D@mn! D@mn! D@mn!

Hey All,

Checked air in tires...low, around 28psi in each. Put 32psi in front, 36psi in rear and I'm off. Want to see how having correct pressure feels when riding. Nice...and much smoother. A little too smooth maybe cause' on my way back from a 30 minute ride or so I passed...you got it...a cop. I check my mirror to see if he was turning round to get me (he was). 73 in a 55. When I passed him I looked at my speedo to see how fast I was going. I was around 45ish. Question...is km/h close to vehicle mph? The yellow km/h on my speedo is closer to what he said he clocked me at and is in line with the white mph numbers. I know my speedo is functioning properly cause' I can feel the revs at each gear change interval.

1>2 @ 14mph
2>3 @ 22mph
3>4 @ 31mph
4>5 @ 37mph

 

What kind of 'revs' do you have at 37mph in 4th gear? Dude, you can let that motor wake up a little more than that. I can hit 65mph in second when I am gettin' on it!

 

x2!!!

 

(I changed my shifting pattern this my 3rd year of riding). I did pass someone in 2nd gear doing upto 70mph before it finally broke loose all the junk in my carbs that I never got around to cleaning.... (Hopefully valve shims, carbs and leak free exhaust system will fix my bike, but that's another post )

I think my signature still has a link to my 1st year shifting suggestions for our XJs. With a little experience, this year I'm crusing/riding at 6500 rpm vs. 5500 and shifting around 8k instead of when I got to a "set speed" range I was doing as a new rider. Perhaps when the bike is running smooth again, I'll start shifting in the redline range (except 1st-2nd).

 

100 kph = 62mph.

For you to get tagged at 73. You would have been running in the 120kph range.

Ghost

 

And you have no tach? So you're basing the "known accuracy" of your speedo on how the "revs feel??"

Based on your "shift points" I feel sorry for the bike; and I strongly suspect your speedometer is NOT working correctly.

"KPH" is Kilometers per hour; "MPH" is miles per hour. 60mph=100Kph, approximately.

Borrow somebody's "smartphone" with a GPS app and go check your speedo.

I would also really recommend running a tach. On a 9,000rpm motor, it's kind of hard to tell the difference between 8K and 9K by the "seat of your pants." If you never take it past 6K, you're not doing the motor any justice. It was made to rev.

 

. . . . that gave me a warm fuzzy feeling in my belly! I love you YAMAHA!

 

At 6k rev, you're just starting to get into the powerband.

Like someone above said......65 in second gear, easy to do, and the bike can do that all day long. I have had enough times where I needed to pass a truck on the highway, drop to 4th and go, still need more help for getting past the guy who wants to play games? Drop to third. Starting to go up a hill? Drop to second, fly past, and enjoy the ride.

The 650 has plenty of snot, the bigger ones.....even more. But, the 650 has all the power anyone really needs.

Dave F

 

+1 on what Fitz said. If your tach doesn't work, you really need one. And you speedo is not accurate if you were going "45mph" according to the speedo and were clocked by a law enforcement radar gun @ 73. I have used the smartphone gps app as Fitz also suggested and found it to be very good at checking the speedo accuracy.

It is really easy to get into the fun zone, and out of the legal zone on these XJ's. Properly tuned, they will rev to redline very quickly, and hold it there a lot longer than most riders have the nerve to sustain it. (Common sence and self preservation tend to kick in )

 

Hi Rocs. I re-read your post and the others. It does really seem like you have a lazy speedometer. When they are dirty internally, the gunk can cause the readings to lag much slower than it should. It sounds like that is the situation for you, otherwise you wouldn't be 'feeling the revs' so much when shifting at the speeds you posted. (So do you have a tach?) Fitz has posted a nice how-to threat on servicing the speedometer.

 

Shifting at those speeds is only around 3,000rpms. Barely enough to charge the battery, let alone make the motor happy.

