are you a "lugger"?

[RyanK]

Do you lug your bike around town? Or are you a high-revver?

Me...it's not uncommon that I'm too lazy to shift outta 6th as a approach a stoplight, slowing to as low as 12 mph and taking off again. Maybe that's why I get really good mileage and I see others getting poor? The FZ lugs down suprisingly well :thumbup:

That's probably why I have to run better gas to keep from spark-knocking too...

 

[dankatz]

lugger...ride around town in 3-4k range and downshift to 2nd gear when I come to a stop. Occassionally I ride it higher lik 4-6krpm. Almost never above that.

 

[Roadstergal]

I adapt my shifting pattern to the situation. There's no one formula that works for all of them.

In general, though, there's no sense in revving high if you aren't on the throttle. I have to laugh at guys that scream around town uncertainly with the revs high up. When you need the revs, hit the throttle until you don't need them anymore, then shift up.

 

[Mississippi]

I try to keep the rpm's low, but every once in a while I wind em up just cause I can.

 

[FZ6er_FSR]

Nope, I don't lug.

IMO:

When you lug your bike, the engine is on the brink of stalling.

Depending on how badly you lug your bike, you may end up using more throttle to get the bike back to speed. Example: Starting from a dead stop on 2nd gear. But in this department, it depends on your riding style.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, are you considering anybody who rides the bike under 7000 RPM to be a lugger?

As long as you're in the rpm range, your bike shouldn't be lugging.

Also, if lugging causes the inablitly to accelerate quickly, you may get a car up your rear from the inattentive driver behind you.

 

[Hellgate]

First gear is good for about 60mph isn't it? Why shift?

No I'm pretty lazy with the revs around town. I usually shift at 5,500 to 6,500. She'll putt fine at 4,000 in the lower gears, 2 through 4.

 

[dako81]

Lugging your engine wears it more than riding with the rpm's higher.

Let's see if I can describe this and make any sense.

The way I see it is when your engine (gasoline w/throttle bodies) is running, it is constantly seeking an equilibrium between the available air and fuel, and the speed of the crank. The available air and fuel dictates the size of the explosion in the combustion chamber, which in turn is directly related to the speed of the piston, which in turn spins the crank. Also, the available air pressure behind the throttle bodies dictates the cylinder pressure as the pistons suck air in and compress it prior to ignition.

This equilibrium is what your engine equals out to at whatever throttle position, at whatever load you have on the engine. You open the throttle the tach goes up until it reaches equilibrium. You are going steady, and start to go up a hill, there's more load on the engine, so it will slow down because the equilibrium is off, or you open the throttle more to maintain speed, which equals out the input to the load.

The higher the cylinder pressure, the faster the wear on the piston, rings, bearings, cylinder walls, connecting rods, crank journals...etc.

When your bike is idleing, it is at an equilibrium between the air that seeps past the closed throttle bodies, it's pulling full vacuum, as much as it can, and cant pump the air any faster since there is no more to pump. There's almost no load on the engine, so it's running pretty much freely, just to sustain itself at the equilibrium available to it, made possible by the amount of air seeping past the throttle blades and the fuel sprayed in. Each time the cylinder is pulling in air with the intake valves open, it is pulling against a vacuum, so the cylinder pressure is very low.

When you open the throttle blades to revv the engine, you're decreasing the vacuum, which is adding air flow andpressure to the system behind the throttle blades. This means that each time the piston sucks in air, it's getting more air, the same fixed volume but at a higher pressure. Also, the computer injects more fuel to keep the AFR within tolerances which creates more power, etc.

Now, keep in mind like I said about you open the throttle blades, pressure increases, and your bike starts to rev up. The cylinders are a fixed volume, each revolution they can only pump x amount of air for every pressure. You increased the amount of air available to the cylinder, so now the cylinder has to speed up to reach equilibrium in the system with the available air, to pull a vacuum as best as it can behind the throttle blades. (the fuel provides the energy to increase the speed of the pistons)

When you cracked open that throttle, you held it there. So, we've discussed what happens when you open it, and why is starts speeding up (more airflow, pressure and fuel). As it starts to reach equilibrium with your throttle position, the cylinder pressure starts to drop relative to what it was as soon as you cracked the throttle, since the pistons are moving faster now, instead of cramming a higher pressure of air into the cylinder since the throttle was opened, it will just increase it's speed to pump the same amount of air through the cylinder, more times to acheive the equilibrium flow that's available.

