217 mph Hayabusa

[Skier]

Frankly, I doubt it. Bikes, even the busa's, have notoriously bad aerodynamics (well, technically it's the rider whose aerodynamics suck, the bike just can't fight it). Read about someone being clocked from a police plane at 200+ mph a while back and some engineers I know calculated that you'd have to be up in the 200+ horse range to be able to push it that fast. Tough to do that with the size engines you're talking about. If someone did try to tweak the motor to rev that high and pound that hard, I wouldn't want to be on top of it when the valve train let loose.

I think this is wishful urban legend thinking.

Well, the police plane calculating a bike's speed at north of 200 MPH is a bit skewed. If the officer is a bit late on starting the timer and a bit early on stopping it, the results could easily be way, way off.

As a side note, Hayabusas have been tested in wind tunnels for stock tuning to lower Cd.

Oh, and if you think it's hard to pull 200 crank HP out of a motorcycle engine... well, you can ride my friend's turbocharged Hayabusa. Trust me, there's no problem of making power on that thing. Sure scared me to ride it!

[oldnslo]

I'll be happy, if slow, in digging out the issue of Motorcyclist or whatever that documented the fastest in that given year. It was not a Busa, and unless someone has trumped it, it still stands.
But then, anybody who wants to go that fast has only a few mutated brain cells left anyway.

[Relsek]

It doesn't take too incredibly much to make that possible. Mine is bone stock and will hit the speed limiter at 186 with no problem at all. I would imagine that with some power upgrades it shouldn't take much. You can double the horsepower with a turbo. I don't know what that bike had for upgrades though.

Kevin

[Skier]

It doesn't take too incredibly much to make that possible. Mine is bone stock and will hit the speed limiter at 186 with no problem at all. I would imagine that with some power upgrades it shouldn't take much. You can double the horsepower with a turbo. I don't know what that bike had for upgrades though.

Kevin

That's an indicated 186 MPH, though, so true ground speed is a bit lower. Also, as speed increases, wind resistance quadrouples, if I recall correctly.

[Relsek]

It doesn't take too incredibly much to make that possible. Mine is bone stock and will hit the speed limiter at 186 with no problem at all. I would imagine that with some power upgrades it shouldn't take much. You can double the horsepower with a turbo. I don't know what that bike had for upgrades though.

Kevin

That's an indicated 186 MPH, though, so true ground speed is a bit lower. Also, as speed increases, wind resistance quadrouples, if I recall correctly.

That is slightly incorrect, indicated 186 is actually a lower speed, but the limiter doesn't kick in until actual 186. The needle stops at 186 and the tach will rise until the rev limiter is reached.

Kev

[V4underme]

Check your bike rags, somewhere in there will probably be an ad for Heine Gericke (sp?) showing a man leaning on his busa, caption says he's the speed record holder with 230 or 240-something mph. No idea of the mods to that bike. Hope I'm recalling it correctly.

For some interesting viewing, take a look at this vid. 12 MB wmv file, almost 3.5 minutes long. You get to see the speedo on the camera bike, close to the end you can see the numbers it shows (in km/hr... do the math) as the main bike goes by. What's even more impressive is how and where the passes occur. Pure insanity. Yeah, it's a busa.

http://www.superbike.co.uk/images/for_w ... 5/busa.wmv

[Relsek]

Check your bike rags, somewhere in there will probably be an ad for Heine Gericke (sp?) showing a man leaning on his busa, caption says he's the speed record holder with 230 or 240-something mph. No idea of the mods to that bike. Hope I'm recalling it correctly.

For some interesting viewing, take a look at this vid. 12 MB wmv file, almost 3.5 minutes long. You get to see the speedo on the camera bike, close to the end you can see the numbers it shows (in km/hr... do the math) as the main bike goes by. What's even more impressive is how and where the passes occur. Pure insanity. Yeah, it's a busa.

http://www.superbike.co.uk/images/for_w ... 5/busa.wmv

now that is some crazy riding.

[led_zeppelin]

I think this is wishful urban legend thinking.

A quick search on ol' Google turned up this:

http://www.landracing.com/events/worldf ... tary01.htm

Rick Yacoucci running his Hayabusa in the MPS-G 1350 cc class ran a qualifier at 219 mph and backed it up with a 221mph pass.

It's not only possible for a modded Hayabusa to manage 200+ mph, I think it's darn near expected. I got a CD-ROM from Mike (the Admin) and it includes a video of three Hayabusa's, one stock, one with nitrous, and one with a big-bore kit and a turbo all racing a supercharged Viper on a desert road in New Mexico. These bikes (and the car for that matter) were reaching speeds north of 200mph without trying.

hi, my name is jason. i am 17 years old and i am currently in the middle of a restoration of a 1967 kawasaki a1...
anyways, you fellas do realize that around 220 is faster than your reaction time...ergo, before you process what you see, it is gone. so say a deer runs out in front of you (no real worry in new mexico i guess) you technically would hit it before you knew what you hit. scary is it not?

[shane-o]

Check your bike rags, somewhere in there will probably be an ad for Heine Gericke (sp?) showing a man leaning on his busa, caption says he's the speed record holder with 230 or 240-something mph. No idea of the mods to that bike. Hope I'm recalling it correctly.

For some interesting viewing, take a look at this vid. 12 MB wmv file, almost 3.5 minutes long. You get to see the speedo on the camera bike, close to the end you can see the numbers it shows (in km/hr... do the math) as the main bike goes by. What's even more impressive is how and where the passes occur. Pure insanity. Yeah, it's a busa.

http://www.superbike.co.uk/images/for_w ... 5/busa.wmv

now that is some crazy riding.

lol
one dood doing 280kmh
being easily overtaken by a guy with his front wheel up while in traffic I know I shouldnt condone that...but puck that looked like fun

[TechTMW]

That kind of riding happens here alot.

I worry more about other bikes hitting me than the Cages... There's nothing like a bike come flying by you in your lane when you are doing about 140 (slightly faster than traffic)...

There was a Naval Lt. here who thought he could ride like that. He came up behind a truck at about 200kph and tried to swerve around the truck.. but I guess he didn't see the rebar stickin out of the back of the truck.

It went right thru his helmet.

Was not a pretty death scene. And my wife had to work it.

I practically have to sneak out for a ride now