73mph is 117.5kph

45mph is 73kph, just a happy coincidence.

You need to clean/lube your speedo.

And yes you need a tach. 75 in 5th gear is only around 5,000 rpm, about halfway to red.

 

Man-O-Man!

Did I ask for it or what! Thanks everyone for chimin' in but rest assured I would not be riding this bike w/o my tach. I'm going to get my wife to take a video of my bike running so I can post it and you all can wear me out some more about my shift points. My tach works fine. I cruise at 30mph on the speedo, 3.5 - 4 on the tach. I've ridden my bike to work the past two Friday's (it's a 32 mile one way trip from my driveway) so I've had my tach well past 7k and I have 21k on it now verse the almost 18k on it when I bought it last june. I'm going to try to post this video so you all can hear and see the speedo and tach working. I appreciate you guys...It's a trip, but a cool trip that you guys are "on it" like this.

 

LOL, we did pile on you some! But come on, you were like "I can feel the REVS at 14MPH!!!"

That gear shift table is funny, (I looked it up in my book guys, it's there!) but the same book also says on page 36 at the end of the Engine Break-in section, item no. 4:
1000 km (600 mi) and beyond: Avoid prolonged full throttle Operation. Avoid engine speeds in excess of 7,000 r/min. Vary speeds occasionally.

I guess we're all abusing our bikes (the 7,000 rpm part) beyond the mechanical limits, as per THE MANUAL.

Anyway Rocs, do you still have an unresolved question?

 

I have never used a tach and have always gone by sound. To me a tach is only good for redline. I've never blown a motor or tranny in the proccess. All this being said for car drag racing.
Bikes are harder to gauge by ear because of the normal high revs. I don't have a tach on my XJ because it's a Max and I operate it as a cruiser. I rarely get on it, but I have no problems shifting by sound once I got used to the high revs.
The problem with shifting by tach, not every motor is the same. I won many races because the other driver was going by the tach and shifted too early. They are very useful, especially for beginners, just don't let it become a crutch.

 

Hey all,

I'm going to check Metal Bob's thread about gear changes. I've read it before, i'll have to do a search and find it. Thanks.

 

My wife just pulled up the speedo app. Going to strap it to my bike and chk my speedo. will let you all know. Thanks.

 

Hey All,

For the record...please let me explain myself...I NEVER had doubt about any of the advice I have been given. I would like to thank all of you for helping me with this. As it turns out, attached smartphone gps app to tach gauge, ran my bike at various speeds up to 40mph. My speedo is off by about 10mph. When the gps read 10mph, my speedo was still at 0. I'm going to read Fitz's thread on cleaning my speedo and check Metal Bob's thread on gear changes. I ran my bike beyond what I thought was gear change revving before I changed gears and It did not grind or anything. I was afraid I was going to mess the gears up or something if I ran it that hard before changing gears. Like I said...I know you all know what you are talking about. Thing is...had I not posted this thread I may not have gotten this info. I thought the speedo was functioning properly. When the cop said he clocked me at 73 I thought "No way". Thanks again.

 

Mine is 10 off also i just have to remind myself sometimes when im not paying attention of course. This is the first XJ i haved owned my first bike was a Kaw 440 and could never get the revs out of it like i do my XJ (God do i love it) I thought running it at high rpms like that was not good on it but after reading the posts on here im goin to start riding and shifting totally different. Thanks to all of you that have owned these bikes for years and know so much about them.

 

66Elco,

Yeah, got me. Go to Forums > FAQ and Suggestions > Pg.2 > New rider want some Gear Shifting Selecting Tips? by Metal Bob. This is my first bike also and I thought the same thing about revving the engine. Not so with XJ's! They are built to do so. Cool. Now we need to find Fitz's thread on cleaning the speedo. If you find it before I do let me know. If I find it... I will let you know. Thanks Metal Bob! and thanks in advance Mr. Fitz.

 

Fitz's speedo tech:
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=1 ... aning.html