Best revs?

[Bob]

Here is one to think about.

Best revs to ride at on an everyday basis? Might sound like an odd idea, but think about it.

Too low and you don't get any benefit from engine braking, wallow into corners.
Too high and engine braking is like hitting a brick wall, start cornering and you're fighting the bike etc.

So is there a best compromise? I'd guess around 2/3rds of the rev range. Seems to work on the SV - I spent a lot of time around 6,000 revs (tops out at 10,500 off the top of my head).

Does this make sense to everyone else? Or are there any other ideas? Or does it vary between types of bike?

[Cajun]

Here is one to think about.

Best revs to ride at on an everyday basis? Might sound like an odd idea, but think about it.

Too low and you don't get any benefit from engine braking, wallow into corners.
Too high and engine braking is like hitting a brick wall, start cornering and you're fighting the bike etc.

So is there a best compromise? I'd guess around 2/3rds of the rev range. Seems to work on the SV - I spent a lot of time around 6,000 revs (tops out at 10,500 off the top of my head).

Does this make sense to everyone else? Or are there any other ideas? Or does it vary between types of bike?


well i do a bit of open road riding to work, and alot of it was in traffic, so i sit around 8k rpm(red line 15,500) so i got some power rather quickly, if traffic is clear ahead of me i drop down to around 6k ihs. If i am around town i am normal around 10-12k rpm

[NC]

I sit the NC on about 8.5 or 9, he redlines at 14.5. Anything higher than that, is too fucken noisey..woohoo! go the arrow :D

Oh except when I'm having a thrash mo heh...

[Posh Tourer :P]

Here is one to think about.

Best revs to ride at on an everyday basis? Might sound like an odd idea, but think about it.

Too low and you don't get any benefit from engine braking, wallow into corners.
Too high and engine braking is like hitting a brick wall, start cornering and you're fighting the bike etc.

So is there a best compromise? I'd guess around 2/3rds of the rev range. Seems to work on the SV - I spent a lot of time around 6,000 revs (tops out at 10,500 off the top of my head).

Does this make sense to everyone else? Or are there any other ideas? Or does it vary between types of bike?

Varies - I sit at about 3000rpm out of a redline of 7 on the beemer, and on the MZ I would sit at 3500 out of a redline of 8 (well it didnt really have a redline, but that was when the speedo stopped, and it didnt really have that much more power. I would sit at 5000rpm on the Honda CB125 in top gear, out of a redline of 12 (but you had to chop it down 2/3 gears to get what power was there).

Thats all around town. On the open road, the beemer and MZ sat at about 4000rpm, and the honda at 10,000 rpm - because it was already in top gear long ago :P

[scumdog]

Best revs for my Sporty? - anything above 500!! after all, 'everybody' knows H-Ds are 'tractors' ;)

Seriously, most of the time I never even get to 4000, even if I change down a gear to blitz past a logging truck, the gearbox just doesn't get much of a work-out at all. :)

If I'm in 5th and the revs get over 3,000 I'm into ticket territory :(

[Jonty]

Anywhere between 6-10 (redline 19,000) anything over 10 around town tends to turn a few heads. You have to love the zxr F1 sound.

[Posh Tourer :P]

Best revs for my Sporty? - anything above 500!! after all, 'everybody' knows H-Ds are 'tractors' ;)

Seriously, most of the time I never even get to 4000, even if I change down a gear to blitz past a logging truck, the gearbox just doesn't get much of a work-out at all. :)

The beemer idles at 500 ok - better at 1000. Rumour has it that they stole the gearbox out of the farm tractor next door when they designed it...

[riffer]

Mine redlines at 11,000.

I find it's got useable power over 4,000 (4250 in top @ 100km/hr) and if you just want to pass someone you just wind the throttle on, so that's about where I sit. But the best power is from 7,000 onwards, so if I'm not in traffic I'll sit around 6,000.

