I'm a new rider and I have a question about shifting and whether or not I am doing something correctly.
When I approach a traffic signal and need to stop, I understand that I need to downshift into first, but I'm not sure whteher or not I need to release the clutch prior to me wanting to accelerate again.
What I'm doing is this...
Say I'm going 35mph and in second gear when a traffic signals turns red in front of me. I continue in second gear until I'm relatively close to the light, and then I pull the clutch in and coast until I get under 5 or 10 mph, and then click down on the shifter and continue braking until I'm stopped. I've never release the clutch. I keep holding the clutch in until the light changes to green and then I release it while throttling to resume.
My question is if what I am doing above is correct or if I should be releasing the clutch prior to coming to a stop and then pulling it in again to keep the bike from stalling at a standstill.
If I downshift into first from second at two high of a speed, I've locked the rear tire. If I wait until I'm going 10mph or so to downshift from second to first and need to pull in, downshift, let it out, and then pull it again, it's a lot for me to fit into two seconds or so.
Thanks for helping!