What to look for in a tachometer for the vulcan 500

[Triangles]

Our engines have a dual fire ignition system. This means that the spark plug fires on the power stroke and the exhaust stroke (ie fires once per revolution when piston is near top dead center, both power stroke and exhaust).

Most any dual fire tach should be able to work with our bike. Usually there is simply a power wire (switched with ignition), ground and a signal wire that is hooked to the negative ignition coil terminal.

The most economical Tach I have found is from Powersports outlet store. Keep an eye on the how-to section for details how I installed this tach.

[burkbuilds]

That looks exactly like the one I put on my bike, but about $20 cheaper than I paid. Good find!

[GeorgiaRider]

I've read where the 500 redlines at 9-10K rpm. Do you find that your tach pegs at 8K or does it keep climbing and you can estimate? I don't have a tach yet. Have you revved it that high and if so did it feel like it was ok and not going to blow up?

Thanks.

[burkbuilds]

I've had mine up to what "seems" to be over 9,000 rpms briefly, just revving the engine, but the tach only has numbers up to 8,000. I've taken her up to about 105 mph on the highway once and she was still climbing and that was just a little over 7,000 rpms on my tach. I changed out the front sprocket to a 17 tooth to give me a little lower rpms in the top end, so that's not the way she's set up from the factory. I was just curious about how fast this bike would actually go and I assumed she'd top out around 95-100 but when I hit 105 I decided that she'd go faster than I really was interested in finding out and I backed off.
The time it revved to over 9,000 was when my friend Jim, a former Suzuki mechanic, had just helped me adjust the valves and after letting it warm up good he revved it way up and I asked him if that was safe and he seemed to think this bike probably didn't red line until about 9500 but that was just his guess.

[Triangles]

Essentially the only difference between our bikes and the ninja 500 is the pistons and cams. The ninja red lines at 14,000 RPM our engine is rev limited at 11,000 RPM. Since the same bottom end can safely rev up to 14,000 RPM I think it would be safe to say it was be nearly impossible to over rev our engine. I had a 12,000 RPM tach on my bike and verified that it does rev limit at about 11,000 RPM.

I moved to the 8k tach for several reasons:
1 above 8k RPM power drops off rather sharply.
2 I rarely exceed 7K RPM under normal conditions.
3 the 8K tach was easier to read at a glance. ie more space between the numbers.

[GeorgiaRider]

Thanks for the info. Looks like a nice tach.

[Triangles]

I've read where the 500 redlines at 9-10K rpm. Do you find that your tach pegs at 8K or does it keep climbing and you can estimate?

Thanks.

I realized I never answered this question. It's been snow and ice here so I haven't ridden for a little over a month. I don't really remember. There is no peg. I vaguely remember revving to about 9K rpm and I think it went at least that far.

I think I've already said this before, but there really is no point in revving over 8K unless you're trying to get some where as fast as possible. The Dyno below drives this point home. The torque fades after 5250 rpm and HP after 7750 rpm.

Dyno of the EN500 LTD done by Motorcycle Cruiser.
See the whole article at http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/roadte ... index.html

Dyno of the EN500 LTD done by Motorcycle Cruiser.

dyno.JPG (25.46 KiB) Viewed 20743 times

[GeorgiaRider]

Thanks again. I've seen this chart before. I'm sure I've never been no where near red line.