[vifferman]

Or does it vary between types of bike?Yup.
But having said that, I've tended to generally ride my bikes in the middle of the rev range when cruising along. Depends a bit where the torque is, and if there are any vibey bits.
On my last bike (VFR750) there was a bit of vibration about 4500-5000 revs, so that wasn't a good place to have the revs at.
It took me a wee while to get used to the torque of the FahrtSturm, in that it zaps along quite quickly if you're short-shifting, and sounds quite busy above 6k. On my commuting route, there's some very tight (right-angle) off-camber corners, and so I'm in first for those, which is a bit tricky for throttle modulation: back off a bit, and there's heaps of engine braking, give it a bit and it's light in the front. I really need to take them faster so I can do them in second gear. It's been better since I dropped the gearing, as for commuting it seemed to always feel like it was in the wrong gear, and it wasn't happy in top on the open road, as it was only sitting on about 3k rpm, IIRC.

What I used to do on the VFR and VF, which I don't tend to do any more, is leave it in first on short runs (like the length of a block), and just rev it up to a bazillion, then throttle off to slow for the next corner. Sounded a bit scary, especially with the custom cans on the VF. :laugh: The game on the VTR is rolling on and off the throttle in first gear in traffic, to get that lovely bass rumble on deceleration.

[Pwalo]

I usually ride between 4-8k revs (redline on the GS is 11K). If I sit around the 4-5k range I find the bike is in the optimum power (and I do use that term loosely) range if I need to wind on the throttle, or chop down a gear. 5k in top gear is 100k so it's spot on for commuting. (Just a shame that the tacho cable chose today to shit itself - amazing how reassuring it is to have a working one, even if you don't look at it).

It's also the best rev range as far as vibration etc goes. The GS is pretty smooth for a vertical twin, but there is a bit of resonance around 5.5k depending on the road surface.

[James Deuce]

I bet if you guys check you will be using the meaty part of your torque curve.

[scumdog]

I bet if you guys check you will be using the meaty part of your torque curve.

Yup, and I'm lucky the 'meaty' part of my torque 'curve' covers about 85% of my available revs!! :)

[riffer]

Yup, and I'm lucky the 'meaty' part of my torque 'curve' covers about 85% of my available revs!! :)
Hmmm. What sort of meat would Harley Davidson be though - mutton :shifty:

[vifferman]

Hmmm. What sort of meat would Harley Davidson be though - mutton :shifty:The 1200 Sportster I followed last night may have been meat, but its rider was all bonehead. Apart from his enormous genitals, which necessitated riding with his knees nearly a metre apart to accommodate his equipment.
I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, not judging him or anything, until he showed he was really staunch, tough and not to be messed with, by lane-splitting at about 90 km/h, passing cars at about 90 in a 50 area, on a blind corner, and just generally riding like a dick. Plus he was poorly attired for motorbicycling, and when cranking it around a sharp left, he showed he had poor technique by keeping his head lined up with his body, rather than keeping it level and looking through the turn.
I suspect he knew I was behind him, and was showing me he was better than me. Yeah, whatever, Mr Knob-End...:tugger:

[Wenier]

id try sit round 6k on the revs as thats wut it is for the speed limit at 100k in top gear, she doesnt move off fast from that but once it gets a couple more revs shes gone.

[Buddha]

Anywhere between 6-10 (redline 19,000) anything over 10 around town tends to turn a few heads. You have to love the zxr F1 sound.

I second that.

[Blakamin]

6,500 at 100k in top but around town I probably sit at 6,000 in 4th (or 3rd??) or if i'm stuck behind kapiti drivers about 11,000 in 1st so they take notice and do over 30kph, and if they dont I'll pass them. some times i just do 58kph (according to the courtesy radar) at about 3,500 in 6th and wallow around the place. especially along the beach

[jrandom]

I just ride everywhere between 8 and 13 krpm.

I don't *have* a torque wave to surf.

