As I rode along, I noticed that 70-75 mph was about all I could get out of my bike, even at full throttle, unlike the usual 90+ around home (and in warmer temps). I was in 5th gear most of the time and I could milk a little more speed if I downshifted to 4th, but I didn't want to run that high RPM for long periods of time.
As the day wore on and I got further south, the temperature rose. It may have been my imagination, but it seemed like the engine performed better as the air temp increased. Still, I was fighting a terrible headwind, almost exactly "on the bow", and the engine just didn't want to give me much more than 75-80 mph under the best of circumstances.
I did notice that when I started downhill and the "load" was lighter, it would give better speed with a little less throttle. Also, when trucks passed me and I was in their wake, the bike performed slightly better until the truck was far enough in front of me that I lost the effect of their wake.
This went on until I arrived in Ft. Worth, TX, that evening, and again, all day Tuesday until I arrived in Corpus Christi. I was fighting a headwind that varied from 20 to 40 mph and sometimes greater - mostly right on the nose.
I noticed (I think) that as long as I had just enough throttle rolled in to hold my speed at about 70-75, I could maintain that speed, but if I rolled in too much throttle, the engine seemed to "bog down" and I actually lost speed even though I was giving it slightly more throttle. Then I would downshift to 4th gear and roll on more throttle and as the engine RPM increased, the "bog down" (or throttle overload) seemed to go away and I accelerated to about 80, perhaps a little more if I stayed on it. Then, when I shifted up to 5th, I had to carefully roll on just enough throttle to maintain my speed; otherwise, it "bogged down" again.
It also seemed like increases in head winds and/or uphill grades would cause the engine to bog down unless I reduced throttle, but once the wind or hill was past, I could gently roll on a little more throttle and creep back up to 70-75 mph - or downshift to 4th and accelerate back to 75-80 mph fairly quickly - and begin the whole process all over again.
After I got to Corpus Christi, I visited the local Honda dealer service manager and described what I have just told you. He told me that the engine was just loading up because it was unable to completely utilize the amount of fuel being fed into it by my throttle setting, in light of the load it was under, and by downshifting to 4th gear and running at a higher RPM, it was "cleaning up" excess fuel and consequently ran better and easier until the load was put back on it. He assured me that my experience was typical of my size bike/engine under those circumstances and there was nothing wrong - just an 1100cc engine working against that kind of headwind with a windshield and a load. He told me that I probably wouldn't have had this same experience with the VTX1300 (or bigger) because of their greater low end torque.
I fully expected some kind of wind resistance when I started, but I guess I wasn't expecting the degree to which it slowed me down and affected throttle settings. Up to this point, the bike had always responded to every throttle demand like it was a GP racer, but these were all just putting around the local area - and I hadn't ridden at any highway speeds at the temperature I encountered Monday morning.
Have any of you had similar experiences? Do you agree with the service manager's assessment?
Share your thoughts.
I'm headed back to KC next week and I'd be interested in seeing your feedback before I leave.
). It isn't something I'd wanna do every day, but a 100-200 mile trip now won't cause the apprehension that it did before this trip. 
