Beginner Question Regarding Rpm

Why are you "supposed to keep it between 2500-3000rpm"? Where have you read that you're not supposed to cruise in 2nd gear? The important thing is not to labour or stress the engine unduly.
31 mph uphill is obviously not the same as 31 mph on the flat or downhill so use the gears accordingly. For cruising, generally you select as high a gear as possible and the 1200 engine has plenty of low down torque to do just that.
When you've had the bike a while you'll get a feel for the engine, when it's happy and when it's not.

 

@Ddera Think you are reading it all wrong my friend. That is just a recommendation. And it does not affect the speed or revs you do it is just the optimum for things like charging and idling. You just ride the bike as you are doing.

 

@Ddera: The 1200 ccm engine of the T120 is very "handsome". You may ride it also with the 4th gear in towns. It will accept it. If you use to low rpm, you will notice the reactions of your bike. BUT: It is also a bike with "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" genes. When you push it hard it will follow your "commands" too!

 

Hi Ddera, what the others said. had my 2017 T120 for 8 years. Sold it last month. Listen to the engine, 3rd and 4th in town is fine. 5th and 6th is tall, use those for cruising. I repeat, listen to the engine.

 

Just a thought, i read a long time ago this idea of rev ranges and how to ride a motorcycle. I dont ride like this so cannot claim to be an expert proponent ...
For general riding, when not accelerating or decelerating try to keep the revs to about 50% of the red line value e.g. if your red line is 12000 revs aim to keep the bike at around 6000rpm. This is supposed to leave you with plenty of scope power wise and acceleration before you need to change gear.
For maximum fuel economy try to keep the revs at 1/3 of red line so in the above example 4000rpm.
As i said i dont ride like this, if im trying to achieve maximum fuel economy i do it based on speed and gear not revs. i choose the gear as 1 above the mph/10.
What i mean is at 24mph im in 3rd gear (in 3rd gear 20mph-29mph), at 44mph im in 5th gear and so on.

or watch this

you paid for the whole tachometer use it

 

@Ddera are you thinking like a car driver? I do not mean that as an insult as I am late to motorcycling and had driven for a very long time before riding. It took me a fair while to "get" motorcycle engines as we are not used to high - revving screaming engines in cars (in the main), especially if we are mechanically sympathetic. Bikes are more about the feel.

I don't think that I am going to be able to explain what I mean very well, but I will try! When I first started to "get it" I realised that a bike will feel a bit sort of "loose" and "messy" in too high a gear, particularly around bends and corners, but tightens up and becomes a thing of total precision when the engine is worked. Once you feel the difference it transforms the bike and your riding. I appreciate that my Street Triple and your Bonnie are very different machines, however I have ridden quite a few different bikes (for a relative newbie!) now and it does hold true for me for all of them. Now, I pretty much only use 5th and 6th for cruising as most roads around here are full of beautiful bends and I love to keep the engine singing along at high RPM; I have set my shift lights to start at 8500RPM just as a visual cue for myself to keep it where I would like, although rely on sound and feel primarily. I would probably just say to you to play around with your new bike and get a feel for what is right for the machine - however there are many very much more experienced and knowledgeable people on here than me to advise!

I will use the highest gear possible through towns / villages so I am not a noisy menace and when cruising for fuel economy though.

 

An engine is at it's most efficient and responsive at the point of peak torque which will depend on the engine tune. Two, otherwise identical engines, can be tuned to very different power and torque curves and will feel very different. As a general rule, more capacity = more torque. For sheer usability/rideabilty on the road, torque is king IMO. An engine designed and built to deliver a lot of torque low down the rev range will not suffer from using it.
For me, that is the appeal, of big, modern 4 strokes where you can have big torque, virtually from tickover with huge power at the top end so you get the thrill of both. That's why I like the ZZR so much. Of course, if you have a R3 I guess it doesn't really matter what gear you're in.

 

@Mrs Visor Well i think you explained that handsomely and agree with yourself and @Pegscraper

 

We had a similar discussion a few years ago on a Honda forum - I've had a look at it and a lot matched what has been said here about motorcycles liking to rev more than a car, for the same reasons, having immediate power to pull away, get out of difficult situations etc.

I commented at the time that I wasn't a particularly fast rider and that for general riding around I tended to keep revs in the 3500 - 5500rpm range (2500-3000rpm sounds incredibly low, even for me!). In that rev range, dropping a gear gets you quickly into the power band if you need it for overtakes or to get out of a tricky situation.

This was for a 500cc twin, so I'm only offering the comment as a starting point to see what feels comfortable on the T120.

The matter is solved for me on my current bike which doesn't have a rev counter, so it's just done by feel, and that can work too - don't let the engine labour (when it gets chuggy at low revs) and don't scream it's nuts off!