I would like to know what year they started putting them on these bikes.
I am pretty sure my old 1983 basic engine doesn't have a sophisticated system as that yet. Not going to try it either.
As said, the rev limiter will prevent you from going too high. It will not be "unhealthy" to hit the rev limiter every once in a while, but if you visit it often and hold it there, it could become an issue.
Now what the exact number is, I have no idea. On occasion I have hit the limiter, it seemed pretty high.
The biggest drawback to rev limiters is that they give a false sense of confidence to people who think that a rev limiter will prevent an engine from revving high enough to seriously damage or blow itself up. Nothing can be further from the truth.
If you're wound out tight in 2nd gear and your plan is to shift into third but you accidentally hit 1st, you'll most likely blow the heads off the motor and get to watch the pistons and rods exiting the case. Same with accidentally hitting neutral between shifts with the motor would out tight. Rev limiters only cut off fuel or spark. They DON'T limit revs.
Absolutely right Chuck Michigan, no substitute for a jock strap and cup and ballistic Kevlar trousers in that case.
There is no brake on the spinning bits, so stupidity or misadventure can have spectacular rewards.
I have no idea on the rev limiter for the 1100's.
These are the ones I know about:
On the VT600's at least the 2 carb ones it kicks in at 8000 rpm probably about 1500 rpm or so past where the horsepower curve quit climbing, the VT600 has double valve springs shared with Hondas more sporting 650 V-twins which do have far more elevated red lines.
The VT750 Spirit (Chain Drive) rev limiter comes on at 6300 rpm, past the power peak at 5500, but it will still be accelerating when it hits it.
The VT750 ACE I've dug into a little further, Its rev limiter comes on at 6100 with the stock power peak at 5500, in fact at 5500 the ICM starts to retard the ignition timing advance causing a rapid fall off of power.
These 2 VT750's have single valve springs, which limit the valve train more than the VT600, 7000rpm max seems to be repeatable on these in good condition, but I would not want to go further.
I red line my own 750 ACE with its programmable ICM at 6500 with the rev limiter at 6800. Ridden fairly hard like this for three seasons and it hasn't blown up ..................yet.
thank you for your replies. I have bought a cheap digital rpm meter because I am curious at which rpm that chirping starts. SC23 is the type of Shadow in Europe during that time (SC18 for my US California Shadow), I think starting with 1995 the new sc32 with the single pin motor was sold.
After I got the carbs cleaned and jetted by a shop inkl. dyno-tests the bike feels more "alive" and revs up to approx 6000 rpm without a problem. Sometimes it feels that the engine really likes the area between 5000 and 6000 rpm. I tried to go up to that maximum-mark in the tachometer so I can find out where about the max. rpm is. I could not make it up to that mark in the third gear because it did't feel good at 6300 rpm. So I guess max rev might be at around 65000 rpm or a bit higher.
Usually I don't drive the bike with high rpm, but with the new oil and the serviced carb the bike feels quite good at +5500 rpm.
It's a pain to watch these vids with all that idiots destroying their bikes, waste of money.
kind regards
florian
The single-pin crank engine debuted on the 1995 VT1100C2 (aka A. C. E. or ACE) and was also installed in the VT1100C3 (aka Aero) until the engine was discontinued at the end of the 1999 production run. (The ACE was dropped in favor of the Sabre starting in 2000.)
A dual-pin crank engine (with 5 gears) was also produced during that time for the VT1100C (aka Spirit) and VT1100T (aka ACE Tourer) and beyond. Starting in 2000 it was also installed in the VT1100C3 as well as the VT1100C2 under the Sabre name.The engine number varied for each model due to different transmission gearing but was, basically, the same engine. Those engine numbers were recently posted in a thread somewhere here.
All of the above had rev limiters. Generally, it's difficult to hit the limit after second gear. While the redline hasn't been published anywhere that I could find, it is generally considered to be around 6,500 RPM. Or between 6,250 and 6,500.
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