KZ1100 shaft-drive top speed?

I think the idea of litre plus touring muscle bikes isn't so much the top speed but more about effortless tourque and the ability to carry a passenger extra weight without being slowed down to much.

The limiting factor for me isn't power but the wind blast gets really tiring on a long run, so I usually keep within the 70mph UK speed limit. Also fuel consumption drops massively at high speeds, drag is proportional to the square of speed. Bikes have low frontal area compared to a car but a very poor drag co-efficient, even the plastic sporty ones.

swest wrote: You can get another speedo and modify yours. How fast? How much time and road do you have?
Steve

The route I take to work is about 35 minutes, 20 minutes spent on a highway. The highway was just finished being worked on a year ago, and during the construction the state troopers lived there...every single hour of the day. Probably to pay for the construction, which is understandable (I got nailed doing 19 over 55 when I wasn't paying attention). The 55 mph zone was ridiculously extended past the actual construcion zone where I was ticketed. The highway is modeled after an interstate with the supersized signs and extended centerlines (imagine going 55-60 on the interstate, you feel like you're going too slow). After construction was finished they increased it to a much more reasonable 65, and the troopers immediately abandoned it entirely.

I might see a cop every few weeks, a month maybe, but they're sitting locations are predictable and easy to spot their large black SUVs if you know where you're looking. They either sit in the median, which in three sections it seems the highway crews just forgot to put one in where you'd expect there to be one, under bridges, and of course on/off ramps. So you have these really long stretches of highway, about 1 to 1 1/2 miles where the cops simply don't have anywhere safe to park their car to ambush drivers (Most don't park on the side of the road when posted speed is 65 for safety concerns, I haven't seen one do this yet). On top of this, the road rises and falls significantly (>50-75ft), so just beware of cops sitting just past that next hill, and when you're on top of the hill scan for cops and you're safe to floor it for the next mile. A speeder's paradise. Night time is an issue though, as the cops then have the advantage.

I should say though that I don't go more than 20mph over the limit when there is other traffic around me, and I think anybody else shouldn't either. People tend to freak a little when you're going that fast and they can become unpredictable as how they are going to react to you. But when it all lines up, no traffic, no cops, and a mile of pavement, I'll top it out at 120 once a week or so. :whistle: