I came across the article linked below and found it extremely interesting and informative. It's about the relationship between horsepower and torque, something that was very mysterious to me before I got into motorcycling.

http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Horsepower.html

Anyway, I really like Chart 2 in the article, which shows how much rear wheel torque the bike is making at different speeds in different gears. With a chart like this, you can optimize your shift points. For the bike being graphed in Chart 2, a Harley, see that once you get to 40 mph in first gear, you're better off shifting to second gear because above 40 MPH, that bike generates more rear wheel torque in second gear than it does in first gear (can a Harley even do 40 in first???). You can pick off the optimum shift speeds for the other 4 gears in similar fashion.



It occurred to me that it'd be cool to see the same sort of chart for the C14. So I followed the example in the CalSci article and created one. To do this, you first need to know how much engine torque is being created by the C14 at a variety of RPMs. For this I used this dyno chart for a 2011 C14, which was published by Motorcyclist mag in a ST comparo they did. Now I know that the chart shows torque measured at the rear wheel, not engine torque measured at the crank, but assuming drive train losses are linear, I think it's OK to use what I have for these purposes. Another factor is that the dyno was probably done with the bike in fourth or fifth gear, where the ECU is not intervening to limit power like it does in the lower gears. So my torque numbers may be optimistic for the lower gears.



Next I needed to compute C14 road speed at various RPM values in each gear. For this you need all 6 tranny gear ratios and a single calibration point. The tranny ratios are in the manual. I couldn't go ride at the time I was doing this, so I found a youtube video that showed a 2011 C14 doing 28 mph in 3rd gear turning 2000 rpm.

Finally, I computed rear wheel torque using the formuale at the bottom of the CalSci article. The resulting graph appears below. Sorry it's so small. My conclusion is that unlike the Harley in Chart 2 where the lines cross indicating that there are optimal shift points, in the C14 lines never cross. The C14 always generates more rear wheel torque in a lower gear. In other words, it's never advantageous to shift before approaching the redline, where you have no choice but to shift. Bottom line, it appears that to maximize rear wheel force (thus accelleration) with the C14, you should only shift when have no choice (i.e., you get near the redline).

     

Maybe my conclusion is tantamount to observing that the sky is blue or that water is wet or that fire is hot. Also, it's likely I goofed something up along the way, but I'm interested in any comments/thoughts folks may have.

Yep, that little graph is pretty tiny

Politically corrected edit: Anyway, yes.... on a modern, performance bike (which is naturally going to exclude "Harley types", as you discovered from your research) if you want maximum power, then you will be always shifting near redline.  Of course, this will result in maximum noise, maximum wear, maximum emissions, and worst fuel economy

The guys at the test benches at work dismantled the 1400GTR a couple of years ago and estimated the drive shaft as being able to transmit some 1600 Nm, about 1180 ft lbs, without fatigue issues. In first gear, this bike produces the highest torque at the wheel, of course, but not the highest torque at the engine, due to ECU intervention. Still, the torque at the will approached 1100 Nm (811 ft lbs). That likens your chart for somewhere in between 1st and 2nd gear, which is reasonable.
And, although we knew it already, it also shows why this bike reaches Vmax in 5th, not 6th.