So once the engine is spun up and held there, the forces are once decreased again to those which are similar to when the engine was at equilibrium, at idle. Now, yes more revolutions will mean more wear, but with more revolutions at low pressures and low strains, the increased wear is negligible for the purposes of engine life. (Yes the increased rmp's will make a very slight difference eventually, but it can be argued that it most likely wont happen during the service life of our engines).

So, when the rmp's are higher, there is more power being made or more power readily available. The engine is also running more efficiently.

When you ride with the rpm's really low, the engine doesn't have the capacity to make as much power as if it was running at a higher speed, since it's only able to pump so much air through etc. This means, it takes more throttle to go, creating higher cylinder pressure than what would be required if the engine were spinning faster, for a longer duration of time. This means that you engine is wearing more. Like I said you're creating higher cylinder pressures, which is what causes detonation, and strain on all of the parts dicussed before.

When you ride at higher rpm's, you engine is capable of creating more power, which means it will reach equilibrium faster, reducing the time that the high cylinder pressures exist. It is also running more efficiently, since it reaches equilibrium faster. The engine is more efficient at it's equilibrium speed at whichever throttle opening than it is below that speed.

So yea, lugging = BAD.

Hope this made sense to at least one person. Or, I'm just full of CRAP.

\equilibrium

And I'm not saying you have to ride at high rpm's, but lugging from 2k-3k rpms on these motors in high gears is not good. Cruising at these rmp's is fine, but before you goose it you should downshift a couple of times.

 

[CrazyBiker]

I enjoy high rpms as well as high mpg which are impossible to achieve at the same time. So its just what I want when. Usually 2-4 in city upto 40 mph. Almost never below 6th above 50 mph.

 

[reiobard]

I lug, for both gas mileage and for efforts sake. I am lazy too.

 

[champion221elite]

Unless I'm accelerating, I try to keep the RPM's in the 5,000-6,000 range. I would consider that right in the middle of the high RPM and lugging the motor crowd.

Lugging is hard on the engine while riding around town at low speeds and high RPM's just screams "look at me".

 

[Capo79]

Lugging your engine wears it more than riding with the rpm's higher.

Let's see if I can describe this and make any sense.

The way I see it is when your engine (gasoline w/throttle bodies) is running, it is constantly seeking an equilibrium between the available air and fuel, and the speed of the crank. The available air and fuel dictates the size of the explosion in the combustion chamber, which in turn is directly related to the speed of the piston, which in turn spins the crank. Also, the available air pressure behind the throttle bodies dictates the cylinder pressure as the pistons suck air in and compress it prior to ignition.

This equilibrium is what your engine equals out to at whatever throttle position, at whatever load you have on the engine. You open the throttle the tach goes up until it reaches equilibrium. You are going steady, and start to go up a hill, there's more load on the engine, so it will slow down because the equilibrium is off, or you open the throttle more to maintain speed, which equals out the input to the load.

The higher the cylinder pressure, the faster the wear on the piston, rings, bearings, cylinder walls, connecting rods, crank journals...etc.

When your bike is idleing, it is at an equilibrium between the air that seeps past the closed throttle bodies, it's pulling full vacuum, as much as it can, and cant pump the air any faster since there is no more to pump. There's almost no load on the engine, so it's running pretty much freely, just to sustain itself at the equilibrium available to it, made possible by the amount of air seeping past the throttle blades and the fuel sprayed in. Each time the cylinder is pulling in air with the intake valves open, it is pulling against a vacuum, so the cylinder pressure is very low.

When you open the throttle blades to revv the engine, you're decreasing the vacuum, which is adding air flow andpressure to the system behind the throttle blades. This means that each time the piston sucks in air, it's getting more air, the same fixed volume but at a higher pressure. Also, the computer injects more fuel to keep the AFR within tolerances which creates more power, etc.

Now, keep in mind like I said about you open the throttle blades, pressure increases, and your bike starts to rev up. The cylinders are a fixed volume, each revolution they can only pump x amount of air for every pressure. You increased the amount of air available to the cylinder, so now the cylinder has to speed up to reach equilibrium in the system with the available air, to pull a vacuum as best as it can behind the throttle blades. (the fuel provides the energy to increase the speed of the pistons)

When you cracked open that throttle, you held it there. So, we've discussed what happens when you open it, and why is starts speeding up (more airflow, pressure and fuel). As it starts to reach equilibrium with your throttle position, the cylinder pressure starts to drop relative to what it was as soon as you cracked the throttle, since the pistons are moving faster now, instead of cramming a higher pressure of air into the cylinder since the throttle was opened, it will just increase it's speed to pump the same amount of air through the cylinder, more times to acheive the equilibrium flow that's available.

