How hard do you ride your AT?

[chronyx]

I'm really riding my bike hard at the moment; I always make sure it's warmed up, oil level is OK and change the oil every 4k but at the moment every other gearchange is at 6000-ish rpm.

Don't want to kill my bike, but I just love the noise it makes when you give it some.

[Shep]

No probs at all. When we used to race Endurance we would change gear at about 12,000 on a ZXR750 Kawasaki and that is a 24 hour race.

Very lightly stressed engine the XRV lump so completely bulletproof

[chronyx]

Woohoo!

I have done a bit of research since I posted this and apparently at 6k rpm the engine develops maximum toque - I am led to believe it is best to run an engine at around this point anyway (Which is why I leave my car in 3rd at 30mph - 1900rpm is max torque there, saves overloading it in 4th)

Am I right?!

When/where did you used to do your endurance racing shep?

[Shep]

I raced for team BFP in 1991 and 1992 we raced at Le Mans, Spa Franchoramps ( awesome circuit), Bol Dor at the old Paul Ricard Circuit ( wooooooowwwwwww Circuit my absolute favorite) , Anderstorp, and Zeltweg. Before this i raced club and national level for 6 years

I also worked with Phase One Endurance for years and have been with them to Suzuka and Daytona many times.

Did the British Endurance Championships with my own team, i also rode in 1997,1998 and 1999 and finished 4th every year, something about being the bridesmaid?

I used to be pretty quick, now i am just an old codger living in the past !!!! thats what Anna tells me anyway

[robelst]

I usually don't rev the bike so far in the lower gears (typically change around 4k) but on the motorway I'd do steady a 6000 rpm as well (that'll be around 85 - 90 mph?).
Doesn't seem to stress the bike too much, oil consumption is still zero at 52k-miles.

[djadams]

Woohoo!

I have done a bit of research since I posted this and apparently at 6k rpm the engine develops maximum toque - I am led to believe it is best to run an engine at around this point anyway (Which is why I leave my car in 3rd at 30mph - 1900rpm is max torque there, saves overloading it in 4th)

Am I right?!

Certainly won't do any harm, but won't actually do your fuel economy any good to cruise there. The theory goes that if you run at around peak torque speed, the pumping losses are least. That's all well and good but at low (bike) speed, the amount of torque you're actually using is very small. As a result you have the throttle pretty much closed, so the pumping losses are very high. So, in fact, generally most fuel efficient to run on the highest gear it'll pull comfortably.

When you're swinging through the bends, by all means keep it between peak torque and peak power - best response, best engine braking, best stability (more gyroscopic from the engine) etc.

All my bikes get regular trips to the redline, the TL generally stays in the top third of the rev-range at all times (except around town), and the CBR400 only gets fed another gear when it hits 13000rpm! To get some pace out of the AT, it tends to get thrashed!

[doglegdon]

What worries me most about "flogging the old girl', is the availability (or at least lack) of spare parts out here. It's a long way to Singapore and even longer to buy stuff from Europe. Thankfully, I've a friendly mechanic(even if he is German, God Bless 'im), the only one in southern Philippines, that I can trust with fault finding and repair, if something does go wrong.
I make sure she's warmed up first and at the end of a trip, let her "calm down" for a coupla minutes before switching off. (Bit like the wife then really )
Roads can't really be ridden over 6000rpm (about 120kph), at least not on the majority of the islands. I put in a non standard number of teeth rear sprocket last time I changed the chain etc, and it gives me a noticeable ummph in lower gears but less top speed, by about 5-10kph.(Overtaking though is superb!)
Normally ride around 5-6000k revs, 100-120kph.