Originally Posted by 66T

Ah sorry - I mean load the engine heavily in (especially) 3rd, 4th and 5th gears at low revs. This is, in my opinion, the main reason these engines wreck bearings and gearboxes. Most modern big singles won't cope long-term if their owners force them to do this, which means using the gearbox to keep the revs up as often as possible. >3500rpm is reasonable, 4000 in 5th. Obviously you can run any revs you want if the engine is lightly loaded.

So mate, rev it and be happy! I think our big singles are the least flexible engines around if we want them to last, but I don't care. I try to ride mine accordingly and hope it will be ok.

I absolutely thrashed my last Tenere (96 model) for 43,000km and it ran like a new one when I sold it. I haven't been as hard on this one because Australian coppers are now crazed about speed limits Except in the Northern Territory which has some unlimited roads and 130km/h elsewhere out of towns. Everywhere else is getting dismal because the authorities are running out of money, so the speed limits are more and more rigorously enforced