Harley can get a lot out of those v-twins, that's for sure! [8D]

They are really doing well on the pro-stock circuit also...even though most of their competition is 4 cylinder metrics.

 

A friend of mine purchased a '99 Hyabusa several years ago. I'm only going by what he told me... but he claims that the '99 Hyabusa is (or was two years ago) the fastest production motorcycle ever made. He said that all model years after '99 had horsepower restrictions applied by some branch of the United States government. Is this true ?

 

Yes, the early busa's were the faster bikes because the other ones came with governors to restrict the top speed (but they could easily be bipassed). I'm not sure it was the goverment that made it happen. I think the asian bike manufacturer's had a gentleman's agreement to not go above a certain speed and I think this year they're going to break it. I'm sure Harley got their blood boiling with their 9 second v-rod.

Harley could always do it. In fact, didn't the japanese complain after Harley started kicking their *** and forced Harleyto limit the cc's on the bike? I think that's unfair as the v-rod had the disadvantage of 2 cyclinders instead of 4. Maybe to be fair they should limit their cylinders. Racing is really political and they impose a lot of restrictions to have one bike benefit over another. Honda dominates some of these area's and pretty much forces others to conform to their ideal engine, which of course gives them an advantage.

If you look at Harley history, then you see that Harley never wanted to race even when you go back to the day's where they dominated racing. In those days Harley resisted racing for as long as they could and when they got into it seriously they dominated the racing scene. I don't know why but Harley doesn't give a crap about racing. They only get into it when people complain too loudly. I don't blame them though as they build good street bikes. You don't need a 190mph 0-60 in 2 sec machine on the streets where top speed is limited to 65.

 

That's been my take on this for a long time.... Why do we need a bike that goes 3 times the legal speed limit? My bagger wil go over 100 with 2 people and I'm happy with that. The cover of one of the rags I get at home showed a new metric with a 17,500 rpm redline.... Jeez. One of the reasons I'm so fond of Harleys is the power is made on the low end. I didn't even like having a 9000 rpm redline on the old Z-1 I had in the 70's, so I can't imagine what it must be like to have an engine buzzing at 17,500 between my legs...

Little Redscout might get hurt if an engine spinning that fast lunched sometime....

I respect a lot of the sport bike rider's abilities to make a bike do what they want, but at my old age, I'll stick with a 6200 rpm redline...

 

I'm not as into this as a buddy of mine but he told me they made the Harley's carry a little more weight also. [>:]

 

The V-Rod's on the Pro Stock circuit aren't really V-Rods, at least the V&H ones. They are special engines pretty much designed by V&H and who knows who. They even have pushrods instead of being OHC motors. That means they are allowed a bigger displacement than the OHC motors. And it is a political mess, trying to come up with the rules necessary to keep dissimilar engines competitive with each other. Glad I ain't the one who has to make the rules!

 

I found it! A Busa pegging the speedo at 220+ mph and doing a 1 wheel salute all the way up to 120+ mph. The link is below.
http://www.birkholtz.net/UpOnOne_320KmH.wmv

 

On many sportbike forums they say the gears on that bike were changed . Take a look at how slow the lines are going by towards the end of the video when the speedo is reading 100 MPH.

 

Kawasaki just released a new model Ninja a ZX14 1352 cc in-line 4 . Quoted as being the most powerful kawasaki branded motorcycle ever . Imagine what the insurance on that baby would cost you , lol.

[IMG]local://upfiles/1483/36AB263DAE804632A4CA00B6E10EA63A.jpg[/IMG]

 

Damn it only costs $31,249 ,maybe I'll get 2 , lol .

[IMG]local://upfiles/1483/21072CEFB037490CA015642759E48253.jpg[/IMG]