First gear stuttering?

[Crash-n-Burn]

Hey guys,

I have become addicting to motorcycling! Today I rode my bike to work for the first time (farthest I have ridden due to weather). My question is when I first started riding at the low rpms in 1st at around 1.5-3k the bike feels like it's jerking, almost as if it is going to stall but never does. Is this because it's not supposed to be at that low rpm, I didn't let the bike warm up enough (5-8 mins) or something is wrong?

Thanks,
Jason

Also, is it ok to ride at around 7-9k in first I feel that the bike sounds diffrent? Or should I be in 2nd?

Sorry for the stupid question.

[pandy]

That's not a stupid question! That's a learning question!

It sounds as though your RPMs are too low. When you take off, get the RPMs up over 4k before you start letting the clutch out sloooowly. You'll likely need to practice this, because it's hard to wrap our brains around higher RPMs with bikes. 

There was another thread within the last couple of weeks about shifting, taking off, etc.  I'll look for it. 

Edit: Here it is! 

[dgyver]

Idle is 1200....keep it over 3k. Not up to temp will run rough. Redline is something like 10.5k, not a real problem at 7-9k...but no need unless accelerating. Go ahead and shift.

[spc]

Trust me you'll know redline. it sounds like a retard having a seizure and tapping a pencil on his desk   I run mine between 7-10k all the time    But I have this large mistrust of cagers, so i like to be able to get the hell out of a sticky spot and get out fast

[Crash-n-Burn]

Wow, thanks for your quick reply's! 

I hope this nice weather stays!

I'm so used to driving cars, and I never drive my car over 4k rpm because I was worried about the timing belt which was about to break. I guess old habits are hard to break

Oh, and spcterry that is the best quote ever!

[pandy]

<---- Wonders what sort of personal experience spcterry has that brought forth that creative quote!? 

[spc]

I was a really bad kid in high school apperantly and down here in south Ga. they lump the tards and bad kids into the same little special school.  that place sucked bad!!!  i didn't skip a single day of school after that semester!!  Anyway there actually was a retarded boy that had a seizure with a pencil in his hand  and it sounded pretty much just like the GS at redline. ( he was OK dammit, I don't need anymore hatemail!!)

[ducati_nolan]

If you can drive a stick shift car, then you know about when to keep the RPM up (acelerating, going up hills, trafic where you need to dart, etc) and when it's okay to keep it low, (cruising at low speeds, going down hill, etc)

Basically double the RPM that you would drive a car at, or even more than double it. Cars redline arround 5500RPM and the gs redlines at 11000RPM so that will give you a good starting point. The GS is perfectly fine running at 7-8k all day when you're haulin but it isn't needed when cruisin at 40 on a country road.

I'd generally keep it above 4K though, unless going down hill