Steve,

I don't know much about motorcycles in general. I have only worked with engines from the Honda CBR 600 F3 and F4i. I believe that Honda makes this bike with a particular type of motorcycle racing in mind and then they release a street bike that has the same or similar features as the race bike.

The F4i has a redline of 14,200 RPM. The new Honda CBR600RR has a redline of 15,000! They just keep getting higher and higher. The redline is no gaurantee that you won't destroy the engine below that speed, though. I haven't gotten all the details yet, but one of the schools at the 2003 Formula SAE competition in Pontiac Michigan threw a rod in their engine. As far as I know they were using the rev limiter.

- Lee