140MPH KZ650?? (eBay)

IMO, you'd need a long mineshaft, a tailwind and Bonneville gearing to get a KZ650 anywhere near 140MPH.
Even Kawasaki's advertising people in their wildest dreams would never have dared claim anything like that for the 650, great bike though it is.
My .02....

I don't understand how he could look down and see an indicated 140mph on his spedo, I own the same exact bike and they come with an 80mph spedo. :whistle:

ok i ran some numbers. i am making no judgements, just math. a STOCK 650 has a 2.55 primary ratio, .89 5th gear ratio, and with stock gears a 2.63 final ratio, which totals a 6.07 overall ratio. this times 9000 rpm redline gives you 1,482 rear wheel revolutions. a 140/18 tire has a 85 inch cir. which yeilds 126,029 inchs per minute or 2,100 inchs per second, and when you plug that in a unit converter you get....ta da 119 mph. with STOCK gearing 155mph the engine is going 11,688 rpm which a stock 650 will not do or not for very long. i realize you can drop the final drive ratio to hit high numbers but the power required to acheive redline would be quite the acheivement.

Taking into account spedos being off, years ago a friend and I both on 650's ('80 and '77) both with Kerkers got all tucked down and at almost 10,000rpm we hit 128mph according to his spedo. So pushing a relatively stock 650 you could hit 125 or so. I also agree with Mark Wing, build them up and they are a force to be reckoned with!!

Man! From what I don't see here, looks like I missed out on all the fun!

Oh well! I guess we can't ALL be young and bored.:whistle:

My 650 will do 0 to nothin' in nothin' flat!:laugh:

I had mine at 115mph before but blew the head gasket... all the parts are here now for rebuild though I like the 650's though they have decent power and are pretty quick. I had a 1994 GS500E and my '78 650C is better than it by a long shot.

flht1997 wrote:

ok i ran some numbers. i am making no judgements, just math. a STOCK 650 has a 2.55 primary ratio, .89 5th gear ratio, and with stock gears a 2.63 final ratio, which totals a 6.07 overall ratio. this times 9000 rpm redline gives you 1,482 rear wheel revolutions. a 140/18 tire has a 85 inch cir. which yeilds 126,029 inchs per minute or 2,100 inchs per second, and when you plug that in a unit converter you get....ta da 119 mph. with STOCK gearing 155mph the engine is going 11,688 rpm which a stock 650 will not do or not for very long. i realize you can drop the final drive ratio to hit high numbers but the power required to acheive redline would be quite the acheivement.

Math? What does math have to do with it? All we need to do is hit the treadmill and we can go 140 or 150 or even faster on just about anything! Math, that's funny. :laugh:

Hi 79MKII,

"Math? What does math have to do with it? All we need to do is hit the treadmill and we can go 140 or 150 or even faster on just about anything! Math, that's funny."

That's the NEW new math. At least that's what they're teaching at Andrews University.

I've been talking with several of the other mods and, while we did not get to see all the postings, we would like to thank the regular members who were involved for the way they handled this little episode. Unfortunately, no one can be sure that they won't reappear.

kzcsi

Post edited by: KZCSI, at: 2008/02/12 17:18

KZCSI wrote:

Hi 79MKII,

"Math? What does math have to do with it? All we need to do is hit the treadmill and we can go 140 or 150 or even faster on just about anything! Math, that's funny."

That's the NEW new math. At least that's what they're teaching at Andrews University.

kzcsi

That's my sarcastic sense of humor at work once again. Math and physics and other laws of the universe are exactly whey those idiots are so easy to call out. Yet, the moron insists that using a treadmill is all that is needed...:huh:

Post edited by: 79MKII, at: 2008/02/12 17:11

Let's just hope that whomever he comes back as he at least honors us with a bit better history and spelling.

Everybody knows that Cossacks rode horses not KZ's.

KZCSI

140 on a 650;) , I think someone would need to change there shorts after that run, the stock front end wants to float a bit past 100 mph, ahh the good old days of being bullet proof:unsure:

i take it a lot has been deleted from this thread?
140kmph is easy to do, just not mph. my 650 would do 140km at 7000 rpm in 5th...my stock 12r could do that with ease in 2nd, 1st if i changed sprockets a little bit:whistle:
dOOd is right about the difference with air flow on a naked bike vs a sport bike with full fairings. i had the 12 up to about 180MPH on my "closed course":whistle: and with a good tuck, it wasnt that bad at all. there was still a lot more to go, but i thought it would be a good idea to put a steering damper on it before i attempted to max out the bike. it was smooth with no signs of head shake, but you cant be too careful at those speeds. sit up at much over 160 and you get sucked right off the bike. i wouldnt want do be doing that kind of speed on a naked bike. they just arent made to slice the air. i would want the front end raked a couple degrees, stretch it out a few inches in the rear, a steering damper on both sides and at least a 1/4 fairing (or cafe headlight fairing, whatever you want to call it) to go fast on a KZ, and you would still be fighting the air a lot, it would just be a bit more stable