Wrong. My opinion
60mph in 6th on the highway is fine as long as you are not trying to accelerate and the road is pretty flat.

 

Ok, I didn't mean I redlined the bike. Sometimes y'all are so literal. What I meant was most people are not riding in the 90+mph range that often. At least I'm not riding in that speed range often. Bike gets a little scary around that speed

 

OK. I'm a new rider and I have read this thread with great interest and have noticed a few of you have made statements such as "I just click down to 5th if I need the power...", "downshift when you are ready to pass...", "I always like to be in the powerband while riding...", "I consider sixth as the economic gear...", "6th is not a true overdrive...", "60mph in 6th on the highway is fine as long as you are not trying to accelerate and the road is pretty flat".

I ridden my bike for about 1500 miles so far and have always treated 6th as just another gear after 5th. The majority of my riding is on the highway above 60. Now I'm not debating at what speed I need to go into 6th but now I'm questioning my use of 6th gear now. Should I not be using it as an everyday gear or something? I never heard any mention of it in my MOM.

What does the term "Powerband" mean? Why would someone consider 6th as an economy gear? Why would I downshift to pass? Sorry for all of the questions but I donlt want to trash my bike.....

 

6th gear is the gear after 5th. haha shift it when you feel it is ready. We are all making it sound more complicated than it really is.

 

It's an "economy gear" only because it's a taller gear than 5th so the revs (and therefore gas usage) don't go as high as they would if 5th was your top gear (which it is in older models). If you shift into 6th at too low a speed, and there's different views on when folks do this, you're revs might be too low to get a quick reaction from the throttle so you would downshift to get the revs up (and in the "powerband" where the engine is producing good torque levels). I don't like to feel like i am lugging the engine so i will downshift if my revs are borderline (cruising in 6th at 65) and i'm wanting to pass someone or speed up quickly. As i posted earlier, it'd be real nice if the bike came with a tach from the factory so it would be a little easier to tell where you were on the revs other than using your ear.

 

Thanks!

And yes, a tach would be nice. And come to think of it this is the first manual transmission vehicle that did not have a tach. Even my GMC Suburban and my Ford Excurison (both automatic trans) have techs.

 

Your right about where you need to be, using a shifting pattern other then the one your using is just abusing the snot out of your ride.

 

So you are saying anything over 3000 is abusing the snot out of your bike?

I have been riding since I was 7 years old, always kept my bikes in the upper end of the powerband...never have any problems out them....

Eveyone has diffrent riding styles that works for them, myself I always like to be able to wack the throttle and go...

 

I can't believe this thread is still alive.

 

I have an '08 Road King Classic... I follow the manual (1 to 2 at 15mph; 2 to 3 at 25mph; 3 to 4 at 35mph; 4 to 5 at 45mph; 5 to 6 at 55mph)... sometimes I shift at points a little higher (5mph higher) than what is in the manual... but I never take the tac above 3,000 and typically never below 1,800 and if lower than 1,800 I never punch the throttle.

Seems to work OK