Went out for a nice ride today. Wife on her bike and me on mine. Opened up the Hawk 2x's. First got it up to 140 mph second time ran it up to 150 mph on the speedo. Meant to turn on my GPS app on my phn that shows and records actual speed. I will remember next time. All in all bike ran great and at 150 was still pulling hard, dont know were I was on the tach so I dont know how much it had left.

 

Glad to hear it's running well. I've had mine redlined in 3rd at 115, and I've been up to 135 before I ran out of road. Our bikes don't have enough HP to pull redline in 6th, from what I've heard. 5th gear would be best for a top speed run to redline... only on a closed course and under approved safety conditions, of course.

 

I was on a back road that was 27 miles of nothing but open road. Both runs were from a 55 mph roll from 3rd gear. The 150 run I hit 6th gear and from a quick glance I was coming up on red line but then looked at the speedo and saw I hit the 150 mark and shut it down. Not to mention I had to wait a mile for my wife to catch up.....LOL.
Im thinking I can hit red line in 6th with enough road. And yes V the bike is running good. Still a little lean on the low end and could use the screws turned out a 1/4 turn, butit is better and with the proper mains in it I feel they are helping. Oh and yesterday and today were much cooler and nice for making HP!!!!

 

I got mine up to 158 on my gps Sunday. I was in 6th still pulling, only slowed because it was getting hard to hold on. I'm sure I could have got her up to 165 maybe, although I had a slight tail wind. Even with a lean mixture and being 16 years old, I'm still amazed.

 

At 27 and not even getting close to 150 I love this bike! The feeling from 4K up in any gear is awesome.

 

Dont think age has anything to do with it...LOL . Gonna be 46 in June. We are going for another ride today but there wont be any place in our travels today for some high speed blasts again. Good to know the Hawk has got some under the hood, even in stock form with minor tweeks.

 

The true top speed of a SH in in the 155-159 range. At these speeds the speedo will be buried well past the 180 mark.

If you go to a site like this one: Gearing Commander: Motorcycle Speed, RPM, Chain & Sprockets Calculator
It will tell you that the bike is capable of a 183 mph top speed but the leave out tire slip.

The last time I brought this up, there were more than a few "disbelievers" but it is very real.

The easiest way to understand it is to understand that in order for the rear tire to drive the bike forward it must generate traction. The way it makes traction is to create friction. This is done by the rear tire\wheel spinning at a slightly faster speed then you are moving.

This is also why the center of the rear tire wears out first. If the wear was caused just by the tire rolling over the road, then the front should wear in the same pattern at close to the same rate. I say this because even though it has slightly less weight on it, it also has a smaller contact patch.

So with a completely stock bike (well at least a '98 as I haven't done it on a later model bike) you can not pull to the rev limiter (not to be confused with the red line on the tach) but runs out of steam at around 9800 RPM.

Drop a little weight, get the carbs dialed and lighten the flywheel and then it will pull to the 10,300 rev limiter in 6th even with the stock 16\41 gearing....been there & done that

 

Hawk, Interesting to know and nice info on the web site. Looks like I have a goal to work towards......maybe. I guess Im impressed with this big V twins get up and go. Most of my riding thus far has been city/hwy and yesterday was the first day I was able to open er up and and hold er open without fear of uncoming traffic.

 

That's an interesting theory Hawk. I'm not going to call BS on it but you've peaked my interest. Do you have any other info you can point us to on this topic for those who would like to research it more? A 30 mph difference in "tire slip" seems unlikely but I'd like to hear more on it. And maybe some hard data to back it up.

 

I think that's just indicated 30mph... our speedo's are off in the first place so with them being 5-10% fast and the addition of tire slip the total difference in actual vs indicated speed is 30mph. But I could be overstepping my boundaries of understanding with that one

 

I know mine is off 3-4 mph at 80mph, I have also been told that the faster you go the speedo tend to be off more. Maybe I misunderstood that one. Also I hope I didnt open up a can of worms and start a big debate.