Driving 55 mph...

[elraque]

... in 5th gear I'm taching about 2400 RPM.

Am I lugging the engine? Should I run 55 in 4th and shift to 5th at 60 or 65? Or is the thick chick gonna be okay with this until I get to the 65 (or 75) zone?

[Bone]

With the speedometer setting from the factory I run 58 to 60 always in a 55 zone. Have never been stopped at any radar traps. Using the GPS I use for running with the speedometer at 58 I'm actually going 55 mph.
Don't remember the rpms I'll look next time out.
Can't answer your question.

[bigdog99]

i sometimes ride in town in 5th gear all the time.
this machine goes from 20 to 120 in 5th. i dont know if it ever lugs the engine.
 

[Valker]

Factory owners' manual states that you should not upshift into 5th gear until 31 mph. I will not shift out of fifth gear unless I have to slow below 25mph.

[Tropic traveler]

Factory owners' manual states that you should not upshift into 5th gear until 31 mph. I will not shift out of fifth gear unless I have to slow below 25mph.

Agreed.
The Valkyrie engine is very forgiving with a very wide torque band. Ample SMOOTH power that bikes of lesser pedigree can only dream of! 

[gordonv]

I always end up in the highest gear as fast as I can for the torque I'm putting on the engine, in any standard transmission vehicle.

I live in the flat lands and don't need torque to go up a hill. But when I'm going mountian riding, I maybe only use 4-5th gear.

[Patrick]

55 in 5th ??  Nope, won't hurt her a bit..

[old2soon]

I have done roll ons from 30 mph with no problems. The fat gals-she are forgiving. You must have ridden a 2 stroke at one time as i did-no need to keep this machine on the pipe. 

[thunderbass53]

I'll generally downshift if I get below 1500 RPM, but above that, I stay in as high of a gear as I can to keep fuel economy up...unless I need to pass someone. 

[sandy]

I have a 98 California Valk. A recent dyno run showed that at 2200 RPM's I have 75 FT/LB of torque. NO: you won't lug the old gal at 55 MPH.

[eric in md]

my tach was cruising at 4300 all day long the other day in 5th whats up with that ?

[olddog1946]

my tach was cruising at 4300 all day long the other day in 5th whats up with that ?

let me see,,,,,,uh, maybe your tack was stuck.........mmmmmmm, uh, not likely, I think it was your wrist jammed....if you didn't have any bubble gum machines lighting up the road behind you all is cool...

Now to the real question,,,nothing wrong with 55 in 5th...other than being run over by those running at 4300 rpm...

[BradValk48237]

Mmmm  4300 in fifth??....   85-87 MPH?

Not that Id know.......

I know that At around 4500 you can make it from Covington KY to Lexington KY in about 50 min.....
 

[elraque]

Thanks, guys. I dunno if I'll ever see 4300 rpm in fifth though...      

[Hoser]

my tach was cruising at 4300 all day long the other day in 5th whats up with that ?

I'd say you were runnin about 85-90 mph.  Went a long way if you cruised all day at 4300.      hoser

[Tropic traveler]

my tach was cruising at 4300 all day long the other day in 5th whats up with that ?

I'd say you were runnin about 85-90 mph.  Went a long way if you cruised all day at 4300.      hoser

And stopping often for gas!!! 

[Gryphon]

Thanks, guys. I dunno if I'll ever see 4300 rpm in fifth though...      

I'm assuming that was written in the "sarcasm" font.    Otherwise, WHAT?  That, and I'm still trying to grasp this 55 mph thing they were talking about at the beginning of this thread.    I'll admit that my Valk spends >90% of its running time between 3000 and 3500 rpm.  Over 4K is generally for passing or in a hurry.   

[Gryphon Rider]

Here is the speed vs. gear that I use, for steady speed (as best as I can remember, last ride being being beginning of November):

Gear    Speed MPH
  1          0-10
  2          10-20
  3          20-32
  4          32-48
  5          48-???

