This may seem a little strange but being a new (really new) rider and this is my first bike my ears are not really tuned to the engine sound of a bike yet and was wondering at what speeds one should shift for "normal" acceleration.  It's a 86 with the 4 speed and I am really enjoying the bike and riding in general.  I just took my rider training course last week so I am now taking some longer trips with more confidence

no offense, Steelwolf, but the owners manual is full of nuts.  I mean, who's going to upshift 4 times to get to 19 mph?  At that speed you're lugging the engine.  I'm really not sure why mfrs give those numbers since they are silly... Even my V* 1100 had stupid numbers.  I think they wanted me in 5th at 35?  There's no power in 5th until 80 mph!

I've got a 5 speed, too.  My shift patter is something like:

1-2:  10 mph -> 35 or 40
2-3:  20 mph -> 50/65
3-4:  30 mph -> 40/60 or higher
4-5: who cares, 5th is useless unless you're on the highway.

Pretty much shift when you fell like it or you think the bike is revving too high.  So the above shift pattern doesn't really make a lot of sense... Why?  I ride my savage two different ways: 1) fast 2) quiet (= slow).

Fast means revving it all the way up in each gear, so I'll upshift 1->2 at 35/40  for quiet (my savage is extremely loud) 1->2, 10 mph, 2->3 20 mph, sit in 3 and cruise at 25 mph or 3->4 at 30mph and cruise at 35, or 4->5 at 40 and cruise at 45 mph.  At those cruising speeds, the air cleaner is louder.

the shift depends on your conditions. I do mostly city driving and and generally cruise in 3 gear. Highway riders are totally different.  In other words there is no set mph, just shift to treat your engine right.

I agree with the confusion of the manual. My Savage has the 140/90-15 tire on it, and in 5th gear, anything below about 42mph seems like it's lugging. It has tons of low-end, but I guess lugging even these engines is bad for them.

Whotta Cool Bike, though!

My 96 (just under 10k miles) is also a 5 speed,
and I upshift at these speeds:
2nd at 20
3rd at 30
4th at 40
5th at 50
...or sometimes 55

for downshifting, ie. going around a corner,
I try to guage how much I have slowed down and
then give the shifter 1 or 2 clicks down.

depends on where I'am at and what time a day. sometimes get on it wind it up and go. sometimes not also depends on the mods. 87 here with amal mark II carb and jardine  

here are the shift points as explained by dave f on another forum  
 
1st - Shift up when the bike stops accelerating.  
2nd - shift up when the mirrors begin to buzz.  
3rd - shift up when bugs stop bouncing off your face and begin to splatter.  
4th - shift up when your mouth suddenly fills with air and begins to function as a air scoop.  
5th - shift up when you forget there is no sixth gear.  
 
the point here is this.  it truly is a feel thing. in the mom they give an aproximate range.  that's the beauty of this machine it's real forgiving on shift points.

sluggo wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:06:

I agree except I would change "real forgiving" to "extremely forgiving."   The big single will pull smoothly from ridiculously low RPMs.  Someone posted in another thread about taking over the lead in one of these group bike ride things.  Afterwards was asked how many gears he had to drop to make the pass.  "ahhhh.....  None."

Speaking of longer trips.  Moved Thumper from the driveway to the garage in only four miles.