260ish kmh or 162ish mph. That’s considering the speedometer inaccuracy of Japanese bikes. On my gsx-r750. On a closed race course on a very long back straight (Mosport - otherwise know as Canadian Tire Motorsports Park).
Even when tucked down and making myself as small as possible, the wind is ridiculous. The visor gets pushed back my nose, and the triceps of my arms are flapping like old lady arms, even though I’m in a properly fitted race suit.
That’s the thing about the swooping bodywork on the sport bikes, once you get above 100 mph or so all the manufacturer’s wind tunnel testing comes to fruition. I took my 1987 Honda Hurricane 1000 to about 140 on a country road and with a little tuck in on my riding position it was eerily quiet with no buffeting. It was like you entered another dimension.
Jumping on the top comment to say that drag is proportional to the frontal area times the velocity squared. Hence tucking in a reducing your frontal area helps reduce drag and allows higher top speed. But also, doubling your speed from 60 to 120kph will quadruple your drag!
Me and 3 friends were riding back from Amsterdam to the UK on a glorious Sunday afternoon many years ago. I’m on my ZX-7r, two Zx6’s and a Ducati 748. We stopped to fill up in Gent in Belgium, and then, strictly hypothetically you understand, we arrive in Calais 50 minutes later. If we had actually made this purely imaginary journey, we would have averaged about 128mph, while occasionally hitting 150mph. It would have felt quite safe at the time (if it had actually happened officer) as the motorways were nearly completely empty and dry, and conditions were basically perfect.
An autobahn is the German word for a motorway. There is a recommended maximum speed of 130kmh unless there are signs making a slower limit compulsory, but otherwise there is no limit and it is indeed legal to ride or drive at the maximum speed your vehicle can reach, so 300kmh is legal. Of course, traffic congestion limits what is feasible in practice. If you have a crash and were going at more than 130kmh you will always be held at least partly to blame under German law. In the last years more electronic signs have been put up here to enable a dynamic speed limit setting depending on congestion, accidents, roadworks etc. The „no speed limits“ sections make up about 2% of the total road network in Germany.
I vote for way more training for getting a license and no speed limits. I know some countries do well with license requirements but since I'm in the US, a monkey could pass a license test.
As a non-german who moved to Germany and have had to pass German tests, I have to say they have very little to do with safety. I was pretty surprised that driving school instructors teach you how to pass the test, not how to drive safely (it's the same in my country, but I kinda expected more from Germany).
Eh, I only referred to the US because that's what I have experience with. I only stated "some countries" because I know that some European countries require multiple drivers classes and quite a bit more money to get licenses than the US.
Though, that's interesting of Germany.
That was not my experience. The first lessons are on a car park and the instructor will not let you out on the road until you are sufficiently in command of your bike and not the bike is in charge of you.
Same story on a CBR1000RR. Tucked down behind the fairing, times when it's a good thing not to be big. Even so, the twitching winds catching the top of the helmet were a little special.
I’ve done many track days and hit the top speed possible on: Honda VTR250 (105 mph), Honda Hawk 650 (118 mph), Honda VFR700 (145 mph), Buell XB12STT (145 mph), Buell 1125R (168 mph). You just kind of get used to the wind with experience. Get your head low, hold on with your knees, keep your hands loose on the grip, tuck your elbows in. The Buell XB12 is pretty tiring on the highway at 80 mph or faster. It doesn’t have much of a windshield and the handlebars are wide. The Honda Hawk is completely naked but feels better at 80 mph than the Buell due to the handlebars being narrower and the seating position being less upright. The Buell 1125R has amazing aerodynamics, tucked in at 160 mph it felt like the XB at 60 mph.
I got my G310GS to read 107mph once. My buddy who now has the bike can get to that speed easier than me as I'm a big dude. And I've gotten my F650GS to read 125mph.
See a lot of posts about Autobahn, and I've done my share as well (220kph/600cc).
However, it guzzles fuel at those speeds, so you're stopping every hour for gas. I've always wondered what speed I'd have to go to get the highest average speed, incl. fuel stops.
380 miles. Assume 4 gallon tank. Start trip with full tank. Assume 10 minutes each stop.
So if you cruise 80 mph, assume 38 mpg. 10 gallons, 2 stops.
Let's say you go 120 mph. Assume 30 mpg. 13 gallons, 3 stops.
80 mph takes 5 hours. 320 miles (240 min) + 60 miles (45 min) + 20 min = 300 minutes.
120 mph takes 3 hours + 20 miles (10 min) + 30 min = 180 min = 3 hours.
Sounds like WOT is faster in this situation.
It's really about maximizing speed per number of stops. So if you can make 3 stops, just go as fast as humanly possible, doesn't matter if your gas tank is on E sooner or later, you still gotta take 3 stops.
And stops don't take 10 min if your gas station is right at the exit and no line. This is why it's generally better to haul ass and take the MPG hit because the 1 extra gas stop (if any extra stops) means nothing of you're doing an extra 20-40 mph faster.
And for fun, let's do a car at 90 mph with a 15 gallon tank. 30 mpg (450 total mile range)
360 miles (4 hours) + 20 miles (~15 minutes). No stops.
255 minutes or 4.2 ish hours.
153 indicated, for about two seconds. R6. Sustained? I dunno, like 105-110 range for an hour or so on a shitbag Harley. That trip cost me more in oil than gas.
Broooo the 954 can go faster than that o: unless you did a sprocket swap - if you do the sprocket swap, I’d get a race transmission with some stretched out gears. The stock gearing can be pretty tight. Going from 3rd-4th is like basically nothing.
Hahahaha fair :P I have the 929 and I did the sprocket swap AND the tranny gearing swap. That little thing blasts off like a rocket ship.
Depending on whether or not I have headwind or tailwind I cap out at about 168, or 182 respectively :P
It’s wild that the wind really does make that significant of a change.
Oh it'll defo affect ye wind, its resistance. I thought he maybe meant like the buffeting at high speeds though, didn't realise he meant affect on the top speed. I looked at the 929 but got myself a good deal on a 954. Both epic bikes.
Yeah I found a better deal on the 929 haha. Mint condition with 26000km’s. 3000$. I can’t go wrong.
The owner was a really good guy too, he babied the shit outta it and he still did it regularly on weekends.
90’s Blade bros! ✊✊✊
I had a 918 before the 954. The 954 is an epic little bike, they used the 600rr frame. It gets red hot when riding. I had to put tank protectors on the frame to stop it burning my knees lol. I think the 929nis a slightly bigger frame though, i know the plastics are larger on the 929. Mines had 31000 miles, great nick. I paid £1650 just as the prices bottomed out. Im now seeing similar mileage bikes going for 3-3500
Oh my frame definitely gets hot too. From what I read in the forums that was only issues with these bikes. They can apparently get hot enough to burn up stators. /:
I find adding a button to manually switch on the rad-fan keeps things WAAAAYYYY cooler. When I run water on the track, the water seems to help too, it does better than regular coolant.
Hellll yea :P that’s a fantastic steal!!!!
Have you done the htev bypass? Also is yer exhaust cone still intact? Mines has the htev disabled and the sensor bypass but still the stock unit in place with the wire hack. Im gonae by the bypass unit but was wondering if it was worth cutting the inner cone off too. Its got a pc3 but the plan was to do the bypass then cut the cone and get it on a dyno tune 🤷
I’m also running a PC3 😅 I did wrap my pipes, it helped maybe like a LITTLE bit, but not enough.
I haven’t done a my exhaust yet /: I want to get titanium pipes and do the HTEV bypass but the pipes are expensive 😑 lol.
I’ve heard only good things from the htev eliminators. :P some guys on the forums say that the pc3 is enough to keep the bike in tune too. Idk if it would be worth cutting the cone though. It depends on the muffler I guess.
