Posted by Eric on October 24, 2000 at 19:00:16:
In Reply to: Torque Compensator posted by Polar Pilot on October 23, 2000 at 22:57:41:
The sounds you're hearing when you crank the throttle open at 15mph in fourth gear... it's not the "counterbalancers and torque compensators flying about in the crank case", it's your main bearings and crank shaft very nearly flying loose from the cases. Sounds like someone going bonkers with a mallet in there, don't it, and big, slow, jackhammer jolts? This is called lugging your engine, just as bad as over-revving it. As the late, great Volkswagen guru and general internal combustion sage St. John (John Muir, that is) put it, lugging an engine in too high a gear is like trying to ride a ten speed bicycle up a steep hill in tenth gear. The strain is huge and, if your legs (analogous to pistons, folks) are strong enough, you could bend the crank.
Sure, idling along at low speed in top gear sounds cool (that thump... thump... thump... is part of why we all ride these bikes) but it's hell on the engine internals, especially if you don't downshift when you light it up. Suzuki puts counterbalancers in these things so that they smooth out as the revs rise. Don't be shy about revving them up a bit. If you're doing 15 mph in second gear, you're still way down in the revs but have plenty of power on tap RIGHT NOW should you snap that throttle open, instead of lugging it and waiting for the revs to climb to peak torque. Don't worry too much about accidentally over-revving your LS. The bike will let you know, as vibes suddenly come on very strong, that rush of acceleration becomes a strain for that last bit of speed, and the engine sounds like it's, well, the end of its little world.
Jeez, hope you're all still awake. Didn't mean to write a novel. Keep the filthy, grease-dripping, road-kill-encrusted side down!