ideal crusing rpm

[lucky6man]

as the subject states whats a good range of rpms to cruse at on a kat?

[WildKat]

it all depends on if your cruising in the city/town or out on the open road, and how hard you wanna ride.

In the city, I try to keep the rpm's at about 3500-4000 so I have plenty of power if I need to make a quick escape.

Out on the highway, if it's full throttle, well

[Black Kat]

i just did 270 miles down I-5....going 75ish in 6th gear...... i think that was around 6k....but if you want to accelerate quickly for some reason...maybe around 8-9k ??

[illinoiskat]

On a stock 750 around town I try to go at least a 1000 rpm per 10 mph. So I have some grunt.

[ThAzKat]

let me say this, you don't want to be in sixth gear at 45 mph. That means shifting down to 3rd or 4th before trying to excelerate. I think everyone has a confort zone, I like to shift down one gear for grunt but that means more work to get to the point of power.

[Mojoe]

to be honest, I am afraid to answer that....cuz I rarely look at my tach. I mean I do, but not in a way that really registers in my long term memory to compare powerbands. it is more of a casual glance. It is not an easy ? to answer cuz of all the varables....like what gear your in.
So I guess I have no answer. I just go by the feel of the bike as per the situation I am in. If I am just cruising and want fuel economy, it is at the low range of the powerband. If I want the power, I feel for the mid to upper. You could remove my tach from my bike and I could live without it.

[harrye]

On a stock 750 around town I try to go at least a 1000 rpm per 10 mph. So I have some grunt.

That's 4th gear on my 600. You said "at least", so I know you are in 1st gear at 10 mph. The manual says shift from 3rd to 4th at 25 mph, which equates to entering 4th gear at 2,500 rpm. Per the manual the 4th to 5th gear change can take place at 31 mph, which equates to 3,100 rpm in 4th. So I'd conclude that with a 600, the rider should stay at or above 2,500 rpm, if riding in gears lower than 5th.

The manual says shift from 5th to 6th at 37 mph, which I recall is about 2,800 rpm. So, I assume due to greater wind resistance in 5th and 6th, you increase the shift point rpm to the 2,800 to 3,000 range. These are low rpms, I know, but the engine will take it fine. I also know that city drivers want higher rpm at all times for safety. So these are the minimums (for upshifts), the maximums are up to you, although you will certainly know when you are generating far more torque and power than you realistically need.

Mojoe, you say you could live without the tach. The tach is your built-in gear indicator for 3rd, 4th and 5th, at least for the 2004 model 600. The tach and speedometer are even in 4th, i.e., 4,000 rpm is 40 mph, and 5,000 rpm is 50 mph. Thus, you can tell 4th gear at a glance at any speed. If the speedometer is just a little behind the tach, you are in 3rd gear, and if its ahead of the tach, you are in 5th or 6th.

This method at least narrows the possibilities. It beats shifting by sound, or by feel. Although I haven't used this method for hard acceleration thru the gears. It may not work in that situation since the gear changes could come so fast that you must shift by sound, feel, or memory. In such case if you are concentrating on the tach or speedometer, you've probably held it in the same gear too long.

[SweetLou]

Putzing around town, I like to keep the RPM's a little higher incase I gota move quick. On the highway though, if going at highway speeds, and juts cruising along, go ahead and run in 6th gear.

[Yellow]

After take-off, I rarely go below 4k... usually 5-7k, city or highway. But I'm not glued to the tach, I'd rather keep my eyes on the road.

[md86]

Huh , I seem to have plenty of power to get out of trouble on surface streets or highways as long as I'm not lugging it at less than 3k rpm . And my bike might still not be tuned quite right either .... :-k

[escahoe]

I like to keep high RPM's 1) for the hotties in little pink sweaters 2) for the speed when I need it 3) i like the sound coming out of my yoshi

[Mojoe]

Mojoe, you say you could live without the tach. The tach is your built-in gear indicator for 3rd, 4th and 5th, at least for the 2004 model 600. The tach and speedometer are even in 4th, i.e., 4,000 rpm is 40 mph, and 5,000 rpm is 50 mph. Thus, you can tell 4th gear at a glance at any speed. If the speedometer is just a little behind the tach, you are in 3rd gear, and if its ahead of the tach, you are in 5th or 6th.

Ummm....I think I am missing your point. Do you say you need a tach to know what gear you are in? Do you think knowing this is important? I usually know what gear I am in by instinct and memory...but it is no big deal if I am off by a gear if I feel my rpms are where I want them to be...and that is by sound and feel...not by the tach. I have rode bikes with no tachs and broken tachs...and I have never ridden a bike that told me what gear I am in. So I guess I am used to not having these "options" 100% of the time.
I once lent my 72 nova with a 396 in it to a buddy to run to the store. He made it as far as the stop sign and turned around. He had to come back and ask me how I knew when to shift without a tach. I said, "omg....get the fuck outta the way....I'll go".
I just think you should be able to cover up your tach and gear indicator and still be able to ride just fine. In fact, I even suggest it. You will find that in no time you will actually have a better "feel" for your bike and realize you don't even need these things. If you can't tell when your bike is running too high a rpm or too low a rpm without the use of a tach, then you really have no ear or feel for your bike at all. When I say "you"...I don't mean you personally....I mean in general. Like I said....if my tach broke, I would not really miss it aside from it just annoying me that something on my bike does not work. If it was impossible to fix, it would not change one thing about my riding. I could live without it.

As far as my tach being even with my speed, I have a 5spd tranny and the only time they are really even is on the hwy in 5th. 7k rpm is 70mph. I know this cuz I went 2 years with no speedo on my 1100. I guaged it with a buddy following me so I could use my tach to judge my hwy speed cuz I got stopped once for speeding and didn't realize how far off my guess was.

[WildKat]

I always look at my tach more than my speedo, its more fun that way