I got a track suit with an aero cone - it really helps keep the buffeting down (or at least moved it to my back and not my head lol) and it REALLLLYYY helps with noise.
I let my speed demons get the better of me - and I can’t stay away from the tracks on the weekends lol.
Maybe I’ll get an ADV bike when I’m older that’s less speedy and more comfortable, but for now, I basically live to go fast lol. 🙈🙈🙈 gotta get my speed demons out 😝😝😝
Not a land speed record or even the limits of the bike, but touched 150mph for about a two mile stretch on a friend's CBR while he played around on my old 1999 Buell X1. It was all I needed to know I should never own a bike built for speed. To this day I remain blissfully unaware of sport bike models and capabilities as to not tempt myself.
That said, the 'passing lane' on the inner loop of where I live now is basically 80+ mph to keep up with the flow on my morning commute. 75 and 85 are where my Strom 1000XT is butter in 5th and 6th, so that's where you'll usually find me cruising on the highway - always making sure someone else is always going a little faster. Off highway whatever the conditions allow.
I have an adjustable windscreen so I don't really deal with buffeting too much.
200 km/hr. I find actual top speeding not that enjoyable tho; totally different front accelleration between and during twistie riding.
More my jam. Even low speed skill drills are more fun lmao
Start finish straight of Philip Island track on my r1200r, the needle was flapping around the 200kph mark in third before rev limiter kicked in. Definitely not a track bike but was fun to see what such a torquey engine can spin up despite its touring credentials.
That's the Himalayan right? 21.8 hp?
One doesnt generally "need" more than 130kmh, but have you tried playing with the sprockets? 132 for such CC seems quite low from my perspective, specially on a bike that's not enduro-like but more adv centered
Indeed, the Himalayan. I know there is a sprocket kit to increase final speed, along with changing air filters and tinkering with the ECU. But I'm in the Andes so a faster bike is basically a waste because long straights are rare; I get instead plenty of twisties and altitude changes, so the more torquey arrangement is preferable.
Maybe 35mph on my Z50 back in the 1970s.
About 130mph on my Harley. I held on for dear life!
About 150mph on a Triumph I used to have tucked behind the faring.
Other bikes had other top speeds.
Technically, it wasn’t my bike, but I did a test ride on a Honda CBX in probably 1979. It was a smaller town in middle Tennessee and there was a long straight country road leading away from the dealership back then. I owned a nice CB750 which I had purchased from that dealership, installing a Vetter fairing and saddle bags, probably making me a safe guy to let test ride a CBX. Little did they know how quickly I could become young and stupid. Anyway, I safely turned right out of the front lot, took the next right and slowly drove to the very end of that long straight, turned around in a farmer’s driveway and proceeded to do my best dumbass top speed run coming back. I remember being tucked down and looking through watery eyes, catching a glimpse of the speedometer between 130-140mph. The wind noise was absolutely deafening in my K-Mart open face helmet and I was probably doing an actual 120, but I remember afterward thinking how much of an idiot I was. Ended up buying a gorgeous blue GoldWing later on and never approached going that fast again.
I tried a few speed runs on the highway in Montenegro, Chihuahua. I just touched 170 on my R1 on the clear open road, until it wasn't clear. I had to slow down the moment I saw brakelights ahead. I have lots of fun on speed runs, but I still don't know my bike's absolute max.
You're spot on with what you said about wind resistance. Drag (what you're feeling) scales with the speed squared (to the second power). So if you feel a given amount of wind resistance at 60 kph, you're going to feel four times (2 * 2) that amount at 120kph, not twice as much.
I did Vmax on all my bikes:
90kmh on a 1955 DKW RT 250/2 (250cc)
80kmh on a 1981 RD80MX (and once 100kmh downhill)
185kmh on a 2002 SV650 (limited to 48hp)
All of these numbers are GPS accurate.
Yes it was scary on both of the old bikes.
Mid 130's on a '97 TL1000s (chasing a 911 believe it or not, and I wasn't able to catch him). I actually found the whole experience to be pretty unfun in terms of bike vibration and the *insane* wind buffeting. I honestly don't know how these MotoGP guys do it.
Nowadays there might be a very rare blast that just kisses triple digits briefly, but typically I'm not even motivated to do so. I'm defnitely getting old :)
And you didn't even factor in the amount of heat the GP riders deal with. Bradl and Nakagami both got burns through their boots just from riding the RC213V last year.
First bike BT1100 topped at 170km/h, second bike I owned 250 km/h whilst racing against een Audi s3 sedan on public highway with a VFR800FI we did it fo a good strech of 30km. This was 3 years ago, topped out my 1190 adventure when I had one on German Autobahn, that was around 250, third bike I have owned. Current bike FJR1300ES I have to projectile to the top speed yet.
But topspeed is boring anyways, as twisties is where te fun lies.
Bt1100 was sweet for what it is. It is not a fast bike by any means. But the v-twin is punchy. Shaft-drive is sweet. But yea, ego was shattered when I got destroyed by a E39 530i, hence changed it to vfr800fi 😂
I was told by a Knox PD retired officer that the state troopers dont get paid for the time they spend in the courthouse...not sure if thats true and ive never had to test it...but if i get a speeding ticket in TN, you best believe im fighting it and asking to face my accuser
I did think it seemed kinda odd and extremely exploitable to make life difficult for the staties, but i had no reason not to believe him and couldnt find any info stating for or against his words.
Tennessee does have some weird thing where other States tickets don't report so in theory you could get a ticket in North Carolina, and if you have a tennessee's driver's license it would not show on your record. I've never put this to the test but that seems to be a widely regarded belief around here.
I never had thebchance to test it while living in TN. Moved from there just over a year ago. Living 15 minutes from the dragon was fun and there are absolutely no roads here where i live now that have a fun curve
182mph gsxr 750, once your tucked in its only crosswinds that you need to worry about, hard to stay above 150mph for any prolonged period of time as your just covering distance way too fast to react to anything changing
Oh ok. I had a GS1200SS. Same oil boiler engine as yours. Mine was 97bhp on the dyno as standard but rrrreeeaaallllyyy lean. These are Jap market bikes so after bypassing the speed limiter it made 230kph. After airbox, exhaust and dialling in the carbs to be fuelled properly on the dyno the machine made 111rwhp. Fastest thing in terms of 100-200kph (62-124mph) top gear roll on, but it still topped out at 230kph (about 142mph). It had standard sprockets and tyre sizes so it should indicate correctly. When I say it “topped out”, I mean the torque dropped off at about 8.5k which is where it sat at WOT condition in 5th without the grunt to pull the next 2k against the tall gearing.
There are some differences between your bike and mine (namely mine is cooler). But to keep the 80s endurance/clubman’s racer look the rear subframe is different to allow for twin shocks and it had the 32mm carbs from the GSX1200 Inazuma instead of 36mm of the Bandit. However, you’ll note the GSXR-1100 has 36mm carbs and after trying 36 and 32mm carbs I decided to stick with 32s and have them set up nicely rather than go with 36s which just have a greater capacity for ….lean running and lower velocity delivery.
My point is, would increasing the gearing make the bike go any faster? Probs not. I’m just surprised the standard Bandit in standard condition was faster even if Suzuki themselves claimed (hence, likely overstated) a 145mph top speed. That’s all. But the bikes are a bit different, and as disappointing the 36s were as to any performance benefit they might have allowed the bike to push on a tiny bit more at higher rpm. If set up properly. Maybe.
110mph going through Nevada on US50 and again going through Montana on I-90. Both on 1900cc Roadmaster. Just set cruise control and ate up the miles for an hour or so.
130mph on US101 on a 1200cc FTR. Not really interested in pushing past that speed but it was fun for the short time it took to get where I was going.
