khanawalt

Some of you know I picked this bike up Wednesday night. It snowed Thursday, cold Friday, rode it around town on Saturday, finally rode to the mountains with a couple of friends today. Because of that snow the sand was present and demanded extra care in places.

Love the bike, plenty of torque, more than my VF1000R. Seems like it is going faster than it feels, so when I got home I rode down the highway with my GPS receiver, and my speedometer is about 12% optimistic. I suppose that means a previous owner swapped sprocket(s). I'll go count the teeth and see.

The bike still feels like it's geared pretty tall, that sixth gear just lopes along, so I can't imagine that the stock gearing was even higher but I'll check.

Here's a pic of the three of us (well not really--I'm taking it) at Mishawaka Inn up Poudre Canyon for a burger and a cigar. Just a camera-phone pic, so not that great.

MisterMohawk

Live in or near Ft. Collins? Did some hiking and camping up in Poudre Canyon when I was dating a CSU post-doc. I grew up in Colorado but never had a bike. Now that I've got two I'm planning on moving back to Denver and looking forward to those great CO roads.

khanawalt

Yeah, grew up in FC. Live north of there. The mountains are great fun, but from Loveland to Pueblo, the mountains on the eastern slope are heavily patrolled. Poudre Canyon to Walden and then south on the western slope (except Rabbit Ears Pass into Steamboat) the ratio of motorists to troopers is more favorable, allowing for spirited riding.

Best motorcycle road in Colorado: South from Carbondale through Hotchkiss, Crawford, along Black Canyon and Blue Mesa Reservoir. Absolutely a hoot, and beautiful too.

My dang son-in-law just became a Colorado State Trooper. I couldn't understand why one would want to spend his days ruining other peoples' days. Oh well, as long as he's happy and I can outrun him. <grin>

khanawalt

Stock 16 front, two-over 43 on rear. Okay, my GPS said that at actual speed of 50 mph, my speedo said 56, for a 12% error. But going to a 43 from a 41 is less than 5%, which means that with stock gearing the speedo is over 7% optimistic.

Would that explain how guys can brag about their stock Superhawks exceeding the top speeds in magazine tests? Maybe.

I know the manufacturers intentionally make the speedometers optimistic, I suppose for two reasons:
1. Reduction of liability i.e. no one can claim that the bike was going faster than they thought it was, blaming manufacturer error for causing an accident.
2. "Wow, Jimmy, this bike goes even faster than they say it does."

Okay, maybe three reasons:
3. Rider gets the thrill of bragging about exceeding speed limits drastically, but the actual citation will be for a slower speed, possibly facilitating the retention of his license and the liklihood that he'll trade for a newer bike at some point sooner rather than later.

So, at an indicated 115, I'm doing 102.6, at an indicated 150, only 134, at an indicated 180, 160.7, etc. This is all <ahem> theoretical, I would never do this stuff...

Bummer. I got 40 mpg on part of my first tank. But now I gotta knock that down 12%, for a resultant 35.2. UNLESS the odometer is more accurate than the speedometer was from the factory, in which case it would be closer to actual miles. Guess I'll have to test that with the GPS too.

bluedog66

I live down in denver and unfortunately getting to poudre is quite a trip for me, but I've been up there before, in a truck unfortunately... But, its good to see some more colorado riders on here. I'll be up in fort collins in the fall at CSU so maybe i'll look you up for some riding.

superbling

Yes, test the odo too with the gps but it's usually MUCH closer to accurate than the speedo. I use a sigma bicycle computer to verify.

Hawkrider

Yup, the speedo on most bikes is in fact 7-8% optimistic. The odo is spot on though. There will be some variance as the rear tire wears from new. That's another variable in the Honda equation.