Vaquero Top Speed

[bouson]

Just trying to get an idea of what the top speed anyone has had a stock Vaquero up to without crossing into the red.
I could guesstimate using the speeds I've ran in 6th gear against the rpm I was running.
When I was going;
35 mph = 1000 rpm
70 mph = 2500 rpm
90 mph = 3500 rpm
That would mean that the top end should be around 145 mph at the red line. Of course there is some variance to that in real life.
So far :D my top speed has been 90 mph :D for about 5 seconds then I slowed downed to 70 mph.
How about you?

[jestephens]

Needle read 110 the other day. Most likely 105 actual. Then I remembered that one time I got a sentence of 15 days in county that a good lawyer got reduced to "suspended execution of sentencing" and a 12 month probation for 106 in a 60, and shut it down. :wave: The trooper said my politeness, cooperation, and apparent resemblance to an off duty trooper, kept me from going straight to jail that day.

I will tell you, the Vaquero got there MUCH faster than the Nomad ever did. :cheers:

[jhawkins]

At 100 mph my gps said max speed was 97 mph

[Monkeyman]

You can get them going a few hundred miles per hour pretty easily.......depending on the height of the cliff you toss it off of.

[cheriann]

I've only gone as fast as 90 and that scared me! :ohno:
However, it sure did get to that speed pretty darn fast! :yep:

[ponch]

Just trying to get an idea of what the top speed anyone has had a stock Vaquero up to without crossing into the red.
I could guesstimate using the speeds I've ran in 6th gear against the rpm I was running.
When I was going;
35 mph = 1000 rpm
70 mph = 2500 rpm
90 mph = 3500 rpm
That would mean that the top end should be around 145 mph at the red line. Of course there is some variance to that in real life.
So far :D my top speed has been 90 mph :D for about 5 seconds then I slowed downed to 70 mph.
How about you?

You'll never reach top speed in 6th gear. Probably 4th or 5th because of the lost of torque with overdrive vis a vis the exponentially increasing wind resistance. I don't know what the redline is, but I doubt it's much more than 5k rpm if that.

Most japanese speedometers are off at least 5% and as much as 12%. RADAR and GPS are the only way to know how fast you are going with any accuracy.

[ponch]

You can get them going a few hundred miles per hour pretty easily.......depending on the height of the cliff you toss it off of.

Terminal velocity is less than 300 mph.

[Monkeyman]

I'm good with "only" 300 mph. :D

[ponch]

I'm good with "only" 300 mph. :D

It depends on the height of the fall the amount of drag the GPS has. If you shot a bullet straight up, it would reach about 200mph on the way down. A sky diver falling belly down is about 120mph.

[jestephens]

on a brighter note, I don't think these bikes will easily reach their critical speed either . . . I want to hear more great stories of speed.

I took my '81 GL100 to 140mph once. Although I had to do some math to figure it out since the speedo's of that era only read up to 85. 140 happened to be that bike's critical speed. The handle bars started a vicious wobble, but I got it backed down and stable. :crazy:

[ponch]

on a brighter note, I don't think these bikes will easily reach their critical speed either . . . I want to hear more great stories of speed.

I took my '81 GL100 to 140mph once. Although I had to do some math to figure it out since the speedo's of that era only read up to 85. 140 happened to be that bike's critical speed. The handle bars started a vicious wobble, but I got it backed down and stable. :crazy:

There's very few places where sustained high speeds are possible, being able to get away with it and it will get worse, between speed and traffic cameras, sensors in the road and nanny state motorists that report people. I find doing short bursts is possible, like passing cars, but even then there is risk of paying the doughnut tax, which I have done more than my share. :ohno: That said, 105-110 is not an issue for me at all. :D

[bouson]

Well the red line on the tachometer on my Vaquero is 6000 rpm.
As I said I reached 90 mph which was no sweat and the rpm was only 3500.
My 6th gear once you get to 70 mph which is 2500 rpm seems to have the same power as any other gear.
In Kansas we have a lot of roads that are long and straight and I'm going on a 170 mile plus run on the 4th, who knows what will happen. Have to be careful what I say since I believe fammdw (http://www.vulcanbagger.com/forums/member.php?u=3565) may be local law enforcement. Wouldn't want to cause problems for anyone, including myself.

[ponch]

There are roads in Nevada that are pretty much desolate. Last year on the way back from Crescent City on was one road that I couldn't see the end to and no one was around and I mean nothing but tumble weed. That's the kind of place to test it. Going 100 there was nothing as there was no real frame of reference. I am sure there are places like that in AZ, but I also have heard of the Indian police out here and the fines are nuts.

As far as power as any other gear, you will see that change as speed increases. It's not a linear relationship.

[Cajunrider]

On those long desolate roads you have to be wary of the airplane or helicopter. LSP is constantly in the air watching divided/elevated interstate highways where coonasses tend to fly low.

[bouson]

Well the red line on the tachometer on my Vaquero is 6000 rpm.
As I said I reached 90 mph which was no sweat and the rpm was only 3500.
My 6th gear once you get to 70 mph which is 2500 rpm seems to have the same power as any other gear.
In Kansas we have a lot of roads that are long and straight and I'm going on a 170 mile plus run on the 4th, who knows what will happen. Have to be careful what I say since I believe fammdw (http://www.vulcanbagger.com/forums/member.php?u=3565) may be local law enforcement. Wouldn't want to cause problems for anyone, including myself.

