lowering the Katatana

[kat1975]

Hi All,
Got my new 2006 katana 750 3 months ago and have 250 miles on it so far.
Iwould like to know if i could lower the bike another 1 or 2 inch. and one more question the new bike when riding at 70MPH, the RPM went up to
5000, and it still has lot of power. My thought :P if i could replace the rear sproket (47 teeths) to 35 or 40 teeths then i would reduce the RPM of the engine.
Please give some thoughts on this.
Thanks,
Tom

[Court93kat]

Yes, you can lower the bike. Do a search.... it has been discussed numerous times already. Lots of information on this site.

Changing the sprockets.... Why? You are already sitting right in the range you want to be in. It will most likely not save you any gas as you will be below the power band of the motor in top gear. If you desire to accelerate around a car or anything at all, you will have to downshift to accomplish that. Plus, there was a reply to a similar question not too long ago stating that with the wind resistance, etc you would not be able to maintain a constant speed on the highway.

Going down the highway here, I am running between 6 and 7 on the tach.

[rwcreigh]

Yes, you can lower the bike. Do a search.... it has been discussed numerous times already. Lots of information on this site.

Changing the sprockets.... Why? You are already sitting right in the range you want to be in. It will most likely not save you any gas as you will be below the power band of the motor in top gear. If you desire to accelerate around a car or anything at all, you will have to downshift to accomplish that. Plus, there was a reply to a similar question not too long ago stating that with the wind resistance, etc you would not be able to maintain a constant speed on the highway.

Going down the highway here, I am running between 6 and 7 on the tach.

+1 be careful lowering it.i would hate to hit a speed bump and crack the fairing

[SL1D3R]

When I took my bike in to get it worked on, I had the mechanics there lower it a little bit. Not sure what they did, though. I honestly wouldn't mind lowering it a little more, too.

[ne-oublie]

http://www.katriders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19415

I have the links you need, let me know, thanks.

[kat1975]

Thank you all for the info,
Grey,
so 5 or 6 on the tach is normal?
i was thinking like driving a car, with 70 mph it only registered 3.5 or 4 on the tach.

...and thank you for the link. I am checking it out.

Tom

[brooder]

Yes, 5 or 6 is normal. A previous thread asked what the tach reading was at 80mph and most folks said it was 6k in 6th gear. So cruising at 5k would be alright for 70.

[The CyberPoet]

so 5 or 6 on the tach is normal?
i was thinking like driving a car, with 70 mph it only registered 3.5 or 4 on the tach.

You're thinking of it in the wrong terms.

A car's redline is typically (most cars) somewhere between 5 and 6k RPM. Thus, at a theoretical 70 mph (say 3.6k RPM), you're running at around 60% of redline for the engine in the car.

A typical sport or sport-touring motorcycle's engine is much smaller and designed to build power not through raw displacement, but by being able to spin much faster... it's redline is 10.5 to 11k (depending on which Kat you have -- some bikes spin as high as 15+k). 6k RPM is only about 58% of redline for this engine... And in top gear, you're doing something like 78 mph at 6k RPM. As it is, this is still significantly below the real power-band for the Kat's engine, which runs from about 7300 RPM to about 9800 RPM (where the beast within that wants to be unleashed lives...)

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[SL1D3R]

He's right. I have yet to become accustomed to this, though. It always opens up at around 5, 6 or 7k RPMs.

[kat1975]

Thank you for clarifying this info.

Tom