Have you ever dreamed of taking to the open road on a motorcycle? You know you can't just jump on a motorcycle and go. You need proper motorcycle instruction in order to be safe. While there are motorcycles out there with an automatic transmission, it is more likely that your instruction will involve learning how to drive a motorcycle with a standard transmission.
Find your gearshift lever. It is located by your left foot; you will use your foot to shift. You shift into first gear by pushing down, but the rest of the gears are engaged by pulling up. Neutral is between first and second gear. The gear patten is 1-N-2-3-4-5.
Find the clutch level in order to switch gears. It is located in front of the left handgrip. To make your shifting as smooth as possible, you want to slowly squeeze the clutch in, and allow it to ease out instead yanking it in and just letting go.
Find neutral by squeezing the clutch fully in, then tap the gear shift down until you've found 1st gear, then give it a tap up with the top of your toe.
Start the motorcycle without releasing the clutch. This is done by turning a key, pushing a button, or using a kick start depending on your motorcycle. If the motorcycle won't start, you may not be in neutral.
Drop the gearshift lever into first gear and slowly roll the throttle on to get moving. While rolling the throttle on you also ease out on the clutch allowing the engine to give power to the rear wheel. The area of "slippage" between being fully engaged and neutral is called the friction zone.
Ease off of the throttle as you squeeze in the clutch lever to shift into second gear. Give the gearshift lever a harder upwards tap than you did to get it into neutral and it will go into 2nd gear. Ease off of the clutch while rolling on the throttle. This process is repeated for all upshifting.
Slow the motorcycle by downshifting and using the engine trather than the brakes. Downshifting also makes it easier to find neutral when you stop. This is done using the same process as upshifting, except you push the gearshift lever down.