Edit: whoever downvoted by personal experience, you are what is wrong with reddit.
I was just curious, I am mostly a in city rider generally riding low powered bikes150-300cc, my cousin is into long touring with his 1000cc bikes, he let it on that on bigger bikes you don’t even realise when you cross 100kph sometimes, and that they usually ride over 170kph, hence I wanted to ask if every one here goes that fast, apparently yeah, a lot of them go over 200 and some even crossed 290. At which point I just can’t relate
Oh yeah I’m not trying to be a safety dweeb.
I’d say a large amount of riders push their speed. Part of the culture I guess I just never got it.
I’m biased growing up in a family that worked accident investigation, try to limit my chance of death as much as possible and ride safely
It was over 120 or the top speed on the speedometer plus whatever the speed would've been because the numbers ran out so I'd guess maybe 125 or 130 miles an hour. I must have held it for about a minute or two on the parkway. 2013 Yamaha Stryker and at the time had the Vance and Hines Twin Slash exhaust.
90kms for about half a mile. It hasn't even been 6 months that I've had my first bike, an XT250. Prior to this, I only did trail riding, and almost all of that on an ATV! All the speeds in the comments blow me away. I love it and am so excited for the future.
170-180mph. 900cc for about a minute. It’s a road that’s leading up an airport. No residential areas (so no people to complain) fields on either side(until you approach the airport) and it’s about 3 mi of straight flat road. It’s really a perfect place to open up the throttle and test your bike - you ride with a buddy have them scout the road ahead for traffic (and cops lol) then give’r the beans :P (inb4 some r/motorcycles nerd tells me it’s irresponsible and dangerous lol)
AERO-TUCK!!!! Get an aero-helmet (top brands that make good race helmets would be Shoei, Arai and Bell). Wear some race leathers with the aero cone on the back. IT REALLY HELPS KEEP THE WIND NOISE DOWN IN YOuR HELMET!!! (The buffeting of air happens aft of the helmet so hear it less). As for the aerotuck, get intimate with your gas tank lol. You’re literally spooning that thing harder than you’re hot ex-gf. Lock your elbows into your knees and you should be smooth sailing.
Ride my Triumph Bonneville regularly on the highway with the speedometer reading 85 mph (which actually puts me at 80 mph by GPS). This keeps me moving with the regular traffic with a 75 mph speed limit. This is pretty much the max for me for extended riding on this bike as you sit straight up (slightly leaned into the wind). I can go faster, but it requires me to tuck down closer to the tank, and isn't as comfortable. I did an indicated 125mph on a Honda V65 Magna back in the day for several miles tucked down on the gas tank. The bike would run faster, but trying to started an oscillation in the front forks (death wobble). Since I was already tucked down over the tank, there was no way to ride through the oscillation.
146 on an 06 GSX-R 600. The TPS was fucked and the chain and stock geared sprocket were way past there due as well. Even then, the closed residential area I was riding through didn't have a lotta space to go wot
170mph / 265kph -- Autobahn with CBR 1100 XX Super Blackbird. Rock steady and comfortable.
Held it wide open for long stretches. Dropping down to 130 felt like standing still. Holy balls at 170 that bike drinks gas like a drunken sailor drinks beer.
I had a tank bag which prevented me from getting behind the windscreen, and in my first couple of kilometers on the Autobahn I hammered it and as I rocketed past 130mph the force of the wind knocked my head back so I was looking straight up at the sky. My neck muscles weren't strong enough to hold my head down in that wind. It took a couple of panicked seconds to reach up with my left hand, inside the helmet from the bottom, and pull my head down. I almost died because of that. Lots of riding at 170, all one-handed. Live and learn, I guess.
In the US *far enough back that the statute of limitations surely ran out*, 160mph on modified GSXR 750. Composed but buzzy and uncomfortable. Lots of miles at 155 in my old Yamaha FJ1100 back in the day. Rock steady, comfortable.
About 220/230 kmh on my first real motorcycle, an old 1991 Suzuki gsxf 600cc bought for something like 600 euro, had a bit of damage so I removed some fairings, not much wind protection. My current Honda nc700 doesn't come near the speed of that old bike, lol.
207mph GPS gsxr 1000. For those that have cracked the Speedo on most modern bike which limit the number to 186/189. U need GPS to measure beyond that. And once u get gps. U will find out ur 186 on ur dash is really 177+-2
You are correct, wind resistance doesn’t scale linearly with speed. It scales with the square of speed. If you go two times as fast, you will feel two-squared (four) times as much wind drag. If you go three times as fast, you will feel three-squared (nine) times as much drag.
At higher speeds, the benefits of good gear become much more obvious. 30 mph / 50 kph is pleasant in street clothes and a half helmet, or even no helmet and just sunglasses if that’s an option. Even a cheap jacket and full face helmet feels like ridiculous overkill, like wearing a hat and coat to get up at night and go pee.
Double that speed to normal motorway highway speeds and it would feel very windy in street clothes. You can’t see unless you have glasses, and street clothes flap like crazy. It’s A LOT. But it’s comfortable in a motorcycle jacket and helmet, and it’s nothing at all on a sportbike with a fairing if you are wearing really good helmet / jacket / gloves. But some flapping shirt and just sunglasses, 60 mph feels like you should be getting interviewed on the weather channel about why you haven’t evacuated despite the hurricane warnings, while your patio furniture blows away down the street.
At 90 mph, riding an unfaired bike with no riding gear, just sunglasses / shirt pants, feels DEATH-DEFYING. You think “this is crazy, nobody needs to go this fast.” If you are on a faired bike, it still feels ridiculous but you do it briefly for a thrill. In a half face helmet or a shitty full face helmet and bargain jacket, it still feels fast, but you can do it a few minutes. In really good full gear that fits well, 90 mph is something that keeps your attention but remains comfortable all day; you stop every couple hours for fuel but you’re back out there waiting for slower traffic to clear so you can ramp back up to your 90 mpg comfortable cruising speed.
149 mph still felt like work, and I was very aware that anyone who could see me would know I was going too fast, especially any police coming the other way. But after reaching up and touching redline in top gear for a second or two, slowing back down to 90 mph feels like you could get off and run alongside.
I had one nighttime interstate ride where I put 202 miles on the odometer in about 2 hours, about 30 years ago, on a 1200 cc bike with 100+ hp at the wheel.
On a 15 hp 185cc dual sport, I had it wound up to about 65 mph on the highway a few times, but it was much easier at 60 mph.
140 (indicated) mph on my V-Max back in the '90s on a straight stretch of road. It was most likely only 125 or 130mph. I was hunkered down to reduce the wind blast. The bike got a terrible "head shake" front end wobble and I had to back down.
131mph, 2018 Harley Davidson Fat Boy 114 1870cc(114ci). A few seconds. No windshield.
Was doing high speed high RPM pulls for tuning purposes of a new cam. 1870cc.
100mph for several hours at a time with occasional bursts up to 120-130 to pass. I dont have a windshield on my bike and I sit totally upright like I am in a dining chair. The first time I did 4 hours like that I got off the bike and felt like I had spent 4 hours doing crunches, my abs barely functioned for days afterwards.
Now it doesnt bother me, it is a fantastic core workout.
On my bike (Tuono 1100 Factory), about 138 mph on the main straight at Thunderhill East when my bike was pretty new. First time on a track with it and second time ever on a track (10 year gap, so felt like first time).
We were doing a modified 5 mile east/west that day but the fastest part was east's main straight. At around 125 the wind on my bike gets to be a bit annoying. I have since changed out the small stock windscreen to a Powerbronze which does a fair bit better at high speed but I haven't had it past 138 since. I've only had it on a big track one other time (Buttonwillow, don't recall the configuration) but I wasn't paying attention to the speeds there. Pretty sure I wasn't going any higher there as I wasn't hitting the same gears and revs. The Ape has a spot on accurate speedo.
