I'm almost done asking questions, sorry all. What is the typical cruise RPM you maintain? I can hit 35 and feel like I need to be in third or fourth, it sounds very high ya know. In a standard 5 speed car, the torque/ power to weight ratio is way differant, so what is a good RPM when just cruising. Really guys sportbikes are new to me. If it redlines at 10.5 than 6-9 should be ok...why do I feel the need to shift at 4-5? Does this make sense to anyone? Thanks all.

 

If i am just lollygagging around town, usually 3500-4k is about right. You can cruise around higher too, its no harm or anything. I guess i stay around there just cause my pipe is kinda mellow in that rpm range. Besides your only 2 clicks and a snap of the wrist away from see ya later anyhow, i dont need to ride around at 6k so im ready to go.

 

I think the reason you feel that you need to shift @ 4-5kis because just like you say, your new to sportbikes. These are extremly high reving engines especially when compared to cars. I drive a taurus sho which has an engine that most would consider to be a very high reving engine for a car. The engine was co-designed by yamaha for ford and long story short, ended up in the 89-95 taurus sho... back to my point. This high reving automobile engine redlines @ 7000 rpms (which is nothing in comparison to the 11,600 revs we get out of the 954). Part of what makes this engine so unique is the intake runner setup on it. It has butterflies on the intake that open up @ 4000rpms and really gives it a lot of power between 4k and 7k.

My point with all of this is that high reving engines are designed to be reved high. So when you have an automobile engine that only revs to 7k and can be shifted normally well over 4k, it is no problem to shift athigher rpms when riding the 954.

To answer your original question, 4-5k is about right for just cruising around for me.A little higher if I want to make some noise...As far as feeling that I need to shift, I usually never have the bike in anything higher than second @ 35 mph.And I always know that anytime I can drop it down and use all 11k if I see fit... and I see fit pretty often lol

Oh yea and sorry to get off topicwith the taurus sho story, I can never pass up the opportunity to lay out a little history about that motor...

 

Sounds right to me. In fact i was wondering that samething the other night when i was out. I stick around 3 1/2 to 4.

 

Awesome guys. Thanks for the help. I didn't want to go smokey joe on anything from running around too high, but like I said, new to sportbikes. Now off to work. Later!