[scumdog]

The 1200 Sportster I followed last night may have been meat, but its rider was all bonehead. Apart from his enormous genitals, which necessitated riding with his knees nearly a metre apart to accommodate his equipment.
I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, not judging him or anything, until he showed he was really staunch, tough and not to be messed with, by lane-splitting at about 90 km/h, passing cars at about 90 in a 50 area, on a blind corner, and just generally riding like a dick. Plus he was poorly attired for motorbicycling, and when cranking it around a sharp left, he showed he had poor technique by keeping his head lined up with his body, rather than keeping it level and looking through the turn.
I suspect he knew I was behind him, and was showing me he was better than me. Yeah, whatever, Mr Knob-End...:tugger:

He sounds like tha average K.Ber!!! however it's trouble making Jappa riders like you that cause grief & bother by 'pressuring' others to try and impress you!!!
If you had managed to catch up with him you could have pointed out the faults in his riding style. :eek: :msn-wink:

And it goes without saying that as a H-D rider he WILL have ginormous 'nads, he has to have them to cope with the H-D flak flying in his direction. :killingme

[Motu]

Most motor will love to run at their maximum torque rpm,they settle down nicely,you can roll off the throttle and maintain that speed easily,they can pull well from that rpm too.But if your bike is in a higher state of tune ,it's going to be screaming a bit.The XS650 Yamaha I don't even take to max torque,I short shift,doing 4,000rpm to 5,000rpm,never above or down,with a smooth riding style the thing can keep a good pace.My TS400 was the same,this was geared high to hell and gone again - I just rode it 3,000 to 4,000rpm and could keep a good speed no dramas.

[Pwalo]

I bet if you guys check you will be using the meaty part of your torque curve.
What your bike has torque as well!!! You're dead right Jim. Horsepower is great but torque makes you move. I once knew about all this stuff from my time studying 1st year physics, but now I've forgotten. :o

[jrandom]

What your bike has torque as well!!! You're dead right Jim. Horsepower is great but torque makes you move. I once knew about all this stuff from my time studying 1st year physics, but now I've forgotten. :o

Oh, come on, it's not that bad.

Torque is twisting force. Different engines create a different amount of force per revolution at different speeds, depending on design. Think about it. That's the reason for the torque curve. Any engine will have intrinsic inertia, balances and resonances and all that stuff that makes it create more force when cycling at one given rate than another. Big singles make a lot of twisting force when turning over slowly, but don't work well if you try to make them run fast. Formula 1 V12s don't make a lot of torque per cycle, but are designed and built so that they can run at very high speeds and still generate force with reasonable efficiency each time round.

Power is the total work output capability of the motor, which in this case is twisting force generated by each engine cycle, multipled by the ongoing rate (measured in, say, revolutions per minute) of complete engine cycles.

You'll get more power, in the end, from an engine that continues making a reasonable little bit of torque through very high cycling speeds than you will from an engine that makes gobloads of twisting force but only while it's cycling under 4000 revolutions per minute, for instance.

[vtec]

Anywhere between 6-10 (redline 19,000) anything over 10 around town tends to turn a few heads. You have to love the zxr F1 sound.
I third that, only its the CBR F1 sound that turns heads.

[Pwalo]

Oh, come on, it's not that bad.

Torque is twisting force. Different engines create a different amount of force per revolution at different speeds, depending on design. Think about it. That's the reason for the torque curve. Any engine will have intrinsic inertia, balances and resonances and all that stuff that makes it create more force when cycling at one given rate than another. Big singles make a lot of twisting force when turning over slowly, but don't work well if you try to make them run fast. Formula 1 V12s don't make a lot of torque per cycle, but are designed and built so that they can run at very high speeds and still generate force with reasonable efficiency each time round.

Power is the total work output capability of the motor, which in this case is twisting force generated by each engine cycle, multipled by the ongoing rate (measured in, say, revolutions per minute) of complete engine cycles.

You'll get more power, in the end, from an engine that continues making a reasonable little bit of torque through very high cycling speeds than you will from an engine that makes gobloads of twisting force but only while it's cycling under 4000 revolutions per minute, for instance.


Come on now mate, your just showing off. But you are right. Differing engine configurations have different power and torque characteristics. That's why I still prefer singles and twins for commuting.

Stuffed on a race course, of course. (Now about those World Superbike rules..)

[marty]

i find myself sitting at about 5k in 6th gear on the tl - sounds good, covers the ground pretty well, solid as a rock, don't have to change down to pass :)

aye spud

[scumdog]

Anywhere between 6-10 (redline 19,000) anything over 10 around town tends to turn a few heads. You have to love the zxr F1 sound.