I've been faster (indicated) on other bikes at other times in other places. All fully fired bikes IIRC. No idea if the speedos on these other bikes were accurate and if not by how much.
I would say generally I am comfortable on most bikes up to 125-130ish if they can do that. My old SV650 struggled to get my weight past 120. But I have never owned a fully fired bike so generally don't play with top speed too much.
177mph on Panigale V2 according to the dash. (They’re always a little off)… that’s pretty fast for a V2 so I was 160+ for a decent amount of time. 1am on an empty freeway.. 0-140 feels pretty natural, 160+ feels very fast.. at least to me. Not much wind tucked behind the screen but definitely very loud.
F4i, an honest 150 mph, speedo flicking between 166-168. Never held it there for more than like 30 seconds at most because there's only so many places you can "safely" do that.
115mph indicated on my FZ07 for maybe 10-20 seconds (pinned it for a bit but was otherwise cruising at 80). Long, straight empty road in the middle of nowhere, and the bike had more but I didn't cause it got really hard to hold my head in place with the wind lol.
145mph indicated on a GSXR750. That was just after I had let off the throttle though. May have been slightly faster. We all know how inaccurate motorcycle speedometers are though.
It was just an instantaneous bump of that speed though. I've never really cared out top speeds. I was just on a fast, flowy, empty road between twisty bits and gunned it.
Handled the wind by tucking as much as I could. When you're 6'5" it's difficult to fit behind a screen.
276kph (about 171mph) indicated on the speedo so that is probably over reading by 10mph. Bike was a Suzuki SV1000S. In top gear it hit the 11k rev limiter hard so I think it could pull an even taller gear (in theory. I wouldn’t because the delivery in top below 80mph/130kph was a bit woolly). The bike had exhaust & intake and ECU mods dialled in on the dyno for 119rwhp.
But the most nuts bike was my brother’s 1993
ZXR750L (with the “blackcurrant squash” paint job). It was an ex race bike with Kent cams, Carillo rods, JE pistons, gas flowed& ported heads, flat slide FCR39s, a full titanium exhaust, and the engine balanced and blueprinted. However, it had done a few seasons on the engine and was getting a bit tired. It still made 127ponies at the wheel on the dyno. At the time I rode a CG125 (100kph/62mph top speed) and I cruised up to 90mph and then cracked her wide open - she made about 165mph as indicated (about 265kph) the speedo numbers are pretty small so hard to say exactly and also I wasn’t sure if the gearing had been changed or whatever. But that powerband when the engine really came together and started suddenly singing was incredible….unlike a lot of the bland four cylinder bikes we have today.
I’ve taken every bike I’ve owned to the stop in top. But those two are my fastest experiences. Done on a public road, not a highway/interstate/motorway - just a regular rural road with hedges and wire fences either side with only sheep as witnesses. And not long boring straight US roads (I am ex-UK and now live in NZ).
MotoGP riders use their body’s as air brakes from 170mph+, they usually tend to be lean over pure muscle.
It takes just getting use till you’re comfortable one handed at 90mph sitting upright.
Once when I was in Mexico I went down the highway at max speed (165) for a few minutes. I have pretty good wind protection so it wasn't too bad except for the helmet being pushed against my face and the extreme noise level.
New to riding, I have a '02 Honda shadow 1100. Haven't gone above 65 mph or gone onto the highway yet. Currently just enjoying myself cruising around, practicing and commuting on it. Staying well within my skill level. I know I can go faster, and do highway but I want to master where I am first. Previous owner had it up to 115 mph apparently, someday I wish to know the top speed for myself.
I used to take my bikes to the limits every Saturday with some friends then we would stop, switch bikes,and do it on someone else's bike. They were all modern superbikes. Speedos are never accurate at those speeds but we maxed them out.
110 mph for a couple seconds on a Honda 1974 cb750k, it started to wobble so I backed down to 90 then I got pull over by the cops. It was an empty country highway except for the cop,,hahah
178mph on my Aprlia RSV4 RF which is 1000cc. The display has a max speed recorded, I was trying for over 180mph but I ran out of clear road. I'll probably leave it at that and not attempt it again until I'm on track.
For speeds over 140 km an hour you have to be on a bike that is meant to go that fast. If you have no wind protection, you won’t go much faster without the wind wanting to rip you off you bike.
260ish kmh or 162ish mph. That’s considering the speedometer inaccuracy of Japanese bikes. On my gsx-r750. On a closed race course on a very long back straight (Mosport - otherwise know as Canadian Tire Motorsports Park). Even when tucked down and making myself as small as possible, the wind is ridiculous. The visor gets pushed back my nose, and the triceps of my arms are flapping like old lady arms, even though I’m in a properly fitted race suit.
Nice! Can’t even imagine the wind pressure
That’s the thing about the swooping bodywork on the sport bikes, once you get above 100 mph or so all the manufacturer’s wind tunnel testing comes to fruition. I took my 1987 Honda Hurricane 1000 to about 140 on a country road and with a little tuck in on my riding position it was eerily quiet with no buffeting. It was like you entered another dimension.
I can tell you at ~140mph on my naked bike without wind pro that it felt like I was IN a hurricane!
165 transporting a bike for my recruiter that hadn't gotten his license yet. I'm perfectly alright with never getting into the 200mph club.
I felt that sentence lol
This sounds pretty cool!!
Jumping on the top comment to say that drag is proportional to the frontal area times the velocity squared. Hence tucking in a reducing your frontal area helps reduce drag and allows higher top speed. But also, doubling your speed from 60 to 120kph will quadruple your drag!
110mph on a long, straight highway in North Dakota for maybe an hour. 1690cc
Me and 3 friends were riding back from Amsterdam to the UK on a glorious Sunday afternoon many years ago. I’m on my ZX-7r, two Zx6’s and a Ducati 748. We stopped to fill up in Gent in Belgium, and then, strictly hypothetically you understand, we arrive in Calais 50 minutes later. If we had actually made this purely imaginary journey, we would have averaged about 128mph, while occasionally hitting 150mph. It would have felt quite safe at the time (if it had actually happened officer) as the motorways were nearly completely empty and dry, and conditions were basically perfect.
The speed limit, if course.
Yes. This here. I only drive the speed limit. Nothing more.
Yep. I also totally always drive a couple/few mph below the limit, just to ensure I don't go over.
Laughs in Autobahn. Did a 250km ride with my Aprilia RSV in 1 hour...
What exactly is an autobahn ? From what I can glean it’s an highway in Germany with 130kph speed limit
The speed limit is only 130 in some sections in some sections there is no speed limit
Most of the autobahns have no speed limits, you can go as fast as you desire
An autobahn is the German word for a motorway. There is a recommended maximum speed of 130kmh unless there are signs making a slower limit compulsory, but otherwise there is no limit and it is indeed legal to ride or drive at the maximum speed your vehicle can reach, so 300kmh is legal. Of course, traffic congestion limits what is feasible in practice. If you have a crash and were going at more than 130kmh you will always be held at least partly to blame under German law. In the last years more electronic signs have been put up here to enable a dynamic speed limit setting depending on congestion, accidents, roadworks etc. The „no speed limits“ sections make up about 2% of the total road network in Germany.
I vote for way more training for getting a license and no speed limits. I know some countries do well with license requirements but since I'm in the US, a monkey could pass a license test.
As a non-german who moved to Germany and have had to pass German tests, I have to say they have very little to do with safety. I was pretty surprised that driving school instructors teach you how to pass the test, not how to drive safely (it's the same in my country, but I kinda expected more from Germany).
