much more in the twisties. Applying gas in higher rpm is less jerky for me. If I have made a speed judgment error, taking the gas off decelerates me and might compensate for my error without me jaking with the brakes. I don't stop the bike with the motor. Coast in 5th till the end of the stop then gear to first and stay in 1st with clutch in. It has saved my life to stop and keep the bike in 1st ready to move.