VFR Top Speed is ????

Great song but somebody made some minor changes in the title. It was "Poon Tang Forever."

 

145 on a 5th gen. Coming out of 5th with another gear to go.
Bike had more.....not me.
Staintune high mount exhaust, K&N Filetr and power commander II. Premium fuel only. 38000 miles. Dyno at 108hp at rear wheel.

 

Who Cares ?

I' rather ride twisties any day !!

It doesn't take a great deal of riding ability to pin the throttle open and wait for some magical number to appear in front of you.

Anyway with only having one eye now, I need to keep it on the road, not on my speedometer

D.E.D.

 

This was over 10 years ago...

Did 135-145mph on my old 83 VF750F totally topped out on a flat road.
Did 160-175mph on my old 89 ZX10 totally topped out on a flat road.

Due the to the dangers and legal consequences of such speeds I no longer attempt such... But hey... It WAS fun!

Twisties and curves are much more enjoyable IMO. Takes a bit of skill too.

 

186,000 miles per second!




.

 

Buddy and I were on a trip from Ca to Az, going south from Mono Lake, down hill and straight, both on 1999's. Mine had ~17k and his ~30k. I was at 158 when I backed off and he was edging ahead of me but didn't look. I think he was at 160. Heading back to Los Angeles same trip we both spent considerable amounts of time at 145 - what really impressed us was despite the 110+ heat, those bikes sat perfectly still temp wise. 13 years later and older I wouldn't do that again... but it was a hell of a trip.

 

Doesn't get any faster..........

At least you didn't call it out in meters.

 

No idea how fast it could go. At about 190 kms/hr it is still pulling hard is all i found out so far.

 

Speedo on my stock 98 is 7-8% optimistic, but I've seen an indicated 165 on a 2 mile burn of straight, empty road. Probably around 150-ish actual.

Dynoed last year: 106 hp at the wheel. D&D exhaust but all else is dead stock.

 

My 91 with almost 80,000 miles goes out for a bi-weekly or so 30 local weekend ride and I always do 135mph with it (has seen 150, but why.) My 93 which I put on 120 miles a week on commuting does 140mph for a few nano-seconds before we settle into a nice 110 mph gallop :loco: That bike has 19,000 or so, the older one rides as well or better than the lower mileage unit. Engine performance wise, 91 has a way better sorted oot suspension which the 93 will aspire to one day

6th gear on these motorcycles are like over drive. I shift into that chit around 90-100 and all is well with world. Btw, my other commuter EX500 loves running at 8-9000 the whole way to work pretty much, 30 miles; 100 mph feels good. Happy/Safe Motoring. eace:

 

Mach 1 in school zones, lane splitting, over the double yellow, snow, sleet, rain, hail and a whole shitload of other conditions.

 

Now would be a good time to discuss Speedometer error, why it happens and why the manufacturers don't do something about it.

Keep in mind, this is coming from an engineer...

First, why are speedometers inaccurate? In short, because they are built that way. For most bikes and cars, they function off of wheelspeed transducers which count RPMs and are calibrated to show a certain speed for a certain number of RPMs at the front (or very rarely rear) wheel. The issue is that the circumference of the tire which is on your bike is very likely not the circumference of the smallest series tire that its possible to lever onto your wheels. By law, speedometers are not allowed to indicate a speed less than your actual groundspeed. In order to cover the possibility of someone shoehorning a 30 series tire with a much lesser circumference onto the wheels, the manufacturers simply calibrate the speedometers with the tires that have the least possible circumference and they build in around a 1% positive error with those tiny tires so that it will be virtually impossible to run into trouble with various national regulators. The downside is that your stock tires likely have a much greater circumference than the tiny little test tires the speedometers were calibrated with. So with the tiny test tires, 1 revolution of the wheels equals X feet of travel. With the stock tires, that now changes to X + Y feet. Y being the difference in Circumference between the tiny test tires and the OE rubber on your bike. Add up that distance in revolutions over a mile, and suddenly you've got a huge error. When you ditched the stock rubber for tires with a more triangular profile, the circumference expands yet again. So its totally normal for you to have anywhere from 5%-12% of "optimism" in your indication.

So why don't the manufacturer's make an adjustable calibrator for the speedometer so you can set the exact circumference of any size tire you choose to throw on there? Answer: because of road force... and laws. The faster you go, the more outward facing moments of inertia the center contact patch exerts on the carcass of the tire, causing it to distort. Therefore if you did set the actual circumference, when going fast, the speedometer would pick up whatever that increase is due to carcass flex, resulting in the same optimistic error, much less of an error, but still and error. Also, nothing would prevent someone who wanted an excuse to speed from setting a larger circumference in the speedometer and trying to use that to get out of traffic tickets.

So anytime I hear top speed claims that don't sound quite right. The first thing I think of is that the person making the claim doesn't realize how inaccurate bike speedometers can be. Speedometer error is actually so well known to be an issue, that one of the US based motorcycle magazines (I believe it is sport rider) actually has a test category for speedometer error.

Then there is always the other argument that a few people I've talked to make. "I've had it dynoed, and it did xxx on the dyne, so my speedometer can't be wrong!" First, have you ever seen a dyne tester do a top gear pull? I haven't... Second, I'll guarantee that the dyno uses the same instrument to measure ground speed that your bike uses. Why would Dyno-Jet make a whole new part if they can just buy complete installable speedometers even if they are known to be inaccurate? They wouldn't. They would just publish somewhere in the manual that there is a drum speed error and be done. Which is what they do... Also, the function of a dynamometer is to measure force and twist respectively. So it doesn't matter if it has a drum speed indicator that is off, as long as it is off consistently, the power and torque readings will be the same.

All of this said, if you're interested in what your true groundspeed is, there are cheap ways to accurately measure it. The radar speed systems that are on the market now are some of the most accurate ever made (+/- .2 MPH) and they cost around $100. Do a set of at least 5 passes in both directions by the radar gun record the results, develop an average and repeat for several different speeds. Use the data to calculate a percentage error and apply that to your indicated top speed.

 

Thank you SammichTheStout

Q: Would you mind also providing an explanation on how Congress (and other government organizations) actually (don't) work?

Not that the American public would have the attention span to listen and learn. It's just too easy to watch talking heads on TV.

My VFR1200F showed 130MPH in 6th gear and it was very easy to get there. I know now that it was probably less than 130, yet i'm good with that : -)

 

I have a Speedohealer

 

That's a pretty sad effort....you didn't even manage to break 'C'....

Carl Sagan would be disappointed...

 

I have seen regular 110 doing the rider training days but its a really small/tight circle at Lakeside, and due to speedo error, generally have 75 indicated on the way to work most days.

We are all talking kilometres per hour right?

 

Can't speak for every gen, but my gen 6 saw an indicated 240 kmh, which is I dunno, 130 - 140 mph. My impression of this bike at speed is the engine doesn't just blast you through the aerodynamic drag barrier like a liter bike or Busa or ZX14, so by modern standards they aren't really high speed bikes. The difference between say 240 and 270 kmh is a quantum leap. However they are happy to maintain around 200 kmh (120 mph) for as long as you feel like doing it or until you get pulled over, whatever comes first.

 

speedometer error . . .

 

Top speed on 8th gen Euro Model seems to be 141 MPH of measured Groundspeed. I have no idea what the indicated speed is.
[video]https://youtu.be/XSz4XOnRRBw[/video]

 

I hit 155 (indicated) on my 2002 quite awhile ago. Haven't even attempted that on my 2003 since I have grown much older and wiser (and wider).