:DWell made a little run of 195 miles this morning. Great ride for me and my 2 friends. They were each riding 750's, so I didn't get a chance to run for top speed. I did have two times when passing in a safe area to jump from 55 mph to 90 mph, back to 65 mph in less then 500 yards while staying in 6th gear (maybe I will try a speed run another time).

:yep: Also ran the total mileage for the trip. Used Mapquest to figure distance for everything. compared against odometer total trip and trip-meters A (Gas mid trip) & B total trip. Given that odometer doesn't show tenths of miles it showed a half (.5) mile farther then Mapquest for total. Trip B for total trip showed less then a half (.44) mile less then Mapquest and A showed one tenth (.1) more then Mapquest. Usually zero both and they read the same all the time.

:P I have checked my speedo against a friends truck speedo that is known to be correct (checked by radar frequently) and my speedo is right on the money with his.

:lol: That has to be a first for Kawasaki bikes as all the other bikes seem to have as much as a 10% error to the speedo. They normally show faster & the odometer showing more distance then is actully being ran. Really glad to know mine is all correct.:cheers:

[ponch]

My 800 was 12% off, the Nomad was 8% off and the beemer is 3-4% off. The only vehicle I have owned that was on the money is my Suburban.

[landman]

2011 vaquero,107 m.p.h. on the gps at 5500 r.p.m.in 4th gear.was still pulling strong when i shut it down.

[ponch]

I bet with that big flywheel, once it gets going it likes to roll. I find with a beemer it gets there in a hurry, but if I let off the gas it slows down quickly too. The bigger twins are like locomotives.

[nomadtom69]

A friend and 3 buddies on BMWs out west were almost thrown in jail because someone called in on them the idiots were running 140 thats the fastest the k100rt (the slowest one) would run they had slowed down when they saw the road block at the state line.

[ponch]

A friend and 3 buddies on BMWs out west were almost thrown in jail because someone called in on them the idiots were running 140 thats the fastest the k100rt (the slowest one) would run they had slowed down when they saw the road block at the state line.

They are/were built in the land of the autobahn.

I've never had mine over 110 and it was loafing along in 6th gear. Supposedly some have had the RT up to 145, but that was in Europe where the roads and gasoline are better. I'd love to find some 94 octane stuff and see how it runs.

[nomadtom69]

all 4 of them were K bikes I think my friend said he had is up to 160 out west
They all are nuts one of them died of cancer after all their adventures and wrecks the big C got him.

[ponch]

It's probably a little optimistic. The newer hot rods are speed limited from the factory. The S1000RR is limited to 185mph and the K1600s are limited to 150 or something like that. Most people here might find the speeds we are talking about insane, but in Europe higher speeds are normal.

[nomadtom69]

They would leave here in Tenn go to New Oleans and west to the coast up the coast and back home in 2 weeks got in a sand storm and hit a drift across the road and total one bike had to rent a uhaul to get back home one of them had a broke collar bone like I said CRAZY even one of the BMW riders quit riding with them.

[bouson]

:DWell made a little run of 195 miles this morning.

Did some other riding this evening making the total mileage today 244.1 miles. I went to get gas just before coming home, average mileage displayed on bike was 42.8, when figured with calculator got the same thing.

I did make a discovery tonight when I filled up. The ground by all pumps is not level and can make a significant difference in your mileage. I normally use a pump which actually leans my bike toward the pump. Tonight when I filled up I was sitting on the bike. I topped off the tank, then I took it off the stand and was holding it up straight. You wouldn't think it would make much difference, but it took over a half gallon to bring it to the top. 244.1 miles divided 5.703 gallons = 42.8 which is what I got as an average, but if you take 244.1 divided 6.252 = 39 miles. If you do that at 120 miles that could really screw up the math, instead of a 43.3 average you could get an average of 36.7. Just something to keep in mind when checking mpg.

:lol: Have a great week. Hope you all remembered the golden rule of fireworks, when you light it let go!!!!:lol:

[Monkeyman]

I'm happy NOT going very fast. You can't stop for shit at 70 and you don't have enough time to react to much of anything. At 100 (or 120), all it would take is one person coming off the shoulder 1/4 mile ahead of you and you're toast. I'm pretty happy at about 5 over the limit.

[bouson]

I'm happy NOT going very fast. You can't stop for shit at 70 and you don't have enough time to react to much of anything. At 100 (or 120), all it would take is one person coming off the shoulder 1/4 mile ahead of you and you're toast. I'm pretty happy at about 5 over the limit.
Me too. I just wanted to know the top end. Still we do have some roads you can see 3 to 5 miles with no side egress that are very temping.

[Sin City Stan]

Last year on the way to the Crescent City rally after going through a long construction zone in the middle of nowhere and having about 20 vehicles in front of us who did not seem to know that they could resume highway speeds I pulled out to pass. I could see forwever and used the Stebil as I approached each car/truck. Once I was rolling I figured I might as well pass them all.

I was in fifth gear on a stock 2009 Nomad riding 2up, loaded, no fairing and as I approached the last car I glanced down at the speedo and it was a little over 110. I stayed on it as I completed the pass and made a little room behind me.

Later that day when we were standing beside the bike in the middle of the highway for more construction in the middle of nowhere I checked the max speed on the GPS. It was 105.

I don't make a habit of going that fast on a bike. I'm usually backing off at 90 if that fast. However, it was good to know that at 105 it still had the power to accellerate in 5th. gear. I'm guessing it was good for mid-teens if I fell back to 4th.

The Vaquerro should be able to do better than that. :yep: