Speed

[FreeRide]

Has anyone experienced the sensation of riding along @60mph and it seems more like 40mph or is the speedo not accurate? What gives?

[Shiv]

Well, not on a motorcycle. But in my car, yah all the time.

I think it's due to the mass of the vehicle. Lighter cars seem to go a lot faster. (at the same speed as a larger car)


Now why you're getting that sensation on a motorcycle, not sure.

If you lower/raise your vision along down the road, the speed sensation seems to speed up/slow down as you pick various locations as your frame of reference for your brain to judge speed by.

[MrGompers]

When I'm riding I always think I'm going faster than I actually am.
Not sure if thats good or bad.

[Apitoxin]

Might keep ya from going too fast.

[bok]

i believe it's called habituation or something similar.

basically the longer you do something the more it seems normal. so in this case the longer you go 60 the more it seems like that the speed is slow which makes you want to speed up.

The same sort of thing happens when you roll into town and you have to go from 60 to 25 or 35 and it seems like you are just crawling along.

[MotoF150]

It depends on the type of bike, a good bike with a smooth engine, nice tires, no vibration it does feel ur going slower than you are, but if ur riding, say for example a Harley 883 Sportster or a Suzuki Boulevard M50, its an opposite feeling. Thats my personal opinion. I didn't mean to say that the Harley or the Suzuki is a bad bike, I was just using them as an example.

[FreeRide]

I ride a Suzuki S50 and it's a very smooth ride w/o vibration,but it just feels like the speed @60 mph doesn't match up to the surrondings. It felt this way too with my previous bike, a virago 250. Can the speedo be inaccurate,although it appears to be working ok? I dunno

[jmillheiser]

My CX500 always feels like its going slower than it really is. part of it has to be the engine. at 80mph the CX500 doesn't feel like its working any harder than my cage is at that speed despite running at twice the rpm (twin cylinder bike vs 4 cylinder cage).

The only time the speed becomes really noticeable on the bike is when I turn at that speed, at highway speeds the bike is much more resistant to leaning than at in town speeds (more gyroscopic effect obviously).

[RTR]

Has anyone experienced the sensation of riding along @60mph and it seems more like 40mph or is the speedo not accurate? What gives?

If you rode a Goldwing, your statement about the speedo's would be accurate. The Goldwing speedo is out by about 10%. Reading higher than what you're actually going. This was the result of putting a 60 series tire on the rear, which is OEM. Apparently, if you replace the rear with a 70 series (which I just did this week) it corrects the speedo issue. I am giving this 70 series a try for this tire change. Probably on the next one, I will be going back to the 60 series. I am not content on the handling of my Wing, now with the 70 series. Really enjoyed it with the 60 series.

Cheers!

[Sev]

Try doing 100mph on a bike then getting in a car.

Without the air SCREAMING past your head it feels like you aren't moving at all. You used to live in a bubble, carefully packaged and insulated from the trials of the road. NOW, you're hanging out there with nothing between you and the elements but a thin layer of animal hide and bucket strapped to your skull.

No wonder it feels fast, you aren't held away from all the sensations of speed that you are in the car.


PS, most bike speedos are out by a minimum of 10%