Charon wrote on 05/22/10 at 14:39:20:As a matter of interest, yesterday May 22, 2010, I took my box stock '07 S40 out with the idea of seeing whether I could hit a rev limiter. Note that I have no tach on the bike. After riding it for plenty long enough to be sure it was warm, I put it in second and wound it up till it would go no faster. There was no sound of break-up as one would expect from an on-off rev limiter. It topped at 60 mph, which if Suzuki's table on Page 4-2 of the Owner's Manual is correct, corresponds to 7150 rpm (slide-rule accuracy). I repeated the run using first gear, but quite frankly I am unsure of my own measurements, since I didn't write them down immediately. I think I remember seeing 47 mph in first, which would be about 8700 rpm and which I do not believe. If on the other hand I saw 37 mph the rpm would have been just under 7000. I would expect the rpm in 1st to be higher because there is less aerodynamic drag at the lower speed, but not that much higher. It is easy to misread a speedometer, and I may well have done so.
If anyone cares, I was using 87 octane fuel (with Sta-Bil) from last fall when I put the bike away for the winter. Shell Rotella 15W-40 oil. Bike has about 6200 miles. Temperature about 70 degrees, altitude about 1800 feet.
Suzuki gives the following speeds at 6500 rpm. 1st, 35 mph. 2nd, 55 mph. 3rd, 75 mph. 4th, 90 mph. 5th, 100 mph. There is some rounding, as both the Metric and English speeds are given to the nearest 5, and the Metric and English speeds as given are not exactly equivalent. Because of that rounding my rpm calculations are necessarily inexact.
Okay, people. Since I seem to have a reputation for questioning the methodology of others, here's your chance to question mine.