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| Motorcycle Message Board - Motorcycle USA > MotorcycleUSA.com! > General Motorcycle Chat > Help! I'm ruining my new bike | Forum Quick Jump
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 |  Slab Hardcheese Registered Member

       Date Joined Oct 2009 Total Posts : 3 | Posted 10/25/2009 2:33 PM (GMT -8) |   | To compare, I've been touring / commuting on a 2007 GSXR 1000 for a couple years (24,000+ miles) here in Seattle. These bikes are ridiculously high geared for normal street riding. On mine anyway there is not much point to shifting into second gear before 40mph, and more like 65 if I'm feeling spunky. 5000k rpm is where I'd be "casually cruising", but it would go all day at 7k and at 12k and up it's like a screaming rush of incredible scary power. 4k is super gas saving mode on the freeway. It takes the freeway to even need 3rd gear. Your bike is probably similar (maybe slightly lower rpm range?)
I ride behind cruisers (on / off the Ferry) all the time commuting and they will have shifted 3 or 4 times before I'm even close to considering it. Or riding behind a car, you learn to use very slight throttle adjustments to match the car's shifting pattern. It's like from a stop first gear start out until just over idle, then back off a second for the car to shift to second, then very slight throttle increase again as the car accelerates through their 2nd, then back off as the car takes a couple seconds to shift, then slight throttle increase as the car accelerates into 3rd, until finally you are at cruising speed in first gear. All this using about 5% power. This gearing is made for the track. The gears are actually fairly close together, just way high in the rev range.
Some people will change their chain / sprockets to go lower gearing, and I think this makes sense. I haven't done it because I'm very used to it now and didn't want to bother with a speedo healer.
Good luck and stay safe. Always anticipate potential problems.
You might find this useful: http://www.msf-usa.org/riderperception/Post Edited (Slab Hardcheese) : 10/25/2009 10:43:13 PM GMT | | Back to Top | | |
 |  Andy VH Forum Moderator

       Date Joined Apr 2005 Total Posts : 3999 | Posted 10/26/2009 9:18 AM (GMT -8) |   | What are the miles on the bike? What is the condition of the chain, drive sprockets, clutch? I'm guessing you bought it used, so do you know how the previous owner treated it, cared for it, maintained it, etc. It may look great on the outside and the engine may run well, but the clutch could easily be toasted in as little as 5,000 miles depending how the previous owner used/abused it. A drive chain on a sportbike could easily be shot in less than 15,000 miles.
By their nature, 1000cc or not, sportbikes are not tuned for good low end power. If you were regularly rollig your Bandit out at full clutch release at only 1500 rpm (which is ONLY 300 to 400 rpm over idle speed) you WERE lugging that engine. The Bandit engine, which IS based on the GSXR engine, is tuned for torque and decent low end power. But 1500 rpm on that engine is really low. Doing the same or even close to the same on a sportbike will cause lugging issues. I'd bet what you hear is clutch. tranny and drive chain slack being taken up by the erratic and low power pulses of the engine struggling to move the mass of bike and you at too low an engine speed. If the chain is worn out and the sprockets are worn it makes it even worse.
I ride a BMW 1100cc bike, and have ridden all the BMW big bikes, including a K1200S which is similar in power delivery to your CBR1000. All of them require about 2500 rpm and more for smooth takeoff. I can easily do it with lower engine rpm if I feather/slip the clutch.
Keep in mind too, a bike like a CBR1000 is NOT set up as a mild tuned street bike. It is a race-replica bike with tuning, clutch, tranny, driveline set up for high performance duty. Granted, of the sportbike genre, the CBR1000 is probably the easiest to ride civil. This is an example of why it may not be fun to ride a fast bike slow. A litrebike can be ridden on the street. But this is more than just a litrebike, it is a race repplica bike that responds better being used and ridden as it was designed to be ridden.
