Hi Guys, can anyone advise on the following? I recently purchases 1987 VF500F2 interceptor (UK Spec) and have found that it will not rev passed 9000 rpm is this normal ? The bike had been off the road for 3 years until now . I have cleaned the fuel tap and strainer and replaced the old fuel . Drained the carbs but find although the bike now starts first time and runs sweet as soon as I hit 9000 rpm it feels like a rev limitter is in place. Thinking it might well be dirty carbs but seeking a little advice first at it looks like pig of a job to remove the carbs. Thanks in advance.
I roadraced one for my first season and if I remember correctly it did have a rev limiter. It felt like you threw out an anchor and about four guys would go by before the engine would kick back in. Why rev it to 9K on the street anyway??? It's a torquy motor for a 1/2 liter bike.
Thanks for reply. I dont want to continously run the engine at high revs however the redline is at 12000 RPM and the power dies off at 9000 RPM during accceleration surely there is something wrong here?
Disagree. My VF500 made its best lap times shifting way before redline. If you can find a magazine road test from back then, you will see that the torque curve plummets after about 9K. It is a motor you want to use down lower, like 4K to 9K. Inline fours locomote with high revs; V-fours send you down the road the swiftest with their torque. Enjoy it. What other bikes have you had? What are you comparing the VF500 to?
Disagree. My VF500 made its best lap times shifting way before redline. If you can find a magazine road test from back then, you will see that the torque curve plummets after about 9K. It is a motor you want to use down lower, like 4K to 9K. Inline fours locomote with high revs; V-fours send you down the road the swiftest with their torque. Enjoy it. What other bikes have you had? What are you comparing the VF500 to?
That doesn't sound right, the 500 should be able to run right into the rev limiter. I'd say you certainly have something going on with the carbs. It sounds like you'll need to pull them and give 'em a good once-over. I'd check the diaphragms carefully.
You may also want to check your valve clearance, and more importantly, valve springs. If they're losing spring your valves might begin to float at high RPM. The fact that this is an F2 engine means that the cam has higher lobes than the normal f engine (that's what I've heard anyway, I've never tried to measure the lobes or anything), so the problem is more likely to occur.