[Hoser]

2000 rpm is 45 mph in fifth, 3000 rpm is 65 mph, 3500 rpm is 75, 4000 rpm is 85, I don't often cruise any faster than that, since it is all in the same gear, I assume it works its way up  proportionally.  I know 100 mph is around 5000 rpm, don't know what 6500 (redline) is in fifth. it's just over a hundred in 4th gear.    Unless I'm showing off, I'm always in 5th by 45 mph.  It will pull smoothly away at 25 mph in 5th if you don't slam the throttle wide open.  Probly explains 38-40 mpg most of the time, and 80000 trouble free miles. The fatlady is fast. Hoser

[BP]

Here is the speed vs. gear that I use, for steady speed (as best as I can remember, last ride being being beginning of November):

Gear    Speed MPH
  1          0-10
  2          10-20
  3          20-32
  4          32-48
  5          48-???

+ 1, I would shift to 4th if driving < 40 MPH. I agree to comments that Valk engine is strong and driving on 5th till 25-30 does not hurt. But i wont do it.

[PhredValk]

Unless I'm in a hurry, or just out having fun, I'm in 5th at anything over 30 (50KPH). Heck, my car cruises all day on the hi-way at 1500rpm...
Fred.

[B]

"driving 55" ... Do these things go that slow?

[Tundra]

Nope, your fine. 25mph to 125mph what a bike Incidentally, that's how I've cleaned out several Valks slow jets. Lugging at 30-35mph for an hour or so on the gulf coast beach with a heavy dose of "your favorite" fuel system cleaner.

[elraque]

Thanks, guys. I dunno if I'll ever see 4300 rpm in fifth though...      

I'm assuming that was written in the "sarcasm" font.    Otherwise, WHAT?  That, and I'm still trying to grasp this 55 mph thing they were talking about at the beginning of this thread.    I'll admit that my Valk spends >90% of its running time between 3000 and 3500 rpm.  Over 4K is generally for passing or in a hurry.   

I guess what I MEANT was that I may never drive that fast "again..." (wink, wink)...

[Mildew]

I ride 110 miles to work and back everyday between 3500 and 4000 rpms. I had a Dekalb county cop blow by me on a Harley while I was running 4000 rpms. He waved as he rode by. It was a police bike. They must run the big motors on those things with our tax dollars. My friends Harley is tached out pretty good at 100 mph on his 88ci. I had my valk over 130 before but it was near its limit and the speedometer is a good bit off on these things so I would assume 125 does it for the valk but thats fast enough.

[MacDragon]

I was on the highway just an hour ago.  65mph @ 3000rpms  twisted it for the hell of it... up to 105 mphs in seconds... I didn't check the tach right then as I was looking at what was wayyyy up ahead of me... cuz that's where I was.    The fat lady is fast for sure.

[bigfeet]

I have found out the hard way >   WHEN IN DOUBT ? GAS IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[2qmedic]

OK, this will be a topic of discussion now for sure.
My take on this is of - how much oil psi is produced at 1000 or 2000 rpm? The motor may not "bogg down", but considering the lower oil psi (than running oil pressure) and the fact being the pressure the rod end bearings are placing on the camshaft at 1500 rpm persay, this may be applying sufficient force to press beyond the low oil psi protection. Yes I realize the film of oil is there, but there is also a point (I don't know where this point is) where the rod end pressure overcomes the oil film/pressure of the crankshaft causing the small amount of wear not realized until the motor begins to show wear later down the road.
Think about riding a bicycle a high gear vs low gear and the amount of pressure that is applied as you pedal down hill, up hill and level ground ath the same speed. You would find the gear that is a good comprise between the pedal pressure and pedal rpm (hope this makes sense). On our Valks, we just twist the throttle.
Its akin to saying I use 50 weight oil in my car with no problems. It calls for 5w-30. The truth of the matter is by doing so may be fine for the bottom end, but the top end suffers with out any noticable indication from the oil being to thick under certain conditions.
More damage is done by too high a gear to early than by running in the upper rpm range. It's just not apparent untill it's too late. Remember the speedometer of years past with the gear/mph indicators. Those are there for this reason. I shift closer to 3k rpm for 4 & 5th. The fuel savings would be nominal at best to shift earlier.
I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong.....not saying I am an expert either. I wish I had the engineers article I read on the subject years ago.
Just something to think about.  

[John Schmidt]

Guess I don't pay much attention to the tach. A while back, when I pulled out of a restaurant parking lot I just went through the gears based on sound. Been doing that for a few decades now. Later, I got a phone call from a friend that asked what my tach read with each shift....I had no idea so just for kicks went for a ride on a nearby 6-lane. Turned out I was shifting at 3k+/- a tad with very little difference with each shift. Then when I hit 5th, I take it up to "that sound" and it's about 3000-3100rpm. As stated above...that give me right aroun 67-68 mph. Sitting there gives me decent mileage....usually in the upper 30's.

