Changing Gear - Speed/RPM advise

[CyberAdviser]

Lo all,

To you this may sound like a stupid question however, to someone who has been driving cars for over 30 years and new to biking I think its valid.

So, being new to biking I'm very conscious that bikes rev significantly higher than cars do, if I drove my car at the same RPM as my bike i'd be waiting for it to explode. Riding my 2018 Africa Twin Adventure Sport (manual variant) I feel like I should be changing up from 1st gear almost straight away then 3rd at about 30mph and 4th at about 40 (urban riding) however, 30mph in 3rd is too slow and the bike starts labouring, similarly at 40 if in 4th. I think i should be sitting in gear until about 3500-4500 rpm which when in 2nd and driving around town is alien to me but probably right, is this right? Hope my ramblings make sense, new biker syndrome.

Many thanks in advance.

[alan sh]

It's whatever you feel comfortable with.

Alan

[Jimmyb]

It's whatever you feel comfortable with.

Alan

I think more importantly what the bike is comfortable with, many of my bikes did not have tachos, so you changed up according to engine pitch, for gentle riding 30 - 50% revs, for hard riding appropriately higher.

[CyberAdviser]

It's whatever you feel comfortable with.

Alan

I think more importantly what the bike is comfortable with, many of my bikes did not have tachos, so you changed up according to engine pitch, for gentle riding 30 - 50% revs, for hard riding appropriately higher.

Jimmy

Thanks for that, I'm starting to relax a bit and accept sitting at around 3500 RPM in 2nd and 3rd whilst driving around in the 30-40 MPH speeds, 30mph round town is one of those areas where your hitting 3500 RPM in 2nd but 2000 rpm in 3rd is too slow.

[Red V Four]

You don't want to ride too slow in too high a gear. At slow speed you don't want to be plodding - you want the engine to be responsive but without revving excessively. If you whack open the throttle and the bike accelerates rapidly then it's probably about right - you might need this to get out of trouble without the delay of first changing down, maybe even by two gears if you're in much too high a gear. If it accelerates comparatively slowly (it's an Africa Twin so it should be pretty rapid!) then you're riding in too high a gear. Pick a quiet road and have a play to see the difference using a different gear can make to the need for a sudden bit of speed!

[Classic Honda]

You do not need a rev counter to determine which gear you should be riding in. The chosen gear should allow the engine to respond when accelerating and not labour when riding on part throttle. Obviously engine design and configuration has an influence on what happens on the road. Single cylinder and twins (the larger capacity the worse) will always be more lumpy than a multi cylinder at low revs. Over square engines will be smoother than long strokers. Realistically my VFR750 doesn't like being in 6th gear until it's doing around 50mph whereas my Fireblade will happily cruise around the 20mph speed limits in top.

[CyberAdviser]

You don't want to ride too slow in too high a gear. At slow speed you don't want to be plodding - you want the engine to be responsive but without revving excessively. If you whack open the throttle and the bike accelerates rapidly then it's probably about right - you might need this to get out of trouble without the delay of first changing down, maybe even by two gears if you're in much too high a gear. If it accelerates comparatively slowly (it's an Africa Twin so it should be pretty rapid!) then you're riding in too high a gear. Pick a quiet road and have a play to see the difference using a different gear can make to the need for a sudden bit of speed!

Many thanks, I think its just converting from a car to a bike. I've always listened to the car engine and know when it needs to go up/down, just need to get used to the sound of the twin and recognise that it revs higher  

---

You don't want to ride too slow in too high a gear. At slow speed you don't want to be plodding - you want the engine to be responsive but without revving excessively. If you whack open the throttle and the bike accelerates rapidly then it's probably about right - you might need this to get out of trouble without the delay of first changing down, maybe even by two gears if you're in much too high a gear. If it accelerates comparatively slowly (it's an Africa Twin so it should be pretty rapid!) then you're riding in too high a gear. Pick a quiet road and have a play to see the difference using a different gear can make to the need for a sudden bit of speed!

Many thanks, I think its just converting from a car to a bike. I've always listened to the car engine and know when it needs to go up/down, just need to get used to the sound of the twin and recognise that it revs higher  

---

You do not need a rev counter to determine which gear you should be riding in. The chosen gear should allow the engine to respond when accelerating and not labour when riding on part throttle. Obviously engine design and configuration has an influence on what happens on the road. Single cylinder and twins (the larger capacity the worse) will always be more lumpy than a multi cylinder at low revs. Over square engines will be smoother than long strokers. Realistically my VFR750 doesn't like being in 6th gear until it's doing around 50mph whereas my Fireblade will happily cruise around the 20mph speed limits in top.

Many thanks, I think its just converting from a car to a bike. I've always listened to the car engine and know when it needs to go up/down, just need to get used to the sound of the twin and recognise that it revs higher