Hello friends!

I recently got my first motorcycle. A 2004 Monster 800 i.e. and I love it.

Slowly I am getting accustomed to riding it and it's so much fun. In the beginning i was struggling a bit with the engine acting weird. I did notice after riding it for a bit and reading about Ducatis that they ove higher RPMs. And that was what was causing my engine to run weirdly. Riding 50 km/h in 3rd gear meant that i was lugging the engine. So I started riding at lower gears and shifting later. That's normally at around 4000 RPM when cruising comfortably and later when I really want to accelerate. At around 5000RPM I really start feeling the power of my bike.

I struggle a bit with the choice of gear when riding inside of town. Mostly I stay in first gear especially at speeds lower than 50 kmh or when i slow down to turn into a street. I do this to keep my bike from stalling especially when coming around the corner. I use a combination of throttle and clutch to keep the revs up in those situations. Now this seems to work well but then again the first gear is so choppy.

Is this the right way to go? I keep reading first gear is mostly for accelerating from a stop. Second gear works too but that would require a lot more clutch than first gear to keep the revs up.

Now one solution I keep reading about is to change gearing but I would prefer not to since I already had a lot of expenses recently with getting bike and it even came with a brand new chain, and sprockets. So i'd rather improve my technique.

Have you experienced the same with your bikes? What is your technique? I'm curious to hear.