749 gear change
 

I’ve just past my test and brought myself a Ducati 749, I’m still improving my riding skills and as a result im finding myself changing gear early. Am I over working the engine changing gear early?, can I ride the bike in this way without causing any damage or does this kind of bike need high revs?

Hi Coko, welcome to the board. Nice bike to have after passing your test.
I'm sure someone will be along soon to answer your question.

Every engine,no matter how many cylinders or what configuration, ( you know ducatis are an L 90 degree twin) will have a certain character,

Whats relative to all things mechanical is if it sounds or feels right, it generally is right, or your doing the right thing.

Its a question of using this character to your riding advantage, for comfort, rideability, and reliabilty of the engine.

In simple terms its keeping the engine in its sweet spot. Too low revs and it will judder and sound awful. To high revs and it just wont feel right.

That little 749 will love to be revved. Get confident and play around up and down the gearbox, you can almost play a tune on it!

What revs are you changing gear at?

Im changing gear at around 4500rpm/5000rpm. It has so much toruqe and never seems to struggle to get the speed up even when I do change early.

I did the same as you, and recall changing at 6000rpm as I was running it in. Was still leaving my mate behind on a CB600.

If thats what your comfortable with then just stay with that till you get more confident, then gently ease your way up the range on nice long straight roads where you can be confident you wont hit anything.

Be careful going down. Loads of torque means its easy to lock the back wheel, so ease the clutch out slow.

So if I change down and release the cluch to fast the rear wheel could lock up :o . Why does that happen?

I just tried to post a reply to you but new board wont let me post :(

As a fellow novice when it comes to riding this is what i understand the answer to your question to be,i'm sure i'll be corrected if i've said anything dangerous
When you change down gear you need to give the throttle a quick twist (blip) so that the engine revs are higher when you re-engage the clutch (slowly and smoothly),this will help the rear wheel and engine to be in 'sync' and prevent locking up.
It will only usually 'lock-up' if you 'dump' the clutch when changing down a gear as the rear wheel and engine revs will try and harmonise themselves through the rear tyre and the road surface.You will become a much smoother and therefore quicker rider if you learn to try and 'blip' and feed the clutch on a downchange.
You can buy a device called a 'slipper clutch' which will smooth out the gearchange for you with alot less risk of 'locking up',people usually recommend them for track use only but alot of Duke riders use them because of the torque produced by a v-twin engine.Plus they cost about £550+.

Welcome to the board. You lucky thing.
I wish I’d have got my 749 before my SS. They are so much more easier to ride especially at low revs.
I think what you may be talking about is the engine braking.
When you change down the rear wheel WILL slow to the speed of the engine/whatever the revs are.
It won’t lock (in my theory a locked wheel is when it stops). It will however, skid.
To stop this you just need to let the clutch out slowly or you can rev the bike before you change down.

The difference between a Duke and a “Normal” bike is that the duke has more torque. So this doesn’t happen as much on a normal bike because the engine revs increase as you change down (like on a car).
Have you ever ridden a two stroke? If you do this on my Mito the revs just go through the roof because there is no engine braking.

Mind you I’m just a girlie so what do I know ;)

I’m sure some big strong biker will be along any minute to put me right;)

Lisa

aww swanny you beat me to it! You posting ok now?