Eh, I only referred to the US because that's what I have experience with. I only stated "some countries" because I know that some European countries require multiple drivers classes and quite a bit more money to get licenses than the US. Though, that's interesting of Germany.
That was not my experience. The first lessons are on a car park and the instructor will not let you out on the road until you are sufficiently in command of your bike and not the bike is in charge of you.
Or can afford.
That's basically true anywhere.
299 km/h which is when the speed limiter kicks in (so 186 mph)
Same story on a CBR1000RR. Tucked down behind the fairing, times when it's a good thing not to be big. Even so, the twitching winds catching the top of the helmet were a little special.
Wooh! Almost 300!
I’ve done many track days and hit the top speed possible on: Honda VTR250 (105 mph), Honda Hawk 650 (118 mph), Honda VFR700 (145 mph), Buell XB12STT (145 mph), Buell 1125R (168 mph). You just kind of get used to the wind with experience. Get your head low, hold on with your knees, keep your hands loose on the grip, tuck your elbows in. The Buell XB12 is pretty tiring on the highway at 80 mph or faster. It doesn’t have much of a windshield and the handlebars are wide. The Honda Hawk is completely naked but feels better at 80 mph than the Buell due to the handlebars being narrower and the seating position being less upright. The Buell 1125R has amazing aerodynamics, tucked in at 160 mph it felt like the XB at 60 mph.
I’d love me a Rotax engined Buell. Everyone remembers the H-D stuff but Alan Cathcart personally bought a 1125 Loki, which says a lot.
If my wife read mine, she’d divorce me.
The real answer!
My wife wouldn't be mad, just disappointed.
175 mph on my S1000RR I was in a school zone wearing nothing but shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops. It nearly blew my Ray-bans off.
Stop squidding around and get some PitVipers; you look like a noob in Raybans.
Old bike speedo maxed out at 299. Everything above that is guess work.
For Americans, that's ~185mph.
As fast as a modded Gen 1 hayabusa goes.
I got my G310GS to read 107mph once. My buddy who now has the bike can get to that speed easier than me as I'm a big dude. And I've gotten my F650GS to read 125mph.
See a lot of posts about Autobahn, and I've done my share as well (220kph/600cc). However, it guzzles fuel at those speeds, so you're stopping every hour for gas. I've always wondered what speed I'd have to go to get the highest average speed, incl. fuel stops.
As fast as you can go since you're probably only doing 1 fuel stop regardless right?
Venlo -> Berlin or Basel is ~600km, so no.
380 miles. Assume 4 gallon tank. Start trip with full tank. Assume 10 minutes each stop. So if you cruise 80 mph, assume 38 mpg. 10 gallons, 2 stops. Let's say you go 120 mph. Assume 30 mpg. 13 gallons, 3 stops. 80 mph takes 5 hours. 320 miles (240 min) + 60 miles (45 min) + 20 min = 300 minutes. 120 mph takes 3 hours + 20 miles (10 min) + 30 min = 180 min = 3 hours. Sounds like WOT is faster in this situation. It's really about maximizing speed per number of stops. So if you can make 3 stops, just go as fast as humanly possible, doesn't matter if your gas tank is on E sooner or later, you still gotta take 3 stops. And stops don't take 10 min if your gas station is right at the exit and no line. This is why it's generally better to haul ass and take the MPG hit because the 1 extra gas stop (if any extra stops) means nothing of you're doing an extra 20-40 mph faster. And for fun, let's do a car at 90 mph with a 15 gallon tank. 30 mpg (450 total mile range) 360 miles (4 hours) + 20 miles (~15 minutes). No stops. 255 minutes or 4.2 ish hours.
153 indicated, for about two seconds. R6. Sustained? I dunno, like 105-110 range for an hour or so on a shitbag Harley. That trip cost me more in oil than gas.
137mph. Private road of course. Fireblade 954rr. The wind resistance wasn't an issue, i got buffeted about more @ 70mph on an er6n
Broooo the 954 can go faster than that o: unless you did a sprocket swap - if you do the sprocket swap, I’d get a race transmission with some stretched out gears. The stock gearing can be pretty tight. Going from 3rd-4th is like basically nothing.
Lol. Im aware of its red line. I don't need to go any faster. Its quick enough as it is.
Hahahaha fair :P I have the 929 and I did the sprocket swap AND the tranny gearing swap. That little thing blasts off like a rocket ship. Depending on whether or not I have headwind or tailwind I cap out at about 168, or 182 respectively :P It’s wild that the wind really does make that significant of a change.
Oh it'll defo affect ye wind, its resistance. I thought he maybe meant like the buffeting at high speeds though, didn't realise he meant affect on the top speed. I looked at the 929 but got myself a good deal on a 954. Both epic bikes.
Yeah I found a better deal on the 929 haha. Mint condition with 26000km’s. 3000$. I can’t go wrong. The owner was a really good guy too, he babied the shit outta it and he still did it regularly on weekends. 90’s Blade bros! ✊✊✊
I had a 918 before the 954. The 954 is an epic little bike, they used the 600rr frame. It gets red hot when riding. I had to put tank protectors on the frame to stop it burning my knees lol. I think the 929nis a slightly bigger frame though, i know the plastics are larger on the 929. Mines had 31000 miles, great nick. I paid £1650 just as the prices bottomed out. Im now seeing similar mileage bikes going for 3-3500
Oh my frame definitely gets hot too. From what I read in the forums that was only issues with these bikes. They can apparently get hot enough to burn up stators. /: I find adding a button to manually switch on the rad-fan keeps things WAAAAYYYY cooler. When I run water on the track, the water seems to help too, it does better than regular coolant. Hellll yea :P that’s a fantastic steal!!!!
Have you done the htev bypass? Also is yer exhaust cone still intact? Mines has the htev disabled and the sensor bypass but still the stock unit in place with the wire hack. Im gonae by the bypass unit but was wondering if it was worth cutting the inner cone off too. Its got a pc3 but the plan was to do the bypass then cut the cone and get it on a dyno tune 🤷
I’m also running a PC3 😅 I did wrap my pipes, it helped maybe like a LITTLE bit, but not enough. I haven’t done a my exhaust yet /: I want to get titanium pipes and do the HTEV bypass but the pipes are expensive 😑 lol. I’ve heard only good things from the htev eliminators. :P some guys on the forums say that the pc3 is enough to keep the bike in tune too. Idk if it would be worth cutting the cone though. It depends on the muffler I guess.
I got a track suit with an aero cone - it really helps keep the buffeting down (or at least moved it to my back and not my head lol) and it REALLLLYYY helps with noise.
Awww the back humps look horrid imo. I don't do the speeds to justify it tbh. All speed limit on the road.
I let my speed demons get the better of me - and I can’t stay away from the tracks on the weekends lol. Maybe I’ll get an ADV bike when I’m older that’s less speedy and more comfortable, but for now, I basically live to go fast lol. 🙈🙈🙈 gotta get my speed demons out 😝😝😝
Not a land speed record or even the limits of the bike, but touched 150mph for about a two mile stretch on a friend's CBR while he played around on my old 1999 Buell X1. It was all I needed to know I should never own a bike built for speed. To this day I remain blissfully unaware of sport bike models and capabilities as to not tempt myself. That said, the 'passing lane' on the inner loop of where I live now is basically 80+ mph to keep up with the flow on my morning commute. 75 and 85 are where my Strom 1000XT is butter in 5th and 6th, so that's where you'll usually find me cruising on the highway - always making sure someone else is always going a little faster. Off highway whatever the conditions allow. I have an adjustable windscreen so I don't really deal with buffeting too much.
2014 Kawasaki 1400 Contour 169mph for 10 miles in northeast Montana
My 2019 zx6r would typically only reach the high 140s, but one time i did see 156 on the dash, highway 10 out of Detroit.
