ideal cruising RPM? 1982 LTD 1000

Hi, most of my commute to work is along county roads where my speed is 80 km/h. I like to go the speed limit, so my tach reads just a hair above 3000 rpm. The bike runs smooth and quiet at this engine speed and has plenty of power as well. I am still getting used to this bike, that is why I am asking whether this is an ok engine speed to cruise at. I am used to my 550 still where 3000 would not be acceptable, I don't want to be bogging the engine down, or fowling my plugs. I also noticed that on the 550 if I cruised at a too low RPM my fuel economy would get worse, so I am again wondering if maybe 3000 is too low regarding fuel economy. Should I maybe speed up to 90 or drop it into 4th gear and stay at 80?

This depends on a few items such as gear ratios and sprockets, not to mention tire sizes...

I have a 1015cc kit with performance cams in my bike...

15 cc sprocket and 37 rear sprocket... 17" rims.
@ 65mph, purrs at 4400rpm in 5th gear...

Miles per gallon ~ 28 right now, just finalizing my jetting so truly not accurate yet and this also will depned on your driving habits...

My motor build was designed for low to mid range performance so I like to twist a little for the adrenalin rush..... :woohoo:

I just fill up every hundred miles.

OMR

I have that same model. If stock, the bike has fairly low lift and duration camshafts and is basically very good for lugging around at low rpm.

85 km/hr is about 50 mph. I think stock, mine was about 3000 rpm at 45 mph, so you might check the sprockets. I bet someone went down a tooth or two on the rear.

Stock, my rear tire is 130/90/16? Is that what you have?

i just put on a new tire, it's 130/90-16...I will check the sprockets though. THanks! other than the plugs getting carbon fouled which could of course be from something else too is there any way of seeing if I am boggin it down?

If it is in a good state of tune, you should be getting about 45 mpg. If, as you say, it is pulling fine at 3000 rpm and it is getting good mileage, I would not be concerned.

I also have a CB750 and it is fine pulling at 3000 rpm, but it prefers 4000. I think the larger engines are better at pulling down low.

I measured the lift on the '82 LTD camshaft some time back and found it to be roughly 0.315". This is pretty low lift, and probably has low duration as well.

Compare that to a '81 GPZ1100 cam that I measured at .345 and the 1984 GPZ1100 (I don't have this cam, but several sources support this number) which is .375". This is one reason the LTD pulls from such low RPM so well.

If you are fouling plugs, I would look elsewhere first before blaming it on the gearing.

IMO - hammer it once in a while to keep it cleaned out;)

cool. I cruised all day saturday and calculated my first tank of gas got me 49 MPG...that is the best I have gotten sofar. I spent the entire day at the above mentioned 3200 RPM. I do wind it up at least once a day, usually when I am leaving work so I think I should be fine. Yeah the bike feels fine at 3000, but I wasn't sure as I am still in 550 mode...

Thanks for the help