Downshifting???

[Dawg68]

Good day all;
Forgive me in advance if this seems like a dumb question.
If the R3R produces 147ft-lbs of torque @ 2500 rpm. On the highway @ 100kmh the tach reads aproximatly 2250rpm. With a slight twist of the throttle I'm over 2500rpm accelerating quickly. Is there a reason to downshift to 4th to pass? Or am I looking at this wrong, is it peak HP I'm trying to achieve by downshifting which is at 5750 rpm?

All this is with respect to a stock bike.

Thanks

 

[teraeric]

if a twist gives you sufficient acceleration, then just twist... but downshifting will give you more acceleration, because your hp to intertia ratio will improve...

 

[HansO]

Yup it's the HP

 

[Dawg68]

Okay, got it, it's about the HP not the torque. Thank fellas

 

[Rocket65]

Depends on whether you just want to pass somebody that is going a reasonable speed or you want to blow the doors off of somebody that is poking along.

 

[CanberraR3]

Just do whatever you need too. Did I say need? ***, just do what ever feels good at the time. Frankly it doesn't matter.

 

[bruce aussie]

Peck (Vale) and I swapped bikes on the Hyway to Esk when my Rocket had about 5000k's on it. I was following him on on his Fatboy that had about 140000k's on it. We caught a car doing about 130kph he just opened the throttle on the Roadster in top gear and was gone. When we got to Esk pub he couldn't stop talking about how he was doing 190kph by the time he got past the car.

 

[Evil Mitch]

Yeah wouldn't be something a fat***** rider would be used to

 

[TOMCAT]

That's where Rockets really sing .. those 'speed limit' roll ons when overtaking .. or chasing breakaways from the pack ( like the previous three posters)

 

[SteveX]

My understanding is that;

Power is the rate at which work is done, where Torque is the amount of force applied: therefore

Power = how many bangs there are (RPM)
Torque = how big the bangs are

Power therefore is important if you want to get past that car fast, but the advantage of torque is that you don't necessarily have to downshift because HP = Torque x RPM

A low torque engine requires high RPM. The Rocket doesn't