So once the engine is spun up and held there, the forces are once decreased again to those which are similar to when the engine was at equilibrium, at idle. Now, yes more revolutions will mean more wear, but with more revolutions at low pressures and low strains, the increased wear is negligible for the purposes of engine life. (Yes the increased rmp's will make a very slight difference eventually, but it can be argued that it most likely wont happen during the service life of our engines).

So, when the rmp's are higher, there is more power being made or more power readily available. The engine is also running more efficiently.

When you ride with the rpm's really low, the engine doesn't have the capacity to make as much power as if it was running at a higher speed, since it's only able to pump so much air through etc. This means, it takes more throttle to go, creating higher cylinder pressure than what would be required if the engine were spinning faster, for a longer duration of time. This means that you engine is wearing more. Like I said you're creating higher cylinder pressures, which is what causes detonation, and strain on all of the parts dicussed before.

When you ride at higher rpm's, you engine is capable of creating more power, which means it will reach equilibrium faster, reducing the time that the high cylinder pressures exist. It is also running more efficiently, since it reaches equilibrium faster. The engine is more efficient at it's equilibrium speed at whichever throttle opening than it is below that speed.

So yea, lugging = BAD.

Hope this made sense to at least one person. Or, I'm just full of CRAP.

\equilibrium

And I'm not saying you have to ride at high rpm's, but lugging from 2k-3k rpms on these motors in high gears is not good. Cruising at these rmp's is fine, but before you goose it you should downshift a couple of times.

Very good explanation which also is very correct:thumbup:

 

[antijoy]

I voted for "Doesn't it stall below 6,000???", but in reality I would say Doesn't it stall below 4,000???.

My cruising rpm is always between 4.5-6.5k, and below 5k is lugging for me. I'm not a light weight though, 6'1" ~210lb without gear. My mpg is always 39.5mpg or less, I hit 42mpg once when I first broke it in at the low rpms.

 

[Stumbles06]

For the commute to work and back, normally sit on about 4K - 5.5K revs... 3rd and 4th gears mostly.

Get in the hills, it's another story

 

[keira]

I called myself a lugger, but my V-twin gets kinda choppy when it truly "lugs". I never ride in a gear that I can't accelerate in, if need be, but I don't see the need to run a gear down jsut because I'm on a motorcycle. In fact, my riding style is very similar to my driving style, int hat I shift in roughly the same areas. 60mpg makes up for the fact that my buddies think I'm in too high a gear.

Also, keep in mind I don't have an FZ or inline 4, so I run at different rpms anyway.

 

[blchandl2]

I wouldn't say I lug the engine, but I also don't wring the piss out of it either. Lugging is hard on the engine but I do not like to redline any engine of mine.

 

[zigzagg321]

lug lug lug for me with a few bursts of 14k here and there. This bike is plenty quick just luggin it.

 

[urbanj]

To add to this

torsional stress on the crank comes from one cylinder coming up on compression stroke (which slows the crank slightly) and another being forced down from the start of combustion (which speeds the crank up slightly) the torsional stresses on the crank are amplified at lower rpm's because the time between powerstrokes is longer. In a 4 cylinder engine the power strokes are 180 degrees apart.

High load (effective pressure from combustion acting on the top of the piston) and low engine rpm (longer duration between power strokes) is what is hard on the engine. It sounds like most of you are just cruising at a low rpm. Cruising at 4000 rpm and slowly accelerating is not lugging. Lugging would be when you give it bunch of throttle and are in the wrong gear and the rpms increase very slowly while under load.

Do you do that? Then you are lugging. Don't do that.

Lugging your engine wears it more than riding with the rpm's higher.

Let's see if I can describe this and make any sense.

The way I see it is when your engine (gasoline w/throttle bodies) is running, it is constantly seeking an equilibrium between the available air and fuel, and the speed of the crank. The available air and fuel dictates the size of the explosion in the combustion chamber, which in turn is directly related to the speed of the piston, which in turn spins the crank. Also, the available air pressure behind the throttle bodies dictates the cylinder pressure as the pistons suck air in and compress it prior to ignition.

This equilibrium is what your engine equals out to at whatever throttle position, at whatever load you have on the engine. You open the throttle the tach goes up until it reaches equilibrium. You are going steady, and start to go up a hill, there's more load on the engine, so it will slow down because the equilibrium is off, or you open the throttle more to maintain speed, which equals out the input to the load.

