How To Shift a Motorcycle For Beginners.

It's only three steps to shift. Close that clutch slowly while giving it some gas. We Gucci baby! Open the clutch, kick up, close the clutch and give it some gas. Release the throttle and open the clutch. I know this video is long overdue because I had a few of you request it. So, super simple. All we're going to do is talk about how to shift a motorcycle today. Here is where we open and close the clutch to allow us to move our shifter. Right down here is where we're going to shift our gears. One shift down is going to get you into first gear. One full shift up is going to get you into second gear. Another one into third, another shift up into fourth, another shift up into fifth and sixth. If you're in first gear, a half a shift up will put you in neutral. If you're in second gear, a half a shift down or a half a click will get you in the neutral. Open the clutch while releasing the throttle at the same time. That's step one. Step two. I want to move my foot in the direction that I want to shift. So, if I want to shift up, my foot is going to pull up. If I want to shift down, my foot is going to push down. Step three. Close the clutch while simultaneously giving it some gas. It's super easy. Three steps, bro. Three steps, sis, because I know we got some women that be watching this channel. It's it. It's a three-step process. Step one. Release the throttle and open the clutch. Boom! Step two. Pull up because I'm shifting up. Step three. Give it some gas while releasing that clutch. Three steps. Watch this. Want to shift up? Step one. Release that throttle. Open that clutch. Boom! Pull up on step two. Boom! You know what I'm saying? Close that throttle while giving it some gas on step three. Man, we rocking and rolling, baby. We rocking and rolling. All right. So, we want to downshift. Same three-step process. Step number one. Step number one. We're going to open that clutch while releasing that throttle. Here we go. Boom! Step two. Push down because we're shifting down. Step three. Give it some gas while slowly releasing that clutch. Super easy, right? Super easy. Let's do it again. We want to downshift. Step one. Release that throttle. Open that clutch. Boom! Step number two. Push down because we're shifting down. Step number three. Release that throttle while slowly giving it some gas. Super, super easy. Super, super easy. So, that's all it takes. That's all it takes. Let's do that one more time. I want to downshift. Step number one. Release that throttle. Open that clutch. Boom! Step number two. Push your foot down because we're shifting down. Step number three. Give it some gas while slowly releasing that clutch. Let's try that again. Super easy. Super easy. For the downshift, step number one. Open the clutch while releasing the throttle. Step number two. Push the foot down because we're shifting down. Step number three. Give it a little bit of gas while slowly releasing that clutch. That's it. It's easy. That's all it takes. That's all it takes. When I'm riding the bike, what I'm looking to do, you know, when it comes to shifting is I'm going to squeeze my clutch in. That opens up my clutch. Then I'm going to push my foot down. That's going to get me in the first. I slowly release that clutch while giving it some gas. That gets my bike going. When I'm ready to shift in the second, all I'm going to do is release the throttle with the right hand while simultaneously opening up the clutch with the left hand. I'm going to take my foot and I'm going to shift up. Boom! Just like that. That's going to throw me in the second. And it's just the same thing for third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. Same thing when you're going down. All you're going to do is open up that clutch while releasing that throttle. You're going to shift down. You're going to slowly release that clutch while giving it some gas. SoCalRider B. How do I know when to shift? Should I shift at 3,000 RPM, 4,000 RPM, or 7,000 RPM? The answer is twofold. One, it depends on your bike. Two, it depends on where you're riding and what you're doing during that riding. For example, for me, on this bike, I've got an eco mode. If I want to get the best gas mileage, I'm usually shifting around 4,000 RPM. If I want to maintain more power because I'm around other cars and I want to have that power to maneuver, then I'm shifting probably around 7,000, 8,000 RPM because I'm trying to keep that gas power. So right now, bike's in neutral. To get it in first, I'm going to squeeze, push down, give it a little bit of gas, slowly release, and now we're on our way. If I want to shift up, release the throttle and open the clutch, kick up, close the clutch, and give it some gas. Same thing. I want to go up to third, release the throttle and open the clutch, kick up, slowly open the throttle while giving it some gas. Want to go up to fourth? Release the throttle and open the clutch, kick up, slowly release the throttle while giving it some gas. Want to go up to fifth? Release the throttle, open the clutch, kick up, slowly release the clutch while giving it some gas. Let's go down. Close the throttle, release the clutch, kick down, give it some gas and slowly close the clutch. If I want to jump from 4th to 1st as I'm braking, open the clutch, kick, kick, kick, now we're down in 1. Alright, let's go. You want to shift up, release the throttle, open the clutch, kick up, slowly give it some gas while releasing the throttle. I messed that one up. That was what I said. Let's do it again. You want to go to 3rd, release the throttle, open the clutch, kick up, slowly release the clutch while giving it some gas. You want to go to 4th, release the throttle, open the clutch, kick up, slowly close the throttle, sorry, slowly close the clutch while giving it some gas. If I want to go down, release the throttle, open the clutch, kick down, slowly close the clutch while giving it some gas. If I want to go down to 3rd, I'm sorry, if I want to go down to 2nd, release the throttle, open the clutch, kick down, give it some gas while slowly closing the throttle. Now, when you're down shifting, there are some guys that what they'll do is they'll rev match, because you'll notice that when I shift down, the RPMs are going higher than where they were in the gear before, right? So what some guys will do is they'll do this. So notice how I'm in 4,000 RPM at third gear at 29 miles. If I go down to second, at that same speed, my RPMs is higher, right? So what some guys will do when they're going down is they'll shift down and throttle blip. Now, I'm not that good at that. I don't do that. I don't do that often. Maybe I'll get good at it, but I guess it's something you can try if you really want to. But yeah, that's it. Super simple. Super easy how you shift. If I want to go down, I release that throttle, open the clutch, kick down, slowly close the clutch while giving it some gas. Same thing. If I want to go down to first, I will let go of the throttle, open the clutch, kick down, give it a little bit of gas while slowly releasing the clutch. That's it, man. That's how you shift. Super easy. Now, that's the city speed. Sorry, that's back road speed. So let's ride in the street. I'm not going to really talk through this because I'm going to focus, but I want you to just pay attention to my hands, think through what I'm doing, and I'll show you how it works when you're on the street. You know, super simple. So let's just do that really quick. So see, I'm in the city right now. I'm riding in sixth gear around 5,000 RPM. The way I like to shift is if I know that I'm going to come up between traffic or I'm about to lane split, then I'll downshift and get more RPMs. But for this stoplight right here, all I'm doing is, the way I do it is, notice how many gears I drop before I close the clutch. You'll do that as you get a feel for your bike and how your bike works. You'll know where you want to be in the gear range. But this is easy, watch. Release the throttle, open the clutch, kick up, close the clutch while giving this the gas. Easy. Easy, easy, easy.