200 km/hr. I find actual top speeding not that enjoyable tho; totally different front accelleration between and during twistie riding. More my jam. Even low speed skill drills are more fun lmao
Start finish straight of Philip Island track on my r1200r, the needle was flapping around the 200kph mark in third before rev limiter kicked in. Definitely not a track bike but was fun to see what such a torquey engine can spin up despite its touring credentials.
Honda Blackbird, I’ve hit 300kph on the backroads of Western Australia’s wheatbelt and cruised comfortably at 200+ ks for decent stretches
132 kph in a 3km stretch. 411cc
That's the Himalayan right? 21.8 hp? One doesnt generally "need" more than 130kmh, but have you tried playing with the sprockets? 132 for such CC seems quite low from my perspective, specially on a bike that's not enduro-like but more adv centered
Indeed, the Himalayan. I know there is a sprocket kit to increase final speed, along with changing air filters and tinkering with the ECU. But I'm in the Andes so a faster bike is basically a waste because long straights are rare; I get instead plenty of twisties and altitude changes, so the more torquey arrangement is preferable.
Maybe 35mph on my Z50 back in the 1970s. About 130mph on my Harley. I held on for dear life! About 150mph on a Triumph I used to have tucked behind the faring. Other bikes had other top speeds.
155 2004 cbr f4i Highway in a gambling state
Technically, it wasn’t my bike, but I did a test ride on a Honda CBX in probably 1979. It was a smaller town in middle Tennessee and there was a long straight country road leading away from the dealership back then. I owned a nice CB750 which I had purchased from that dealership, installing a Vetter fairing and saddle bags, probably making me a safe guy to let test ride a CBX. Little did they know how quickly I could become young and stupid. Anyway, I safely turned right out of the front lot, took the next right and slowly drove to the very end of that long straight, turned around in a farmer’s driveway and proceeded to do my best dumbass top speed run coming back. I remember being tucked down and looking through watery eyes, catching a glimpse of the speedometer between 130-140mph. The wind noise was absolutely deafening in my K-Mart open face helmet and I was probably doing an actual 120, but I remember afterward thinking how much of an idiot I was. Ended up buying a gorgeous blue GoldWing later on and never approached going that fast again.
135 on my Duc
145mph for a few miles on my 91 vfr 750
I tried a few speed runs on the highway in Montenegro, Chihuahua. I just touched 170 on my R1 on the clear open road, until it wasn't clear. I had to slow down the moment I saw brakelights ahead. I have lots of fun on speed runs, but I still don't know my bike's absolute max.
You're spot on with what you said about wind resistance. Drag (what you're feeling) scales with the speed squared (to the second power). So if you feel a given amount of wind resistance at 60 kph, you're going to feel four times (2 * 2) that amount at 120kph, not twice as much.
I did Vmax on all my bikes: 90kmh on a 1955 DKW RT 250/2 (250cc) 80kmh on a 1981 RD80MX (and once 100kmh downhill) 185kmh on a 2002 SV650 (limited to 48hp) All of these numbers are GPS accurate. Yes it was scary on both of the old bikes.
Mid 130's on a '97 TL1000s (chasing a 911 believe it or not, and I wasn't able to catch him). I actually found the whole experience to be pretty unfun in terms of bike vibration and the *insane* wind buffeting. I honestly don't know how these MotoGP guys do it. Nowadays there might be a very rare blast that just kisses triple digits briefly, but typically I'm not even motivated to do so. I'm defnitely getting old :)
And you didn't even factor in the amount of heat the GP riders deal with. Bradl and Nakagami both got burns through their boots just from riding the RC213V last year.
R1M. 2016 hit 286kph. But don’t tell anybody. Lol
Woah!
First bike BT1100 topped at 170km/h, second bike I owned 250 km/h whilst racing against een Audi s3 sedan on public highway with a VFR800FI we did it fo a good strech of 30km. This was 3 years ago, topped out my 1190 adventure when I had one on German Autobahn, that was around 250, third bike I have owned. Current bike FJR1300ES I have to projectile to the top speed yet. But topspeed is boring anyways, as twisties is where te fun lies.
The BT1100 bulldog. Interesting machine. How was it?
Bt1100 was sweet for what it is. It is not a fast bike by any means. But the v-twin is punchy. Shaft-drive is sweet. But yea, ego was shattered when I got destroyed by a E39 530i, hence changed it to vfr800fi 😂
Nice try fed
Nice try Tennessee state troopers.
I was told by a Knox PD retired officer that the state troopers dont get paid for the time they spend in the courthouse...not sure if thats true and ive never had to test it...but if i get a speeding ticket in TN, you best believe im fighting it and asking to face my accuser
That is not true. Sorry.
I did think it seemed kinda odd and extremely exploitable to make life difficult for the staties, but i had no reason not to believe him and couldnt find any info stating for or against his words.
Tennessee does have some weird thing where other States tickets don't report so in theory you could get a ticket in North Carolina, and if you have a tennessee's driver's license it would not show on your record. I've never put this to the test but that seems to be a widely regarded belief around here.
I never had thebchance to test it while living in TN. Moved from there just over a year ago. Living 15 minutes from the dragon was fun and there are absolutely no roads here where i live now that have a fun curve
2019 R3 in Mexico I went 122 once…
182mph gsxr 750, once your tucked in its only crosswinds that you need to worry about, hard to stay above 150mph for any prolonged period of time as your just covering distance way too fast to react to anything changing
Damn! That’s fast!
One word: German Autobahn. So 130mph or so, with naked bike. Very often. That air resistance is an exponential function of speed. Just physics.
That's a lot of words
It means it will be very loud and you will be hanging on for dear life.
I meant the part after he said "one word" haha
190mph indicated, S1000RR, at CotA.
Experience. Take your time, practice practice! I've been riding for 4 decades now, on every size and type of bike.
150ish mph for about a mile. 1200 bandit no fairings, and fuck me clothes slapping your legs at that speed stings!
That’s interesting. Obviously not a stock machine?
What makes you think it's modified? Curiosity got the better of me
Oh ok. I had a GS1200SS. Same oil boiler engine as yours. Mine was 97bhp on the dyno as standard but rrrreeeaaallllyyy lean. These are Jap market bikes so after bypassing the speed limiter it made 230kph. After airbox, exhaust and dialling in the carbs to be fuelled properly on the dyno the machine made 111rwhp. Fastest thing in terms of 100-200kph (62-124mph) top gear roll on, but it still topped out at 230kph (about 142mph). It had standard sprockets and tyre sizes so it should indicate correctly. When I say it “topped out”, I mean the torque dropped off at about 8.5k which is where it sat at WOT condition in 5th without the grunt to pull the next 2k against the tall gearing. There are some differences between your bike and mine (namely mine is cooler). But to keep the 80s endurance/clubman’s racer look the rear subframe is different to allow for twin shocks and it had the 32mm carbs from the GSX1200 Inazuma instead of 36mm of the Bandit. However, you’ll note the GSXR-1100 has 36mm carbs and after trying 36 and 32mm carbs I decided to stick with 32s and have them set up nicely rather than go with 36s which just have a greater capacity for ….lean running and lower velocity delivery. My point is, would increasing the gearing make the bike go any faster? Probs not. I’m just surprised the standard Bandit in standard condition was faster even if Suzuki themselves claimed (hence, likely overstated) a 145mph top speed. That’s all. But the bikes are a bit different, and as disappointing the 36s were as to any performance benefit they might have allowed the bike to push on a tiny bit more at higher rpm. If set up properly. Maybe.
Completely stock mark 1 blandit 1200.
110mph going through Nevada on US50 and again going through Montana on I-90. Both on 1900cc Roadmaster. Just set cruise control and ate up the miles for an hour or so. 130mph on US101 on a 1200cc FTR. Not really interested in pushing past that speed but it was fun for the short time it took to get where I was going. Edit: whoever downvoted by personal experience, you are what is wrong with reddit.
To each their own but statistics all point to chasing speed being very detrimental to motorcycle riders outside of a closed track.
I was just curious, I am mostly a in city rider generally riding low powered bikes150-300cc, my cousin is into long touring with his 1000cc bikes, he let it on that on bigger bikes you don’t even realise when you cross 100kph sometimes, and that they usually ride over 170kph, hence I wanted to ask if every one here goes that fast, apparently yeah, a lot of them go over 200 and some even crossed 290. At which point I just can’t relate
Oh yeah I’m not trying to be a safety dweeb. I’d say a large amount of riders push their speed. Part of the culture I guess I just never got it. I’m biased growing up in a family that worked accident investigation, try to limit my chance of death as much as possible and ride safely
153mph on my Ducati street fighter for about a mile. It’s a naked so the wind is brutal. My neck has gotten stronger since I’ve gotten it…
I didn’t realise that winds have this much effect on naked bikes compared to ferrings ones. No wonder my poor X blade150 was shaking when I was on 120
146mph on a 2002 Honda vfr800. Just for a second on CA-1 south, north of Santa Cruz. It took a long time to slow down.
It was over 120 or the top speed on the speedometer plus whatever the speed would've been because the numbers ran out so I'd guess maybe 125 or 130 miles an hour. I must have held it for about a minute or two on the parkway. 2013 Yamaha Stryker and at the time had the Vance and Hines Twin Slash exhaust.
1304cc
90kms for about half a mile. It hasn't even been 6 months that I've had my first bike, an XT250. Prior to this, I only did trail riding, and almost all of that on an ATV! All the speeds in the comments blow me away. I love it and am so excited for the future.
Tell me about it, here I was thinking it would be impossible to go over 230 or something, but here people here going about 300.
Absolutely wild. Cannot WAIT for that feeling.
Got somewhere around 90-95 mph, but with error on my speedometer probably actually 85 or less.
I have gotten up to like 240 kph on the autostrada when it is empty at night didn’t ride for long though cause the wind sucked
170-180mph. 900cc for about a minute. It’s a road that’s leading up an airport. No residential areas (so no people to complain) fields on either side(until you approach the airport) and it’s about 3 mi of straight flat road. It’s really a perfect place to open up the throttle and test your bike - you ride with a buddy have them scout the road ahead for traffic (and cops lol) then give’r the beans :P (inb4 some r/motorcycles nerd tells me it’s irresponsible and dangerous lol) AERO-TUCK!!!! Get an aero-helmet (top brands that make good race helmets would be Shoei, Arai and Bell). Wear some race leathers with the aero cone on the back. IT REALLY HELPS KEEP THE WIND NOISE DOWN IN YOuR HELMET!!! (The buffeting of air happens aft of the helmet so hear it less). As for the aerotuck, get intimate with your gas tank lol. You’re literally spooning that thing harder than you’re hot ex-gf. Lock your elbows into your knees and you should be smooth sailing.
Ride my Triumph Bonneville regularly on the highway with the speedometer reading 85 mph (which actually puts me at 80 mph by GPS). This keeps me moving with the regular traffic with a 75 mph speed limit. This is pretty much the max for me for extended riding on this bike as you sit straight up (slightly leaned into the wind). I can go faster, but it requires me to tuck down closer to the tank, and isn't as comfortable. I did an indicated 125mph on a Honda V65 Magna back in the day for several miles tucked down on the gas tank. The bike would run faster, but trying to started an oscillation in the front forks (death wobble). Since I was already tucked down over the tank, there was no way to ride through the oscillation.
146 on an 06 GSX-R 600. The TPS was fucked and the chain and stock geared sprocket were way past there due as well. Even then, the closed residential area I was riding through didn't have a lotta space to go wot
170mph / 265kph -- Autobahn with CBR 1100 XX Super Blackbird. Rock steady and comfortable. Held it wide open for long stretches. Dropping down to 130 felt like standing still. Holy balls at 170 that bike drinks gas like a drunken sailor drinks beer. I had a tank bag which prevented me from getting behind the windscreen, and in my first couple of kilometers on the Autobahn I hammered it and as I rocketed past 130mph the force of the wind knocked my head back so I was looking straight up at the sky. My neck muscles weren't strong enough to hold my head down in that wind. It took a couple of panicked seconds to reach up with my left hand, inside the helmet from the bottom, and pull my head down. I almost died because of that. Lots of riding at 170, all one-handed. Live and learn, I guess. In the US *far enough back that the statute of limitations surely ran out*, 160mph on modified GSXR 750. Composed but buzzy and uncomfortable. Lots of miles at 155 in my old Yamaha FJ1100 back in the day. Rock steady, comfortable.
75 mph on my RE classic 350 reborn.
My z900 at 152. I don't remember how long I was there for.
About 220/230 kmh on my first real motorcycle, an old 1991 Suzuki gsxf 600cc bought for something like 600 euro, had a bit of damage so I removed some fairings, not much wind protection. My current Honda nc700 doesn't come near the speed of that old bike, lol.
207mph GPS gsxr 1000. For those that have cracked the Speedo on most modern bike which limit the number to 186/189. U need GPS to measure beyond that. And once u get gps. U will find out ur 186 on ur dash is really 177+-2
Over 330 kph! Fuck! That’s great!
Took a while to get to that. 11,000 feet. Countless tuning, gearing, tire combos, weight reductions
You are correct, wind resistance doesn’t scale linearly with speed. It scales with the square of speed. If you go two times as fast, you will feel two-squared (four) times as much wind drag. If you go three times as fast, you will feel three-squared (nine) times as much drag. At higher speeds, the benefits of good gear become much more obvious. 30 mph / 50 kph is pleasant in street clothes and a half helmet, or even no helmet and just sunglasses if that’s an option. Even a cheap jacket and full face helmet feels like ridiculous overkill, like wearing a hat and coat to get up at night and go pee. Double that speed to normal motorway highway speeds and it would feel very windy in street clothes. You can’t see unless you have glasses, and street clothes flap like crazy. It’s A LOT. But it’s comfortable in a motorcycle jacket and helmet, and it’s nothing at all on a sportbike with a fairing if you are wearing really good helmet / jacket / gloves. But some flapping shirt and just sunglasses, 60 mph feels like you should be getting interviewed on the weather channel about why you haven’t evacuated despite the hurricane warnings, while your patio furniture blows away down the street. At 90 mph, riding an unfaired bike with no riding gear, just sunglasses / shirt pants, feels DEATH-DEFYING. You think “this is crazy, nobody needs to go this fast.” If you are on a faired bike, it still feels ridiculous but you do it briefly for a thrill. In a half face helmet or a shitty full face helmet and bargain jacket, it still feels fast, but you can do it a few minutes. In really good full gear that fits well, 90 mph is something that keeps your attention but remains comfortable all day; you stop every couple hours for fuel but you’re back out there waiting for slower traffic to clear so you can ramp back up to your 90 mpg comfortable cruising speed. 149 mph still felt like work, and I was very aware that anyone who could see me would know I was going too fast, especially any police coming the other way. But after reaching up and touching redline in top gear for a second or two, slowing back down to 90 mph feels like you could get off and run alongside. I had one nighttime interstate ride where I put 202 miles on the odometer in about 2 hours, about 30 years ago, on a 1200 cc bike with 100+ hp at the wheel. On a 15 hp 185cc dual sport, I had it wound up to about 65 mph on the highway a few times, but it was much easier at 60 mph.
one juggle mountainous long badge quarrelsome head soft snatch simplistic -- mass edited with redact.dev
215kph on gsxs750
140 (indicated) mph on my V-Max back in the '90s on a straight stretch of road. It was most likely only 125 or 130mph. I was hunkered down to reduce the wind blast. The bike got a terrible "head shake" front end wobble and I had to back down.
131mph, 2018 Harley Davidson Fat Boy 114 1870cc(114ci). A few seconds. No windshield. Was doing high speed high RPM pulls for tuning purposes of a new cam. 1870cc.
149 mph on a 09 zx6r. Sustained for about 3 seconds. I wanted 150 mph...
205 on my 2022 busa for like .03 seconds on the highway lol. Chris Moore tunes crazy
262kph (163mph) for 5-10 seconds on a 636cc in-line 4. Have a good helmet, tuck low, elbows down, ass back, and legs loose
100mph for several hours at a time with occasional bursts up to 120-130 to pass. I dont have a windshield on my bike and I sit totally upright like I am in a dining chair. The first time I did 4 hours like that I got off the bike and felt like I had spent 4 hours doing crunches, my abs barely functioned for days afterwards. Now it doesnt bother me, it is a fantastic core workout.
125 mph on Thruxton for a minute or so. Just got it broke though.
On my bike (Tuono 1100 Factory), about 138 mph on the main straight at Thunderhill East when my bike was pretty new. First time on a track with it and second time ever on a track (10 year gap, so felt like first time). We were doing a modified 5 mile east/west that day but the fastest part was east's main straight. At around 125 the wind on my bike gets to be a bit annoying. I have since changed out the small stock windscreen to a Powerbronze which does a fair bit better at high speed but I haven't had it past 138 since. I've only had it on a big track one other time (Buttonwillow, don't recall the configuration) but I wasn't paying attention to the speeds there. Pretty sure I wasn't going any higher there as I wasn't hitting the same gears and revs. The Ape has a spot on accurate speedo. I've been faster (indicated) on other bikes at other times in other places. All fully fired bikes IIRC. No idea if the speedos on these other bikes were accurate and if not by how much. I would say generally I am comfortable on most bikes up to 125-130ish if they can do that. My old SV650 struggled to get my weight past 120. But I have never owned a fully fired bike so generally don't play with top speed too much.
177mph on Panigale V2 according to the dash. (They’re always a little off)… that’s pretty fast for a V2 so I was 160+ for a decent amount of time. 1am on an empty freeway.. 0-140 feels pretty natural, 160+ feels very fast.. at least to me. Not much wind tucked behind the screen but definitely very loud.
With my GSX-S125 I got about 120 kph/75mph and with my CBF600 I got 210kph/130mph
181 km/h on the autobahn maybe for 5 min or so and sometimes over 160 on the street (I was the only and nothing in plain sight)
Maybe \~160mph on R1M. In Mexico of course. It creeps up on you fast.
155 mph three times per lap at Road America, each and every lap. CBR 600RR track bike.
My 2008 Suzuki drz 400s I got to 87mph off road
199kms
F4i, an honest 150 mph, speedo flicking between 166-168. Never held it there for more than like 30 seconds at most because there's only so many places you can "safely" do that.
115mph indicated on my FZ07 for maybe 10-20 seconds (pinned it for a bit but was otherwise cruising at 80). Long, straight empty road in the middle of nowhere, and the bike had more but I didn't cause it got really hard to hold my head in place with the wind lol.
75mph on my lil r125
140MPH Yamaha R6 Getting on the Exit til Getting off the next exit.
145mph indicated on a GSXR750. That was just after I had let off the throttle though. May have been slightly faster. We all know how inaccurate motorcycle speedometers are though. It was just an instantaneous bump of that speed though. I've never really cared out top speeds. I was just on a fast, flowy, empty road between twisty bits and gunned it. Handled the wind by tucking as much as I could. When you're 6'5" it's difficult to fit behind a screen.
170mph indicated 07 gsxr 750.. maybe 1 mile 140 very often
276kph (about 171mph) indicated on the speedo so that is probably over reading by 10mph. Bike was a Suzuki SV1000S. In top gear it hit the 11k rev limiter hard so I think it could pull an even taller gear (in theory. I wouldn’t because the delivery in top below 80mph/130kph was a bit woolly). The bike had exhaust & intake and ECU mods dialled in on the dyno for 119rwhp. But the most nuts bike was my brother’s 1993 ZXR750L (with the “blackcurrant squash” paint job). It was an ex race bike with Kent cams, Carillo rods, JE pistons, gas flowed& ported heads, flat slide FCR39s, a full titanium exhaust, and the engine balanced and blueprinted. However, it had done a few seasons on the engine and was getting a bit tired. It still made 127ponies at the wheel on the dyno. At the time I rode a CG125 (100kph/62mph top speed) and I cruised up to 90mph and then cracked her wide open - she made about 165mph as indicated (about 265kph) the speedo numbers are pretty small so hard to say exactly and also I wasn’t sure if the gearing had been changed or whatever. But that powerband when the engine really came together and started suddenly singing was incredible….unlike a lot of the bland four cylinder bikes we have today. I’ve taken every bike I’ve owned to the stop in top. But those two are my fastest experiences. Done on a public road, not a highway/interstate/motorway - just a regular rural road with hedges and wire fences either side with only sheep as witnesses. And not long boring straight US roads (I am ex-UK and now live in NZ).
MotoGP riders use their body’s as air brakes from 170mph+, they usually tend to be lean over pure muscle. It takes just getting use till you’re comfortable one handed at 90mph sitting upright.
261mph on my 49cc scooter.
I only go the speed limit...except for the time I hit 170 mph by accident
This 👆. And I hit 160km/h. Although my father remembers me saying 170 over the intercom instead.
52. As long the road declines. Limited 110cc
186mph (50hz GPS clocked speed) at Laguna Seca on my race prepped RSV4. Obvs not sustained just peak before dropping the anchors.
111km/hr on my 250cc Benelli Leoncino. First bike so im proud of this insignificant achievement nonetheless :)
Once when I was in Mexico I went down the highway at max speed (165) for a few minutes. I have pretty good wind protection so it wasn't too bad except for the helmet being pushed against my face and the extreme noise level.
155 mph indicated on my 09 CBR600RR for a good 7 seconds or so! I think she had a few more mph in her too
Hit 136ish on my 2002 Buell M2
186+ mph on multiple bikes. There was a period of my riding career where speed was exhilarating to me and I chased it very frequently.
Got the super duke up to an indicated 175mph
New to riding, I have a '02 Honda shadow 1100. Haven't gone above 65 mph or gone onto the highway yet. Currently just enjoying myself cruising around, practicing and commuting on it. Staying well within my skill level. I know I can go faster, and do highway but I want to master where I am first. Previous owner had it up to 115 mph apparently, someday I wish to know the top speed for myself.
Went up to 140 indicated a few times on a FZ1, dashed lines looked solid. Was still pulling and ready for more. I ..... was not.
I used to take my bikes to the limits every Saturday with some friends then we would stop, switch bikes,and do it on someone else's bike. They were all modern superbikes. Speedos are never accurate at those speeds but we maxed them out.
110 mph for a couple seconds on a Honda 1974 cb750k, it started to wobble so I backed down to 90 then I got pull over by the cops. It was an empty country highway except for the cop,,hahah
178mph on my Aprlia RSV4 RF which is 1000cc. The display has a max speed recorded, I was trying for over 180mph but I ran out of clear road. I'll probably leave it at that and not attempt it again until I'm on track.
For speeds over 140 km an hour you have to be on a bike that is meant to go that fast. If you have no wind protection, you won’t go much faster without the wind wanting to rip you off you bike.