top speed query

[livingdeadhead]

dream in 1975 ? thought they werent out till the late 70s? about 78? the 400 twin you mean? i had the 250 in 79 , maxed out at about 82.

[Tony Smith]

dream in 1975 ? thought they werent out till the late 70s? about 78? the 400 twin you mean? i had the 250 in 79 , maxed out at about 82.

I think you will find that the "dream" name was first used on the 305cc twin of about 1963.

My father bought one after he sold his 500 Guzzi, a decision he has regretted the remainder of his life - he has periodically tried to buy it back, the best compromise is that if the new owner dies first, he can buy it from the widow. The problem is that my father is in his 80th year and the buyer is a mere squib in his early 70s.

Anyway, I remember the dream well as it was bought for my father to commute to and from the mill where he was chief (and for a long time, the only) electrician. I also remember uncle Arthur being quite derogatory of it, Arthur had an R69 (not 69S, the really rare and now very, very valuable r69), but he came back with a very quiet and thoughtful look when he and father raced from Wallaville to Gin-Gin and back, and father was changed out of riding clothes and opening a beer before Arthur and the R69 arrived. The R69 was not a slow motorcycle in its day.

The dream passed into history soon after and my father stopped riding motorcycles regularly after that although up to his late 50s he would occasionally take one of either my or my brother or sister;'s motorcycles for a spin - that came to a sudden stop when he went off on my GPZ1100, he came back a long time after his expected return looking a bit white and thoughtful. for some reason he has always refused to speak of what happened (I checked the Kawka minutely at the time and there was no sign of a misadventure) and he has sadly never ridden or ridden on a motorbike again.

[Barry]

I can imagine a first ride on a GPZ110 could turn anyone a bit white. I remember being in a state of some trepidation when going to pick my Z900 up from the dealer in 1976. Not a patch on a GPZ1100 perhaps but at the time it was considered so fast it was practically impossible to insure. I daren't  think what the insurance did cost me in today's money.
Years later a friend of mine had a GPZ1100 but by that time I was married and had reverted to a modest 400cc. Even though he referred to me as an ex Z900 pilot I never was offered a ride on the GPZ.

[livingdeadhead]

yes the old 305 was good for an easy 105 ! pmsl i obviously assumed he was referring to a bike that could attain that speed ! check out beemer garage for top speeds , the the r96s could barely crack a ton , so the r69 ? even the black bomber could only just ! my cb500t (brown bomber!) actually wasn't bad , torsion valve springs never cought on tho , mind you it handled much better than my xs650 at the time , lovely motor awful chassis , apparently the x2 650 was a death trap till it was sorted by percy tait , remember him?

[Barry]

In the days of teenage window shopping I remember well the CB450 black bomber arriving in the showrooms. I still see a pair of them every year at a local Classic show in immaculate condition. They are just gorgeous.  

[Tony Smith]

I can imagine a first ride on a GPZ110 could turn anyone a bit white.

It really depended on whether or not you wicked it up or not. At part throttle opening the thing never ceased to amaze me at how smooth, quiet and gentle it was, in fact I remember saying to my sister that if she knew how to ride we could have sent mum down to the shop for milk on it.
 
By contrast I was very wary of my sister's CB1100R, it was peaky and had a pretty narrow power band for such a big engine.

The big Honda I wanted t own was the CB-X, but I missed my chance and to buy a rough one now would involve parting with more than $AU15k.

But I do agree with you, the GPZ1100, the CB1100R, the CB-X and the Katana were the very last of the "big-banger" air-cooled bikes. a great many later bikes produce significantly more power - my brother was here only last week with a Honda blackbird that allegedly has 189hp, if memory serves the GPZ1100 had about 110hp, but the modern machines are much, much more refined and do not have the "brute" persona that attached to the old aircooled devices.

[Lucky_Lou]

The first "White Knuckle" ride I remember was in Hull 1970 I was pillion on my pals 500cc  BSA Gold Star I was nervous before he got it out of second gear, I was at college there for a couple of years and had 250cc BSA C15 at the time, oh I wish I had them bikes now.... worth a mint even though the C15 used more oil than petrol.  
Lou

[clonmore1]

"on a private road near me (M1)"

It's great having such a resource so close to home for testing out various things.

A friend of mine got his Golf VR6 up to 145mph before he bottled it due to building traffic, don't these people know the M1 isn't for normal folks?

[livingdeadhead]

i had a cb1100r x reg , was a shed when i got it and the engine used to use half a sump of oil going to the coast , 200 miles to you colonials! , had it sprayed back to original , the basterd almost killed me! racing my mates gpz900 through lincolnshire , going through a 95 mph bend the clutch slipped , ( had my mates g/f on the back too) then reconnected at full revs , the back end stepped out , gripped and launched us off the road ! ripped the sole off my boot , got my knee , elbow down and my SHOULDER ! on an embankment ,ripped the gear lever off, then through a field , tankslapping like mad and unbelievably back to the road ! we were both shaking like mad ! sold it to a guy in bradford , it did the same thing when we went to the cash machine for the balance of the cash, i was on the back and was almost launched into traffic . lol 'happy' days !

[arvo92]

Yesterday i had an itch which told me I had to ride. I quit everything I was doing and headed for the abandoned Soviet airfield. I had never tried out the top speed.

Go to maps.google.com and type in search "haapsalu airfield". I do reccommend to check it out, it is pretty neat. They have destroyed most of the dangerous buildings in recent years but the jet fighter hangars are still there. Observant eye will notice roughtly 30 of them hidden in the landscape.

The results of the speed tests were that the bike was not going over 90mph. It is a 2 mile stretch and it did not matter how I tried, getting it past 70 mph was a chore. The last 10 miles were a pain and it just stopped at 90. Not that I ever need to drive that fast but it is good to know what the bike can handle.

Riding back home in the middle of the darkness the clutch handle did not do anything. The old cable had snapped. The tail light was barely hanging on when i got back home, the bolts had come loose. I do not know how some things go like that but my sense tells me the season is over. The bike is going to be pushed into garage, ripped to pieces and total re-build is ahead for this winter.

Sad since september is still a month to drive in this country. After that 6 months of silence.

[steve hawkins]

Hope you were holding 4th till almost the very end.  It will struggle to get there if you change up to 5th early.  you need to use all the rev-range in all the gears (well from 2nd onwards) to get to the magic ton.

Even I have managed it on a pre-81 based engine.

Cheers

Rev Light.

[arvo92]

I was not holding it till the end. I think I revved every gear up to 5k and then changed.

Good remark. I put it behind my ear.

[Crossrodes]

Hondas aren't bad.  I have 187,000 KMs on my '06 Goldwing and just rode it to Toronto and back from Vancouver Island.  The only problem I had was a burnt out headlight bulb.  As far as Singer sewing machines go we bought an old hand crank one to sew canvas and sail material on the boat we lived on for 5 years in the Caribbean back between '92 and '95.  Never had a problem with the sewing machine and we used it a lot.