Lugging it at 55 in 5th....not hardly.

Re. the oil pressure question above; at idle/low rpm....my gauge reads 18-20psi.  Up around highway speed rpm it reads more like 60.

[2qmedic]

quote John Schmidt
Re. the oil pressure question above; at idle/low rpm....my gauge reads 18-20psi.  Up around highway speed rpm it reads more like 60.


Can I ask ya how you installed the guage and lines?
Something I've wanted to do also. (when ever I find some time)

[R J]

quote John Schmidt
Re. the oil pressure question above; at idle/low rpm....my gauge reads 18-20psi.  Up around highway speed rpm it reads more like 60.


Can I ask ya how you installed the guage and lines?
Something I've wanted to do also. (when ever I find some time)

I'm not John, BUT, find the oil sensor, add the oil pressure sensor, run the wire and etc as needed, presto, have visual reading of oil pressure..    

Go to the Motosen site and have a look see at where they install theirs.

 http://www.motosens.com/index.htm

[John Schmidt]

I'm not John, BUT,
 http://www.motosens.com/index.htm

Obviously.....I'm better looking.    Actually, I didn't piggyback my sender on the OEM sender. It's down there next to the oil filter. It's kinda crowded down there so I just used an adapter with the Autometer sender provided with the gauge I bought from them. The adapter is needed because the threads on the block are metric, the Autometer sender isn't. The only problem I ever had was once in a while the gauge wouldn't read anything, which was kinda scary. You don't want to be starting out and suddenly look down and see zero oil pressure. When I was trouble shooting to see if it was the gauge, wires, or engine internals, I noticed something unusual. If the engine was running and the gauge read zero, I could pull the 12v feed and plug it back in and it would work. I called Autometer and explained what I found, the tech started to chuckle and told me it will do that if the battery is a bit low. It happened to be an old battery and apparently was using most of the reserve to start the bike, thereby preventing the gauge from reading anything. After starting and the alternator putting out, it will have enough juice to make the gauge work. Ever since then, I keep the Battery Tender plugged in if I'm not riding for a few days. I've never had a problem since....except when I ran the battery down while working on some lights. Soon as I put a small charge on it, it worked again.

[2qmedic]

OOPS, my bad
Thanks for the info guys, but perhaps I should have been a little more specific.
I was courious in the installation/mounting of the gauge for an I/S if that is what you have.
Sorry I didn't word it correctly.

[John Schmidt]

OOPS, my bad
Thanks for the info guys, but perhaps I should have been a little more specific.
I was courious in the installation/mounting of the gauge for an I/S if that is what you have.
Sorry I didn't word it correctly.

I don't have an I/S but this is how I mounted mine using a P-clamp from Kuryakyn. The oil pressure is on the right, water temp. on the left, fuel in the center between the two OEM gauges. The three small ones listed here are the Autometer C-2 series with blue LED backlighting. I then mounted a couple license plate mounting bolts with a blue LED in them, situated so they shine on the big gauges so they all look the same. Found out you can read the big ones in any light now, something not possible before.

[2qmedic]

O-Yea,
looks great!!!
Not sure how those extra guages would fit on my I/S???

[MP]

I put my voltmeter on the face of my right radiator pod.  There is room for several gauges.

MP

[Ricky-D]

Holy crap, those are so bright. Hope there is a dimmer for them cause they would really blind you when riding at night on long trips!

The high beam indicator gives me grief, where I tape it over!

***

[Mr.BubblesVRCCDS0008]

 I put one of these up under my fairing and bored a small hole in the tach housing on the right side for the bulb to stick threw. IT seems to work pretty good so far.    http://www.directlineparts.com/product.asp?pid=4354&str=2

[2qmedic]

I put one of these up under my fairing and bored a small hole in the tach housing on the right side for the bulb to stick threw. IT seems to work pretty good so far.    http://www.directlineparts.com/product.asp?pid=4354&str=2

I like it, is it bright enough for day I am sure, but is it too bright for night riding?

[Mr.BubblesVRCCDS0008]

Works great in both light and dark conditions. I have mine mounted in the side of the tach housing so it points away from you.  I'm not looking straight into the bulb but more from the side. At night it kind of lights up the tach face but not too much to glare in your face.