I would run mine up to 10,200 on the factory tach, which might have been off. In fact I know its not even close to being right at high rpm lol.
As I started playing more with rev limits in each gear I started to change my rpms per gear, finding out which one held better return to peak torque area after a shift.
The fuel will gain more power in higher performance bikes, but still 3 hp from fuel alone is awesome, for a race or drag only bike. At $25 per gallon its definitely not feasible to run on the street. Plain old 87 octane is the best for the Vmax I found. Higher octane in the Vmax made less power and made the bike run slower down the 1/4 mile. I can show you the time slips lol.
Ignition timing on these bikes isn't as critical as say on my ZX14. In general until you really start to heavily modify these bikes internally, most of the factory settings are pretty good.
A bike making 106 hp on one dyno, might pull 112 or heck even 118 hp on another dyno.
Vmax Mike had his bike on the dyno a few times if I recall, he made 117 hp on one and I think 118 on another. It might have been 121. I don't remember , maybe he will chime in. But numbers aside regardless, his bike would pull evenly out of the hole with me at one track. I was running I believe 11.30's and he was running 11.80's. I don't remember all the numbers, but I want to say 60 ft times I was only .02-.05 ahead of him in some instances. So he was hanging with me till the 60 ft mark, but from there on it was me pulling him down the track with the gain opening up the farther we went.
My point is I guess Vmax Mike had more work done to his bike, jetted carbs, dyna ignition, ufo pipes and dyno tuned. I had Marks exhaust....So these bikes are pretty well setup from the factory. You can make them a tad bit better, but not without really digging into them and spending money.
How much money you want to throw in them and what you want to accomplish is the question. I don't personally like to get hung up on numbers from a dyno, but we do because everyone (most) people understand a dyno number as a baseline.
My turbo bike only made 228 hp on a dyno in Ohio, but made 248 hp on Ryan Schnitz dyno, and then made 246 hp on a local dyno. So why was the Ohio dyno different? Operator, temperature etc. Or could be different reading settings.
Regardless of numbers if the bike runs good and strong, thats all that matters. And the Vmax runs good and strong right out of the box. Add an exhaust and possibly tune the carbs and you have about the best your going to get without going internal and spending big money.
I like your approach at dyno'ing one item at a time. It will help you understand better whats going on and why.
Todd