The higher the cylinder pressure, the faster the wear on the piston, rings, bearings, cylinder walls, connecting rods, crank journals...etc.

When your bike is idleing, it is at an equilibrium between the air that seeps past the closed throttle bodies, it's pulling full vacuum, as much as it can, and cant pump the air any faster since there is no more to pump. There's almost no load on the engine, so it's running pretty much freely, just to sustain itself at the equilibrium available to it, made possible by the amount of air seeping past the throttle blades and the fuel sprayed in. Each time the cylinder is pulling in air with the intake valves open, it is pulling against a vacuum, so the cylinder pressure is very low.

When you open the throttle blades to revv the engine, you're decreasing the vacuum, which is adding air flow andpressure to the system behind the throttle blades. This means that each time the piston sucks in air, it's getting more air, the same fixed volume but at a higher pressure. Also, the computer injects more fuel to keep the AFR within tolerances which creates more power, etc.

Now, keep in mind like I said about you open the throttle blades, pressure increases, and your bike starts to rev up. The cylinders are a fixed volume, each revolution they can only pump x amount of air for every pressure. You increased the amount of air available to the cylinder, so now the cylinder has to speed up to reach equilibrium in the system with the available air, to pull a vacuum as best as it can behind the throttle blades. (the fuel provides the energy to increase the speed of the pistons)

When you cracked open that throttle, you held it there. So, we've discussed what happens when you open it, and why is starts speeding up (more airflow, pressure and fuel). As it starts to reach equilibrium with your throttle position, the cylinder pressure starts to drop relative to what it was as soon as you cracked the throttle, since the pistons are moving faster now, instead of cramming a higher pressure of air into the cylinder since the throttle was opened, it will just increase it's speed to pump the same amount of air through the cylinder, more times to acheive the equilibrium flow that's available.

So once the engine is spun up and held there, the forces are once decreased again to those which are similar to when the engine was at equilibrium, at idle. Now, yes more revolutions will mean more wear, but with more revolutions at low pressures and low strains, the increased wear is negligible for the purposes of engine life. (Yes the increased rmp's will make a very slight difference eventually, but it can be argued that it most likely wont happen during the service life of our engines).

So, when the rmp's are higher, there is more power being made or more power readily available. The engine is also running more efficiently.

When you ride with the rpm's really low, the engine doesn't have the capacity to make as much power as if it was running at a higher speed, since it's only able to pump so much air through etc. This means, it takes more throttle to go, creating higher cylinder pressure than what would be required if the engine were spinning faster, for a longer duration of time. This means that you engine is wearing more. Like I said you're creating higher cylinder pressures, which is what causes detonation, and strain on all of the parts dicussed before.

When you ride at higher rpm's, you engine is capable of creating more power, which means it will reach equilibrium faster, reducing the time that the high cylinder pressures exist. It is also running more efficiently, since it reaches equilibrium faster. The engine is more efficient at it's equilibrium speed at whichever throttle opening than it is below that speed.

So yea, lugging = BAD.

Hope this made sense to at least one person. Or, I'm just full of CRAP.

\equilibrium

And I'm not saying you have to ride at high rpm's, but lugging from 2k-3k rpms on these motors in high gears is not good. Cruising at these rmp's is fine, but before you goose it you should downshift a couple of times.

 

[FZyLarry]

I don't lug it. At least in my opinion. When riding around town I shift at around 4K but if I know there is another stop coming up I'll hold the lower gear at higher revs instead of shifting. I don't want to keep my bike wound up to the red line but I do want to be able to get some response when I need to go and I don't want to have to snick down 2 gears to get it.

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Well I constantly ride in traffic so I make damn sure I'm not lugging along because this is a sure way to take away one of your "outs." 6-8000 rpms is my average so gear choice is very important depending on the type of riding envornment you are in.

I consider it dangerous to lug around when you are in traffic. You never know when you will need the maximum power that your bike can deliver at a twist of a throttle if a situation arises where you need to get yourself out of a sticky siituation. Yeah, the difference could only mean a second or two from being in one gear vs another, but if it's a second or two I'll take. Whatever advantage I can get, the better off I am. So I use the higher revs as one of my defensive tools. When emergency situation arises or corrective measures need to be taken, sometimes it's just best to "throttle out" vs braking.

Now If I'm out on the open road with no traffic, the probablity for me to demand maximum power at a split second is low, so I'm not so concerned about throttling out of situations.

 

[Smittyboy]

So the moral of the story is low rpms don't equal bad day unless really trying to accelerate... In which case drop a gear or two and give 'er a bag full...?