Back again for some advice...I was praticing on my bike and I am able to increase speed and shift the gears higher, but when I need to slow down or come to a complete stop. I am having trouble figuring out what gear I am on and getting back to 1st gear. I don't know if this should compare to driving a stick shift car. I usually can tell by the speed and engine sound. I have felt the bike jerk a couple of times. I guess that is it's way of telling me I am on the wrong gear. It would take me almost a minute to get back to 1st. If I was at the light, I am sure I would piss some motorist off so I would like to improve this important method first.

Do I do the same for a bike by listening to the engine? I think this is harder to do on a bike. So I guess I have to just hold and open the clutch to go down continuously? But what if you forget what gear you are on? Cuz, sometimes I am just increaseing my gears w/o thinking about it because of the sound of the engine. Any suggestions?

Thanks

You'll get the feel of it with practice. It's best to down shift while still rolling to a stop. It can be difficult to downshift a couple of gears when the bike is stopped. You often have to partially engage the clutch to downshift when stopped. Easily done with some practice, but down shifting while slowing is better.

practice downshifting by releasing the clutch fully into each gear, before continuing to downshift. Don't just be in 3rd gear, pull the clutch and bang it down into N or 1st. Pull in the clutch, put it to second, let the engine brake a little. Pull in the clutch, put it into first, let the engine brake a little. Then when you run out of engine, put it in neutral. This helps you count the gears, as well as familiarizes yourself with downshifting without coming to a stop, and what occurs when downshifting.

practice downshifting by releasing the clutch fully into each gear, before continuing to downshift. Don't just be in 3rd gear, pull the clutch and bang it down into N or 1st. Pull in the clutch, put it to second, let the engine brake a little. Pull in the clutch, put it into first, let the engine brake a little. Then when you run out of engine, put it in neutral. This helps you count the gears, as well as familiarizes yourself with downshifting without coming to a stop, and what occurs when downshifting.
+1 i completely agree with this learning method. you can't just pull in the clutch and rack through all the gears and expect to know what gear your in (unless you hit bottom, which would be 1st). so shift down one at a time and like the engine brake until it's time to shift down again. feel the bike and don't count gears...