Riding advice for a beginner

[chishen]

Whenever I start the bike from a stop (stop sign/stoplight), I need to rev. the engine to about 5k before I engage the clutch.  Of course, I then have to let out my clutch slowly.  If I engage the clutch at around 3k, the bike rolls a bit, sputters, lurches a bit, and dies...usually leaving me stopped in an intersection.  My guess is that first-gear never engages.

Is it typical to engage the GS500 at 5k?  Is this bad for my bike?

[pantablo]

theres a flat spot on the powerband around 3-4k...so you do have to rev it a bit. I cant remember where exactly (5K?) I have it when I start. Slipping the clutch is common and they're made to do this to a certain degree. Should be alright.

Dude its like when I started driving a car, if someone just told me there is a fine line between 'popping' the clutch and the friction point I would have been fine, but I had to find out the hard way!

Basically motorcycles use wet clutches so its ok to rev it and let the clutch out slowly. You will get faster at this and eventually you will feel where friction point is and use the minium amount of revs to get off the mark. Also, when you get better you will feel the bike starting to die a bit and you can apply some more revs to avoid it stalling. Might sound confusing now, but it is simple really and every bike rider learns so dont get to worried... just have fun.

My advise after that long story is to go to a parking lot (a quiet one!) and practise take offs, and do what I said, start to feel where the bike is dying (This is where clutch control comes in) and apply more revs till its smooth!

Good luck - welcome to the motorcycling world and this great board  

Stay Safe

[zoltan]

in the msf course they teach a couple excellent excerises to introduce people to how clutches and friction points work. go out to an unused flat parking lot. all these excerises can and should be done without using the throttle.

1.put the bike in first gear and keep the clutch in. rock the bike back until your legs and straight and your feet on resting on their heels. let the clutch out slowly until the bike slowly rolls forward again. repeat for about 10 minutes.

2.put the bike in first gear and keep the clutch in. slowly let the clutch out until the bike starts rolling forward. as the bike rolls, straddle walk it along in the parking lot. expirament with making the bike go slower and faster. stop every 20 yards or so and start again. do this for at least 15 minutes.

3.mark out some spots on the parking lot. put your bike in first and ride from one to the next, powerwalking the bike is necessary to get it moving. powerwalk the bike to the next marker every 5th time. do this for at least 15-20 minutes.

once you've done these you'll have a pretty good feel for the clutch's friction point and what it can do. on the street you don't need to rev it to 5k to get moving, just use your friction point correctly and slowly roll on the throttle to get moving.

[mrslush50]

or...

go take an MSF course.

they'll walk you through all of the above excersises plus many more.
it's a great confidence builder, even for experienced riders, and well worth the money.

[Black Snowman]

or...

go take an MSF course.

they'll walk you through all of the above excersises plus many more.
it's a great confidence builder, even for experienced riders, and well worth the money.

I took it before ever buying a bike. Well worth the money. Another good source of info is a book called "Proficient Motorcycling". A must-have for every street rider.

Once you've gotten through both of those a good book for learning how to maximize traction is "Twist of the Wrist II".

I did all of these things and they have kept me from getting run over on 3 occasions already that I might not have been able to avoid without them.

[The Antibody]

If you live in PA it's really worth the money.


IT'S FREE

 -Anti

[Black Snowman]

If you live in PA it's really worth the money.

IT'S FREE

 -Anti

Set me back $150 and there was a 3 month wait. Still worth it.

[tiedyeguy]

I agree, take the course!  In the meantime, i learned a little excercise when i was 11 or so from my uncle...take the bike to an empty lot, and practice starting out and stopping in first without using the throttle.  When you get this down, you'll have the problem solved!

[glenn9171]

Buy yourself a 15 tooth front sprocket.  Install.  15 minutes later you have a bike that starts off a whole lot easier than it did before.

If it's possible anymore (they have been discontinued), get a Vance and Hines Ignition Advancer.  This, along with the 15T sprocket allows my GS to take off rolling by itself with no throttle input AT ALL if I let the clutch out slowly.

Oh yeah, please take the MSF course.  It's WELL worth the money.  And it's FUN.  

[JeffD]

Its not the bike.  I can use the clutch and putter around at 1500 rpm, (fully engaged)  So its just learning how to mix the clutch with the throttle.

If your technical I can try to explain it.

Think of the clutch as a disc brake.  A spinning rotor and something that grabs onto the spinning rotor.   When you engage the clutch you are making the engine start turning the transmision. So when you feel the bike just starting to pull, your probably at 10% clutch which is enough to start the bike rolling.  now if you just left the engine as is and kept letting out the clutch it would die, because it is producing enough power to stay running, not scoot you along.  So to overcome this you have to give it throttle so the engine can make more power to turn the transmission and get you going.    So the more clutch you give it, the more throttle you have to give it too.

Give it a little throttle, give it a little clutch, give it a little throttle, give it a little clutch.   Just remember throttle first, then clutch.