I'm about due for a midlife crisis. Maybe I need a 1000 HP motorcycle. Or not! 299 KPH=185 MPH.
160HP would be plenty to get to those speeds, assuming a fairly modern and aerodynamic motorcycle. Manufacturers voluntarily regulate to <300kph, so as to avoid government regulation. Savvy adrenaline junkies can tell you how to disable this limit, of course.
I was wise enough to have my midlife crisis in my late 20's and early 30's, when I could enjoy it. Even then, I only pulled those types of antics on a close course, like Road Atlanta ... unless there was a girl to impress.
I'm not used to anything going that fast on the highway. At one point I thought "This guy is nuts. He's going the 'wrong way'!" I had to do a double take before I realized he was passing trucks at highway speed!
Seperate tack, I still wonder why motorcycles don't get 300+ MPG. It's kinda ridiculous that they only get 30-50 MPG. A freakin' Prius gets more MPG.
It's like motorcycles aren't even trying.
It's simple: people won't buy them unless they can accelerate quickly and go fast (there's a reason they're called crotch rockets). Which happens to be the two things that kill good gas mileage. For a while, we owned a Honda Metropolitan, which is a 50cc scooter. It did not accelerate quickly and maxed out at about 40mph. But it also got about 105mph. My guess is that it would still get 60-75mpg if its top speed was 55-60. With zero hybrid tech installed. But those just won't sell well enough to be worth making...
This is what you could use to practice afore your outlaw riding spree...
Be sure to have fresh batteries in your Helmet cam. A live feed would be really cool...
Living in Germany I was used to do 220++ Km/h in Cars. Once drove a bike around 230 km/h. The pressure of the wind is quite challenging. In Germany it is easier to drive fast because most people do on the Autobahn, so the relative speed between the vehicles is not as much as in the video.
So it is quite save, once you get used to it. But you always need to calculate in the time you need to slow down. So you need to look way ahead of the traffic in front of yourself.
Now I am living in California and can not even try if my Mercedes 1995 SL500 roadster really will shut off at 150 miles per hour (~250 km/h) or not.
No track around here to test. And no disposable income for tickets.
@msrobots, as far as I remember the Autobahn, slower traffic still stays to the right, but passing on the berm, is an accident waiting to happen, the variables are against you @ too fast of rate, to make a split second decision.
Motorcycles are pretty poor aerodynamically. Certainly my sitting upright and billowing out like a parachute on my old BSA's and Triumph Bonneville was not aerodynamically efficient. Modern bikes have fairings and all but I'd wager it's still not so good.
People don't buy motorcycles to pussy foot around, they want max thrill all the time.
On the other hand my old BSA C15, all 250cc of it, seemed to run forever on a tank of gas. I don't recall the figures now.
I recall that winding my Honda 750 F1 up to about 130mph on a British motorway was very unnerving. All of a sudden that big motorway starts to feel like a twisty country lane. Luckily I never got caught, that would probably have been an instant driving ban for some years given that the speed limit is 70mph.
Ah, happy days before speed traps, radars, cameras etc etc.
A regular ol' stock BMW R1150R will do 160 mph, and seems to handle it well. But like Mike said, the wind pressure on the driver is quite unnerving. Maybe fairing would help - but I wouldn't know.
People don't buy motorcycles to pussy foot around, they want max thrill all the time.
My motorcycle experiences have been mostly utilitarian. In college, it was all that I could afford, all that I needed, and all that I could park around campus.
My latest is still primarily a commuter, as seen here.
Back in my university days I calculated that I could spend all the money they wanted to give me and my girlfriend for bus fares to and from campus for a year on an old BSA 650cc Thunderbolt instead.
Not a fast machine by modern standards but "thrill to the max" for the day.
Hmm..difficult choice, ride on the bus everyday or get a motorcycle....girlfriend agreed, so bike it was. Never met a woman like that since.
Note: I am so old that in my time, if you were bright enough to get accepted by a university the government paid a grant for you to live and study for three or four years. Including uni fees, rent and commuting expenses if need be. Which was just as well as my family had no money to support me.
None of this student loan and life long debt for young people business.
The world has gone seriously down hill in that respect since then.
Oh yeah, not seen there. Stormtrooper does not allow images to be viewed unless you register and sign in there. Stupid.
What I'd really like now is an electric motorcycle. Something with the power of a 250cc machine. Just to get me the 5Km to the office and back everyday. Man they are still expensive.
Oh boy. The Isle of Man. Perhaps the last place on Earth where man and machine can race to the death against reality. Twisty roads, trees, villages, farms, cow Smile, farm animals. What is the death toll now? About 250 fatalities since 1907 or whatever. Mostly from the UK. Brits are mad that way.
I remember one young guy writing about how he lost control of his machine in the TT and was about to crash, back in 1970's, he wrote: "And then a pig passed me".
I'm too old and slow for that now. And I have lost count of how many traffic lights there are between home and office.
Oh, heck. I don't know if you had your speakers on but I neglected to mention that the video for yourself was of the electric TT category. TT Zero (emissions). I didn't post a still pic but to me, those electric bikes are absolute works of art.
Motorsport is the only sport I follow. My dream is to take a chunk of time off work to do the Monte Carlro F1 and IOM TT because they are always within a few weeks of each other.
Oh yeah, not seen there. Stormtrooper does not allow images to be viewed unless you register and sign in there. Stupid.
