gawitz
Puppy
More newbie questions...
After driving a cage for years I've learnt to more or less hear/feel the best times to shift the gears up/down.
When it comes to my F650GS, the goal is to learn what is both economical and engine friendly gear shifting strategy. Found the following Gear Ratio Spreadsheet yesterday https://faq.f650.com/FAQs/GearRatio.htm but it actually made me a bit confused based on my last two months experience.
For example, if I look at the change down and change up speed for each gear, I feel that I've been shifting up way too early (e.g. to shift from 4th to 5th gear the spreadsheet has 121 kph). Another interesting point is that the spreadsheet recommends one to use the first gear until 46 kph, and only then change it to the second gear. I remember from the BMW introductory course, that the first gear is to be used only for a short time, to get you going.
Maybe I've understood the table wrong, but in case the figures are really true, I'd appreciate if someone could advice:
- why there is such a big difference between the Change Down/Up Speed (e.g. from 4th to 5th 121 kph but from 5th to 4th 96 kph)
- are there problems if I change up too early (riding too slow)?
- are there problems if I change gear down too early (riding too fast)?
More to come... I remember keeping my RPM between 3,000 and 4,000 after gear shifts when staying on a gear for a while (on the highway the RPM goes much higher though). This has been just a guess, because I couldn't find any notes from the bike manual (and I still haven't developed that sense as with the cage). If I look at the table values for Change Down RPM (4,000) and Change Up RPM (6,000), it looks like I've been using a gear too high. So any comments on the optimum RPM (is there a general "cruising" value - if yes, would it been 5,000 - or does every gear has its own optimum value, the table seems to suggest the former)?
Also, if the values are really this high, what is the reason for this? Better for the engine etc..???
Hope someone can help a bit, to help me to treat the bike engine well, and hopefully also ride more economically.
After driving a cage for years I've learnt to more or less hear/feel the best times to shift the gears up/down.
When it comes to my F650GS, the goal is to learn what is both economical and engine friendly gear shifting strategy. Found the following Gear Ratio Spreadsheet yesterday https://faq.f650.com/FAQs/GearRatio.htm but it actually made me a bit confused based on my last two months experience.
For example, if I look at the change down and change up speed for each gear, I feel that I've been shifting up way too early (e.g. to shift from 4th to 5th gear the spreadsheet has 121 kph). Another interesting point is that the spreadsheet recommends one to use the first gear until 46 kph, and only then change it to the second gear. I remember from the BMW introductory course, that the first gear is to be used only for a short time, to get you going.
Maybe I've understood the table wrong, but in case the figures are really true, I'd appreciate if someone could advice:
- why there is such a big difference between the Change Down/Up Speed (e.g. from 4th to 5th 121 kph but from 5th to 4th 96 kph)
- are there problems if I change up too early (riding too slow)?
- are there problems if I change gear down too early (riding too fast)?
More to come... I remember keeping my RPM between 3,000 and 4,000 after gear shifts when staying on a gear for a while (on the highway the RPM goes much higher though). This has been just a guess, because I couldn't find any notes from the bike manual (and I still haven't developed that sense as with the cage). If I look at the table values for Change Down RPM (4,000) and Change Up RPM (6,000), it looks like I've been using a gear too high. So any comments on the optimum RPM (is there a general "cruising" value - if yes, would it been 5,000 - or does every gear has its own optimum value, the table seems to suggest the former)?
Also, if the values are really this high, what is the reason for this? Better for the engine etc..???
Hope someone can help a bit, to help me to treat the bike engine well, and hopefully also ride more economically.
