Best revs?

[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.

[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. 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.