It's around 9500 I think... Don't worry about bouncing off it too much... It's a limietr after all, and protects the engine by doing what it does. It's a virtual redline.

 

It's very bad for engine wear - if the engine is not at its optimum working temperature or under load. Other than that, the rev limiter is there to protect the engine.

 

A good way of telling how close your engine is to the rev limiter on a 950 is to take a measurement from the bottom of the front wheel to the ground.


anything over 4 foot and you are nearly there

 

 

It's if the limiter ever fails you gotta worry , always best to check it's working once in awhile

 

I hit the limiter occasionally- if it was a big issue surely KTM would fit a rev counter

 

really the question can only be answered with 'how does the rev limiter operate'?

The reason I state this is that some bikes (suzuki and kawasaki) noticably, cut the fuel to all 4 cylinders for momentary time periods, thus preventing you from being able to increase the revs. This can be thought of as a 'soft' bounce, as the limiter applies to all cylinders and minimises the stresses to mechanical devices.

Other bikes (yamaha especially), cut power/fuel to 1,2 or 3 of the 4 cylinders, thus only some of the cylinders to fire. This can be thought of as a 'big' bounce, since you may have 3/4 of your engine working on say 50% throttle and 1/4 working on 100%. This has an immediate effect on stressing components like crank, rods etc.

Not going to comment on which is better, but i've seen far too many Yams have the pips revved off them, only for the engine to go BANG!

 

Nah, it's also good for running it in, stops glazing in the pots, according to some? but I wouldn't do it until the engines done at least 1200 miles, but then I'm no expert.

 

Does anyone know how the rev limiter works?

As the bike has carbs it must be more tricky than a computer controlled fuel injection system

 

the bike has a fancy ECU that controls the ignition. Its probably done there.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I will not worry as much about it now.

Another SM owner with a tach told me that @8500 RPM the speeds with a 16t CS was 40, 60, 80, 100, 120 for first through fifth gears. This is a good reference for those with no tach.