New owner with some questions

[Layla94]

Hey folks! My name is Micaela, and this is my new (used) 2010 symba.


^ That's my friend.
I was wondering if there was a trick to maintaining speed going uphill.
I live in a very mountainous part of North Carolina, so all of the roads are like roller-coasters.I find downshifting at any speed to be jerky without a clutch, so I have slow down to down shift, and I have to downshift before a big hill just to make it up the hill. This has my speed fluctuating between 35 mph and 55 mph. And no speed limit zone is that forgiving.
Also, I am not getting as good of mileage as advertised. That might be from the high rpm's in a lower gear (the hills).

[turtle]

The Symba does have a clutch. The clutch is integrated into the left foot pedal. When you press down on the shifter, it engage the clutch and change gear--all in one motion (ingenius design).

When you let off the shifter during downshifting, do it slowly. And it will not jerky.

It's difficult to master because the shifter has heavy resistence and the foot doesn't have fine muscle control like the fingers. Just keep practicing.

I don't do hills, but I do plenty of power shifting when going around corners. Sometimes I screw up and it gets jerky. The challenge keeps the bike interesting to me.

[piemaster]

Hi, Micaela, when I change down a gear at speed I normally give the thottle a quick blip and change down and let the clutch out slowly,( that is the gear lever), then open the thottle, all at the same time, takes some practice but works ok, from 4 to 3, then 3 to 2, but never from 2 to 1 unless you are nearly at a standstll, practice makes perfect, Give it a go,  where I live it is very hilly so you need to do this or you would never get out of 2nd gear.

[Layla94]

That is actually just the advice I need. Thanks! I'll test it out when the rain clears. What do you guys get as far as MPG goes?

[turtle]

About 70 mpg cruising on the highway, riding cross-state.
Only time I bothered to do the math. Hard to figure out since SYmba doesn't come with a trip meter.

[LisaRae]

My SYMBA is a 2010. 

Here in London, ON, it's mainly flat.  I do most of my riding in town (I avoid the busiest streets), and I get anywhere from 93-114 mpg. 

I track my mileage on FUELLY.COM 

LisaRae

[Layla94]

Thanks, I just signed up!

[SymbaWal]

I am also bringing in about 80-90 MPG. It is advertised at 100 MPG on the SYM website, so it's close. Of course, as they all say, your mileage may vary:

http://www.alliancepowersports.com/models/symba.html

[toocutetoscoot]

Frequent complaint of newbie owner as well as some long term ones is the jerk occurring when downshifting especially foing up  hill.I have watched numerous Youtube videos of Sym centrifugal clutches being easily converted to manual.I wonder if there is interest in such here in US.?