I know this has been asked many times. I was out riding yesterday with my hubby and he wanted me to shift to as many gears as possible. HAHAHA I did get her into 5th and up to about 50. I was a bit nervous going that fast.(It also didn't help we were on a bit busier road )

But anyway here is my question....When you are upshifting and you have completed the gear change when do you start adding the throttle? I noticed that I was not giving her enough throttle and she was slowing down to much between gear change and rolling on the throttle. I asked hubby and he said its all in knowing where your clutch begins to engage or engages. I am completely confused by this maybe I am over thinking it. I did notice I was just letting the clutch go and i know that is bad that I need to time it right with rolling on the throttle. But I am not sure how to do this smoothly yet. I know it will take practice and time before i get it right. I also noticed that I am not giving her enough gas to keep her up there when i let off the clutch. Hubby said he noticed that going from a stop I let off the gas rather than following through which causes me to slow down then i have to get her back up to speed before I can shift.

I know I am a beginner noob and it will take time and practice. But it seems so much harder than learning to drive a standard car was for me. And believe me it took forever to master that

Have a great one and ride safe
DeeDee

I roll the throttle slightly just before or as I start letting the clutch out. Don't roll the throttle too much or you'll make the engine race super-high because there's no load on it. You want to rev it ever so slightly, start letting the clutch out, then roll more as necessary once the clutch engages.

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Flickr.

Thanks i am gonna try that when i get hubby to take me out again tonight I think I will do it at the lower gears though so that i can get the feel of it first. Hubby says i am doing well but I was so discouraged last night. I could hear her struggling to do what i wanted and new i was doing it wrong. Practice practice practice is what i need.

If you want to do the friction zone exercises before it won't hurt anything - especially if you're already riding around on the streets. It's pretty easy.

From a standstill, keep the clutch pulled in and put the bike in 1st gear. Now very slowly let the clutch out until you feel the engine engage and start to pull the bike forward. Once it does that, pull it back in. Keep doing that over and over until you have it down where that engagement point is without looking.

Once you have that down, it becomes much easier to shift and such in traffic. Your body will just know where you have to let the clutch out to and where you have to start rolling the throttle on.

I wind miny up pretty high and slowly release the clutch. The load brings down the RPM's and I can ease off the throttle if I feel like I'm accelerating to fast.

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Of course I'm generalizing from a single example here, but everyone does that. At least I do.

Thanks!!! I am going to be practicing that. I pretty much know where the friction zone begins but I have to look still and hubby is always saying no, no, no, LOOK WHERE YOUR GOING lol if ya look down you are gonna go down because the bike goes where you are looking. I have gotten to where I can find the shift lever without looking now.

He says once I get to know my bike and get the experience it will be like its just and extention of myself I will jsut have to think where I want to be for it to happen. I just don't see that right now.

You guys are great i don't feel so discouraged now.

Have a great one and ride safe
Deedee