For me, five grand on my airhead road bike is around 90 mph. You must be running lower gearing in yours. I agree, they run really nice at five grand. Around 4K there's a vibration. Once over that they smooth way out and seem to run effortlessly.

I loved it when I lived near LA for three years. Year - round riding and everyone drives fast. But, as I recall, I wasn't running much over 4500 rpm. staying even with traffic. And that was definately over the limit.

1) there's no rule that says you have to keep it in 5th. 2) if you read the owner's manual (i owned a '78 R100RS Euro), they listed 7400 rpm as max, but also listed 7250 as "maximum sustained rpm". 3) if you're just cruising, yeah, 4-5 k is fine and dandy. but when on the backroads, the bike responds so much better at higher revs. motor, trans and suspension all go into synch, and the bike just purrs real sweet in that 5-6K range. 4) ALL upshifts are amazingly smoother when done above 5K [same as on the current bikes]- eliminates the "tractor transmission" sound & feeling entirely.