Lower octane fuels "may" cause pinging or knocking issues, ESPECIALLY if you are lugging the engine at low engine speeds. I say may, because the fuel management system may be able to adjust for lower octane. But if your bike was designed, and is recommended to run on mid-grade, or hgiher octane level fuels, then you are best off to run that octane level only. Also, another VERY important thing to consider when lugging engines is oil delivery to critical journal bearings. Nearly ALL Jap bike engines use plain-journal style bearings on the camshaft, and in some cases the crankshaft also. This style bearing relies on a high-pressure (for a cycle engine) oil film between the journal and camshaft. In a plain-journal bearing, there are no ball or roller bearings, and if the oil film is broken, you DO have metal on metal contact. Or, in this case, steel on aluminum or magnesium. Oil pump flow and pressure delivery in cycle engines is directly related to engine speed. At very low engine speeds, there may not be enough oil flow and pressure to maintain that very critical oil film between moving parts. Training, the best safety and performance "equipment" you can get!
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 |  Smitty Registered Member
        Date Joined Mar 2003 Total Posts : 18448 | Posted 10/26/2009 11:08 AM (GMT -8) |   | | Honestly Sabre after all the yrs you have been riding to tips from others on this board, I am still a bit baffled for not once have you said you or a m/c shop check your chains to sprocket to wear & tear.
You also typed "--I understand this is a sportier bike, but it is still a 1000cc engine and should have enough low-end torque to pull from a stop without revving the piss out of it.-----" Which tells me you are expecting the 1000cc of your Honda sould be like the 1000cc of a V-twin or Cruiser. This Honda, like 1000cc of Suzuki, to Yamaha, to Kawasaki is built basically for Road Racing on a cirsuit. Without question the engine cannot be lugged as Andy & so many others have pointed out.
No you do not have to take off from a still position with the engine screaming like mad. I spend most of my riding hours up in the winding, up & down mountain roads of basically two lane though some boring four lane roads that do not have bend to twisties in them. Still to get out of my town I have to work my way through paved roads with no sidewalks so I have to be in the lower gears of lst to 2nd with a flexiable engine as kids sometimes, run from a home on one side of the road to the home on the others side without looking, to also people of all ages are out getting their leg excises in walking their one or two dogs on the same paved narror roads so AGAIN I have to ride with caution in those two gears.
Once on the Hwy then I can ease up to 6th gear, but not uncommon for me to go down a cog or two as traffice ahead of me, might be questionable, to, unfortunately I have to work my way through some city traffic which means often I am down around 5th/4th to 6th again to also go up & down the gears. Finally I am out of the city riding to where I can work my way up to basically 5th to 6th gear on & off to the mountain roads, as so mentioned.
True I do not have a CBR1000RR, but a CBR929RR to CBR954RR which handle better in my hands then a CBR1000RR for really I do not need to be up to when the pipe comes on for that is around 8,000rpm. Oh once in a while I have some lugging traffic ahead of me & that is where I go down a cog or two to scoot by them in the higher revs with hope no RCMP Constable sees me clocking 125 to 135mph on a max 100MAX Speed Limit road.
My bikes do NOT have the torque at the lower revs that cruisers do or many other bikes. Since 1948 I was into building normal British bikes to even Jpn bikes from normal form to road racing set up, later to be called "Cafe Race" by so many other SO in my case being on Sportbikes since I purchased my own in '85 THIS is all I have riden.
Noise engine can be coming from the air intake flap that is directly below your fuel tank once you get the revs up, but not at lugging speeds for LUGGING is so different.
As I said once before I think you have purchased the wrong bike & are expecting it to perform in a much different way/form which they will NOT other then you will be damaging the bike yourself.
Remember all the others on the road are crazy & out to kill you.Post Edited (Smitty) : 10/27/2009 1:23:42 AM GMT | | Back to Top | | |
  |  sabre0 Registered Member
        Date Joined Sep 2009 Total Posts : 17 | Posted 11/3/2009 1:45 PM (GMT -8) |   | Wow, ppl are still responding to a post from back in Sep! Thank you all, first off. The bike is running fine. It was just a matter of getting used to a 1000cc engine. Someone more experienced told me I'd feel the same way the day I ride my first Ferrari. That put everything in perspective 
Bike runs great at high speeds of course. From a dead start, it moves smooth too - was just a matter of my getting used to it, the clutch play and the throttle. It still makes a knocking sound every now and then, especially after a ride when it is idling. Wonder why? | | Back to Top | | |
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