What I'd really like now is an electric motorcycle. Something with the power of a 250cc machine. Just to get me the 5Km to the office and back everyday. Man they are still expensive.
D'oh! Agreed, that is a stupid policy. Oh, and Stromtrooper ... Strom is roughly "stream" in Deutsch. A little jab by Suzuki at the BMW crowd.
A few of the electric motorcycle guys were customers of mine at one point, and I really wanted to want them. There just really hasn't been a good combination of range, performance, and cost. There is a reason that Polaris turned Brammo into an electric powertrain branch of their company ... the e-motorcycle product was flushing money down the proverbial toilet. Maybe someday.
No worries, I know what the TT Zero is. Had to wind the sound up on the vids too...
I was lusting after an electric bike at some show a few years back, forget the manufacturer, it was in the style of some 250cc KTM motocross machine. Gorgeous. I didn't get to asking about range and performance, the price seemed astronomical.
Comments
Must go very, very fast.
Must use only one servo.
160HP would be plenty to get to those speeds, assuming a fairly modern and aerodynamic motorcycle. Manufacturers voluntarily regulate to <300kph, so as to avoid government regulation. Savvy adrenaline junkies can tell you how to disable this limit, of course.
I was wise enough to have my midlife crisis in my late 20's and early 30's, when I could enjoy it. Even then, I only pulled those types of antics on a close course, like Road Atlanta ... unless there was a girl to impress.
Robot motorcycle taxi? Now that is über-Uber ™
It's like motorcycles aren't even trying.
It's simple: people won't buy them unless they can accelerate quickly and go fast (there's a reason they're called crotch rockets). Which happens to be the two things that kill good gas mileage. For a while, we owned a Honda Metropolitan, which is a 50cc scooter. It did not accelerate quickly and maxed out at about 40mph. But it also got about 105mph. My guess is that it would still get 60-75mpg if its top speed was 55-60. With zero hybrid tech installed. But those just won't sell well enough to be worth making...
Be sure to have fresh batteries in your Helmet cam. A live feed would be really cool...
-Tommy(live another day)Tailspin
So it is quite save, once you get used to it. But you always need to calculate in the time you need to slow down. So you need to look way ahead of the traffic in front of yourself.
Now I am living in California and can not even try if my Mercedes 1995 SL500 roadster really will shut off at 150 miles per hour (~250 km/h) or not.
No track around here to test. And no disposable income for tickets.
Enjoy!
Mike
Motorcycles are pretty poor aerodynamically. Certainly my sitting upright and billowing out like a parachute on my old BSA's and Triumph Bonneville was not aerodynamically efficient. Modern bikes have fairings and all but I'd wager it's still not so good.
People don't buy motorcycles to pussy foot around, they want max thrill all the time.
On the other hand my old BSA C15, all 250cc of it, seemed to run forever on a tank of gas. I don't recall the figures now.
I recall that winding my Honda 750 F1 up to about 130mph on a British motorway was very unnerving. All of a sudden that big motorway starts to feel like a twisty country lane. Luckily I never got caught, that would probably have been an instant driving ban for some years given that the speed limit is 70mph.
Ah, happy days before speed traps, radars, cameras etc etc.
My motorcycle experiences have been mostly utilitarian. In college, it was all that I could afford, all that I needed, and all that I could park around campus.
My latest is still primarily a commuter, as seen here.
Back in my university days I calculated that I could spend all the money they wanted to give me and my girlfriend for bus fares to and from campus for a year on an old BSA 650cc Thunderbolt instead.
Not a fast machine by modern standards but "thrill to the max" for the day.
Hmm..difficult choice, ride on the bus everyday or get a motorcycle....girlfriend agreed, so bike it was. Never met a woman like that since.
Note: I am so old that in my time, if you were bright enough to get accepted by a university the government paid a grant for you to live and study for three or four years. Including uni fees, rent and commuting expenses if need be. Which was just as well as my family had no money to support me.
None of this student loan and life long debt for young people business.
The world has gone seriously down hill in that respect since then.
Oh yeah, not seen there. Stormtrooper does not allow images to be viewed unless you register and sign in there. Stupid.
What I'd really like now is an electric motorcycle. Something with the power of a 250cc machine. Just to get me the 5Km to the office and back everyday. Man they are still expensive.
@Heater
Here ya go....no excuse for being late to work, now :-D
I remember one young guy writing about how he lost control of his machine in the TT and was about to crash, back in 1970's, he wrote: "And then a pig passed me".
I'm too old and slow for that now. And I have lost count of how many traffic lights there are between home and office.
Motorsport is the only sport I follow. My dream is to take a chunk of time off work to do the Monte Carlro F1 and IOM TT because they are always within a few weeks of each other.
D'oh! Agreed, that is a stupid policy. Oh, and Stromtrooper ... Strom is roughly "stream" in Deutsch. A little jab by Suzuki at the BMW crowd.
A few of the electric motorcycle guys were customers of mine at one point, and I really wanted to want them. There just really hasn't been a good combination of range, performance, and cost. There is a reason that Polaris turned Brammo into an electric powertrain branch of their company ... the e-motorcycle product was flushing money down the proverbial toilet. Maybe someday.
No worries, I know what the TT Zero is. Had to wind the sound up on the vids too...
I was lusting after an electric bike at some show a few years back, forget the manufacturer, it was in the style of some 250cc KTM motocross machine. Gorgeous. I didn't get to asking about range and performance, the price seemed astronomical.