Watching the SE's RPM

[BajaRon]

Its really hard to adjust to this type of riding coming from a Goldwing, trying to maintain 4k rpm or above in traffic is difficult. Sounds like the engine is suffering, screaming for a gear change. Instinct is telling me to change up but fighting the urge is difficult. Sounds like the engine is going to bust out the spyder.

harry

It is hard to adjust from a low RPM, high torque engine to a high RPM, low torque bottom end engine like our Rotax. Coming off the Suzuki M109R torque monster I had to adjust. We have trained our ear and our seat of the pants for a different engine and format.

If you came off a crotch rocket to a Harley you'd have the same problem in reverse. Everything would be telling you something was wrong.
But I'm here to say that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks, as long as the dog is willing to learn. hyea: Ride it like it was designed and ignore your instincts. After awhile you're insincts will adjust to the situation.

When you need to change between 4.5k and 5k and you have to run above 3.5k thats a very small band width to drive at a constant speed. Wish they could make that better.

harry

That is just the point. You DO NOT need to shift at 4,500~5,000 RPM. The Spyder will be just fine if you go to 6K or even more. But to do this the rider must overcome their urge to keep RPM low and their fear of seeing that Tach needle going where none have gone before.

Is this damage mainly on the clutch, or have there been some engine / bearing damage as well? And if that is the case, could it be related to the oil pressure? I recall seeing a thread about oil pressure dropping at low RPM's...

Damage is mainly to the clutch. But the details are the clutch begins to desintegrate depositing parts and pieces into the oil. We aren't talking dump truck loads but still, a lot more stuff in the oil than you want. Oil filters can clog, lubricated parts can suffer. It's just something that you can completely avoid if you simply ride the Syder as designed.

Oil pressure will always drop at lower RPM but it should never drop to where it is an issue unless there are other, non-RPM causes.

Either there's something wrong with my SM, or it points to how much the SE clutches strain at low RPMs. I can't seem to maintain any speed at low RPMs. The engine just strains too much and I have to twist the throttle farther. I'd have to try it and see, but things seem to run really well above 3600 or so. There's plenty of power to coast or even accelerate from this RPM.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

The difference is your SM clutch is fully engaged, no slippage. If you constantly slipped your clutch it would act like a torque converter and you would be able to run lower RPM's with less difficulty. Of course you would smoke your clutch in the process because of the friction and wear created by slippage.

In other words, you would never run around in a manual transmission vehicle slipping the clutch all day long. But this is exactly what you are doing in an SE Spyder when operating at RPM's lower than what is necessary to fully engage the clutch. With, I might add, the same negative results.

Simply bump up the RPM and all of this goes away.

 

[ARCTIC]

I now have an RPM complex after reading threads about this :yikes: Do you guys shift down to first when taking a corner? Until reading this stuff I had been using 2nd gear. I went for a ride tonight and spent the ENTIRE TIME trying to analyze my shifting habits. I don't think I'm doing anything too harmful but maybe I should change my gear I use in the corner.

 

[Grandpa Spyder]

Shifting point

I am one of those X wingers that really had to learn to shift at higher RPMs I now shift at a min. of 4000 rpms, this keeps my rpms in the 3000 range after the shift. It took me some time to get use to this, but it is now natural.

 

[NancysToy]

I now have an RPM complex after reading threads about this :yikes: Do you guys shift down to first when taking a corner? Until reading this stuff I had been using 2nd gear. I went for a ride tonight and spent the ENTIRE TIME trying to analyze my shifting habits. I don't think I'm doing anything too harmful but maybe I should change my gear I use in the corner.

No need to get a complex...or to avoid lower rpm altogether. The centrifugal clutch is designed to slip when the rpm drops, so it does so for things like taking off, downshifting, and cornering. That slipping is not good on a constant basis, however. A little doesn't hurt...it just should not be run that way for extended lengths of time. For normal riding and cruising, your rpm should be above 3,200-3,500. Select your gear accordingly.

 

[Dragonrider]

School zones (out here) are 3K rpm in 1st gear. I have two to traverse to get anywhere at 1.2 miles total. My old K12 and V-rods lumped through them just fine. The Spyder will occasionally hang up - shifting into 2nd - coming out of those. I always thought it was because the bike hadn't warmed up enough…

 

[chris56]

made this clip from my cluster - just to see when I`m shifting up & down (did till now 25.000 spyder-mls) - to follow a "normal" BMW rider I have to go up to 7000 rpms before I shift in the next gear ..
btw the spyder is "strong" enough to ride in abiker-group - they never had to wait for us :clap:

 

[Jeriatric]

Great video! Thanks.

 

[Dragonrider]

The latest development is that my analog tach reads 1500 RPM LOWER than my digital tach…. and getting worse as the (summer) temperature rises.

 

[Pappy John]

Watching the speedo in your video, and thinking to myself, "Holy sheep shavings!!!", until I realised it was reading KMs.