19,000? If I could get my Sporty to do that in 5th I would be doing 360mph (550kph+), :laugh: - 205mph? - pifff! small fry!! :whistle: <_<

[Blakamin]

19,000? If I could get my Sporty to do that in 5th I would be doing 360mph (550kph+), :laugh: - 205mph? - pifff! small fry!! :whistle: <_<
Couldnt ya just bolt another 3 in? in series :whistle:

[vifferman]

Oh, come on, it's not that bad.

Torque is twisting force. .Rubbish! I watched "Top Gear" on Sunday night, and he reiterated what we all are aware of:
No-one actually knows what torques are, except that it's good to have a lot of them installed in the engine bay. :killingme

[marty]

if the sporty did 19000 in neutral it would be a miracle!

[DEATH_INC.]

If the sporty did 19000 rpm the piston would shoot through the head at 360mph....

[Blakamin]

if the sporty did 19000 in neutral it would be a miracle!
thats why ya want them in series

[Jackrat]

Here is one to think about.

Best revs to ride at on an everyday basis? Might sound like an odd idea, but think about it.

Too low and you don't get any benefit from engine braking, wallow into corners.
Too high and engine braking is like hitting a brick wall, start cornering and you're fighting the bike etc.

So is there a best compromise? I'd guess around 2/3rds of the rev range. Seems to work on the SV - I spent a lot of time around 6,000 revs (tops out at 10,500 off the top of my head).

Does this make sense to everyone else? Or are there any other ideas? Or does it vary between types of bike?

2/3 sounds about right for me.
My bike makes it's top HP at 7000rpm but I never go there.
I spend most of my time between 4-5000rpm.
It's a bit of a problem as the bike makes it,s best power at 5-5500rpm,then the motor is right on song.most responsive ect,but this is also where the handling starts to become rather vauge.
On an American SX site, I regularly read of guys who reckon they often ride their XSs at 7000rpm no worrys.I belive these guys either have huge balls or their full of it.An XS at 7000rpm is a scary critter.

[Artifice]

my gixer400 redlines at about 15000, produces max power at 9.500 -10.500. power over 12.000 just drops away.. belw 4000 there is nothing also. therefor i tend to ride around town between 5000-7000. and then use the power more when im thrashing her. of course if i have my earplugs in then i tend to use 1000rpm more than usual cos i dont have to listen to it and the bike likes it. also i suffer from happy throttle hand syndrome just wants to twist it all the way round. :eek:

[badlieutenant]

Yup.
But having said that, I've tended to generally ride my bikes in the middle of the rev range when cruising along. Depends a bit where the torque is, and if there are any vibey bits.
On my last bike (VFR750) there was a bit of vibration about 4500-5000 revs, so that wasn't a good place to have the revs at.
It took me a wee while to get used to the torque of the FahrtSturm, in that it zaps along quite quickly if you're short-shifting, and sounds quite busy above 6k. On my commuting route, there's some very tight (right-angle) off-camber corners, and so I'm in first for those, which is a bit tricky for throttle modulation: back off a bit, and there's heaps of engine braking, give it a bit and it's light in the front. I really need to take them faster so I can do them in second gear. It's been better since I dropped the gearing, as for commuting it seemed to always feel like it was in the wrong gear, and it wasn't happy in top on the open road, as it was only sitting on about 3k rpm, IIRC.

What I used to do on the VFR and VF, which I don't tend to do any more, is leave it in first on short runs (like the length of a block), and just rev it up to a bazillion, then throttle off to slow for the next corner. Sounded a bit scary, especially with the custom cans on the VF. :laugh: The game on the VTR is rolling on and off the throttle in first gear in traffic, to get that lovely bass rumble on deceleration.

Love the power delivery of the vfr. My one has very little vibrations in that rev range. The fact that the torque is fairly linear with most of it in the 4000-6000rpm range and max horseys any around 8000-9000 (i normally try to stop here) and if you dont gear them too high its nice hitting the cam at 7000. Would like to convert her to a 840 tho, If I was bill gates and bored.

[scumdog]

thats why ya want them in series

It saddens me that you guys have no imagination! I'm with you Blakamin, put 'em in series and we'll get 19,000rpm nose-wet. :wacko: