According to one of the motorcycle rags---Cycle World, if I recall correctly--, the stock VTR has a top speed of "155 and some change." I have a print-out of a dyno run from a brutally honest dyno (at Marietta Motorsports) that offers a top speed reading of ~165 mph.

The VTR under analysis in the dyno run was stock, except for Yosh slip-on exhaust and a nicely-tweaked Dynajet jet kit . Thus, I would guess it safe to infer that the top speed of most of the VTR's on this list would be somewhere between 155 and 165 mph--pretty bloody fast for an afternoon jaunt.

cheers,
--HotStreetVTR

 

I saw almost 170 on the speedo (Honest) and it was still pulling before I had to let off the gas. I was close to 9000 rpms. And indicated 170 is probably close to real 155mph.

 

Oh that's with stock gearing also.

 

Going that fast with the engine screaming at the top of its lungs is dam scary.

 

Back when I worked at a dealership in the 80's, "old guys" would come in swearing that their kawasaki z900 hit 160mph!!! Those things made HP in the 70's region.

 

I appreciate all the input... I didn't realize the speedos were that far off... sheesh...

I don't ride like this all the time....but its fun to bust out now and then...

 

I was racing a turbo hayabusa in heavy traffic. He couldn't pass me in traffic. His bike is kinda hard to ride in heavy traffic with the turbo coming on and off. He is my buddy. I know I don't stand a chance in the straight. But he couldn't touch me in traffic. He was stumped when we stopped. He said I got him pretty good. I was laughing. His bike can hit 220 mph though. That was a lot of fun.

 

yep.... stock analog speedo's are pretty off at top speeds. i dont know about digital ones... i got my hawk topped out, with stock gearing, hitting the soft limiter and the speedo pegged... granted, downhill and with wind behind me... but now that i have changed gearing (15 front, 47 rear), i have been next to an r6 *supposedly* doing about 140... just food for thought

oh, and screw turbo hayabusas! i understand why some people would have them, as their second or third bike... but as far as i am concerned, what is the point of having a bike unless you can weave in and out of traffic, and take a sharp turn *****-to-the-wall?

 

Is the error linear or non? I mean - can I just count on it being 10% off, or do I need to know more than that?

My turbo KZ is pretty sesitive to tuning - it's got pretty low compression but enough grunt to feel solid.

Anyways, I'm still too freaked out by the rough engine to wail around any corners. Getting the hang of it though!
-Abe.
p.s. Would a '98 have a rev limiter? If so, how does it hit? I'm afraid to hit it when I don't want to! And how do I check the low fuel warning - I hit 115 miles on the last tank before wussing out not wanting to look for gas at midnight in the middle of nowhere.
________
**** VIDEO

 

I had a police officer buddie of mine, radar me at 160 mph. Radar unit is top model and was calibrated before. I was impressed, My speedo was way off. But, that's the only time I checked it. Only time I've had it that fast....

 

So what speed were you really going? If we know that, it's easy to figure out the percentage error.
________
Squirting ****

 

More food for thought. Guys before I put the Factory jet kit, my bike would struggle to go past 140 mph on the speedo. I put the jet kit 182F/185R and a BMC race air filter and voila. Damn it keeps pushing for the rev limiter in stock gearing. Awesome acceleration.

 

abeFM: soft rev limiter at 11100 i think, where it will just limit your fuel i'm guessing... higher than that, at i dont know what rpm, it will just kick you into a neutral type state for a few seconds, until the bike slows down. and if you have it geared, it will be say, ten percent or whatever all the way up. my speedo says im doing 60, when im only doing like 45... at 120 im actually doing only about 90. if you dont have it geared, i have no idea what the percentage error is

 

Soft limiter is actually at 10200 rpms.

 

With stock gearing, theoretical top speed at the redline (9500rpms) is 180mph. 180mph indicated with a 10% error for stock gearing is around 162mph.

 

the hard limiter is at 11100 then huh? jsut got them mixed up... and nice try with trying to be smart, but i was only using then 10 percent difference in indicated speed as opposed to real speed, because abeFM was saying something about 10 percent... im doing 120 according to speedo... actually only 90... that translates to 25 percent less. so *theoritical* top speed is only 135... which is about right for my way lower gears... i dont know what the real radar tested top speed of the hawk is, i'm sure people can get anything within like a 15 percent error rate, depending on rider weight, height (or at least how well they can duck behind the windscreen), wind, grade of the road, and mod's to the bike, tire choice, etc... (at those high speeds, almost every factor becomes a mile an hour less than what you would expect, as an example)

 

Dude, I am not trying to be smart. I was not talking about your bike. I was talking about a stock bike. tested top speed is 156mph for the superhawk. And that's in different publications.
I have never heard of a hard limiter. Basically when my bike reaches 10200 rpms it cannot go past that.

 

156 is pretty damn slow... especially when the analog speedo goes to 180! and my 98 has a hard limiter, after then soft (fuel cutoff) limiter... not sure how it could get past the fuel cutoff in the first place, bust my bike has seen the hard limiter twice

 

My '98 is carburated! So I doubt there's any 'fuel cut' going on there. There could be an ignition kill, but I haven't found it yet. It's still hard to convince myself to cruise over 4.5krpm.

I guessed at the 10% error, I do wish I knew what it really was....
-Abe.
________
NEW JERSEY MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY

 

they all are....

 

The bike is good for mid 155-156mph stock.

 

So then if it's carburated, how do they pull fuel? You can't pull the supply - even if you had a solenoid to shut off the connection from tank to carb, there's still the floats and it'll give you a few seconds of running, no way to design a rev limiter - and you'll get a lean condition likely to burn a piston, too.

All I could see is an ignition pull. Maybe it only pulls one cylender, perhaps some strange cycle to keep harmonics from getting too tough, but to be honest that seems unlikley too.

My best guess would be significant retarding of the timming to keep the motor from making much power. That'd be a fine way - unless it gets so late you have combustion in the exhaust pipe. Even so, there's no cat to damage like in a car, so it should work fine. The "hard cut" is probably turning off the spark altogether.

A question: How does changing gearing effect the speedo? Doens't it read off the front wheel?
________
******* virtual

 

160 mph? There is a big difference between 160 on a Dino and 160 with a rider. A rider has 100 plus mph wind resistance and his or her own weight to slow things down. Can a SH even acheive these speeds while still being a SH?

 

Yes, Greybeard, Yes!

 

Superbikemike, was that a cheer or a leer? Agree or disagree? Boing!

 

speedo runs off the transmission, at least on the 98 model, like mine. i have mine geared way lower than stock, and the speedo is about 25 percent off (reads higher than what i'm actually doing) and also, my 98 has some sort of soft limiter, at 10200 apparantly, and a hard limiter at 11100.