What bike have you ridden to the limit of it's performance?

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I was thinking about my choice of track bike (30 year old FZR400) and while I can ride it to it's limit on power, I'm not get anywhere near it's cornering limits, I don't think I could ride my FZ750 (a bike that first came out in 1985) to it's limit, the last bike where I got near to the edge of what it could do was a 1983 RD350 YPVS, and then only because the exhausts limited how far you could lean, and I'm pretty sure Yorick and Tricky could get one round corners quicker than me as they both raced them.

So I doubt if I've ever ridden a bike at 100% of what it could do, do you think you have and if so what bike was it?

[weeksy]

It's relative, of course the answer is none, for all of us.

Over the years the bike i've ridden 'hardest' is a KTM690 Duke, both on track and tyres, lean angles, rpm average compared to limiter etc...

However, compared to the bikes actual ability... maybe 65% lol.

[Horse]

Riding WFO? On-road only smaller bikes, and none of them to cornering limits.

On-track, the K75RT and R850RT both at full throttle (couldn't quite get the R to 100 at Combe) but neither to their cornering limits, only mine. I knew someone who occasionally ground pannier lids on a K100LT and R1100RS, so they will go much further over than I will.

[Rockburner]

I was thinking about my choice of track bike (30 year old FZR400) and while I can ride it to it's limit on power, I'm not get anywhere near it's cornering limits, I don't think I could ride my FZ750 (a bike that first came out in 1985) to it's limit, the last bike where I got near to the edge of what it could do was a 1983 RD350 YPVS, and then only because the exhausts limited how far you could lean, and I'm pretty sure Yorick and Tricky could get one round corners quicker than me as they both raced them.

So I doubt if I've ever ridden a bike at 100% of what it could do, do you think you have and if so what bike was it?

A couple....

First was the 50cc Honda Karen which was the first legal 'road-going' bike I had - if you weren't flat stick at all times (30mph, just!) you were likely to get swept aside by traffic (eg Ford Fiestas). Scariest moment ever on that bike was going down a steep hill, full throttle - got it up to 40mph!! Then the 12" wheels started wobbling, ...... badly!

BSA D1 Bantam: getting up any hill was a matter of flat-stick in 2nd (because if you dropped it into 3rd it simply didn't have the power to move)

The only big bike I've done it on properly was one of the Rocksters: On the way to one of Abel's Salisbury Plain off-road rideouts I stupidly opened it up 100% on a very quiet A303 (Sunday morning) for long enough (ie it reached a peak mph figure, and stopped going faster) that it blew up. The main shell bearing disintegrated and took the cam-chain guides with it, (or possibly vice-versa). Mind you - it did have 130,000 miles on it at that time, so I think I got my money's worth out of the bike.

In terms of to the limits of cornering/handling - no: I never got the ZXR400 over far enough to get my knee down (but then, it cornered so well anyway!), and I've never touched down the heads on the Rocksters (I know some people who have on other BMs)

[Nidge]

AP50 every day for a year

[Ditchfinder]

MZ ETZ 125 - found the limits of it's handling on £10 tyres (more likely my ability) a couple of times too

[lostboy]

AP50 every day for a year

Ha!! I was going to say MT5!!! Both on and off road. I used to commute on it as a 16 year old and had QE Forest (and surrounding woods) in between home and work so was very happy to go "off piste" on it. I remember getting stuck at the bottom of a bomb hole and having to drag the fucking thing out.

[Skub]

It's easy enough to ride flat out on any bike in a straight line,if you pick the time and place,it's also entirely possible here and there to corner to the limit of tyres and/or ground clearance,but to do so on a regular basis on a public road is asking for it sooner or later. Personally,my enjoyment of bikes lies well within either of those limits.

The track is where you want to be if you need to push yourself and a bike,again personally speaking I wouldn't want anything bigger than a 600 as a track bike. For my diminishing abilities (age is a bitch) it's all about fun without tempting fate.

So,to answer the question honestly,there have been bikes in my past where I pushed 100% until I crashed. Bikes in the 70s handled so badly it wasn't hard to find the limit,but any decent modern bike is way more capable than me. It's a lot easier to find MY limits rather than the bike's limits.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I'd forgotten 50s, my poor little TS50 got ridden to it's limits and beyond (crashing) a lot and the poor thing was dead after me owning it for a year, I had a YZ125 MX bike that I got near it's limits and quite often beyond, though the amount I fell off MX bikes is pretty big, I could crash multiple times in one lap.

My Husky 610 I could ride to it's limits on both road and track, though that slid around and scraped it's pegs so I didn't fall off it, but it did shit itself in a fairly big way, twice.

[Skub]

A mate of mine tells folk he's had a *bike flat out around the IOM.




*He was two up on a C50.

[Yorick]

Pushed to the limits when I was racing.
But on trackdays i only pushed to my own limits.

But did find the absolute top speed of a couple of the GSXRs

[Trinity765]

I used to borrow a Honda Grom - while I hit the limiter in all gears (by accident, at least once) I'm not sure I rode it to it's maximum performance.

[Demannu]

When I used to race, I regularly used to get the rear end stepping out all the way around the corner in a Doohan-esque style.
No mean feat on a Bob Farnham tuned GT50.
Used to grind the frame sliders on my Fazer, heads down on my R1100S and off the limiter in top on an autobahn

[Count Steer]

I ground the underside of a BMW1200LT into a completely new profile on mountain hairpins (and maxed it out on a 'crap, we're going to miss the ferry' motorway trip. (Not that that was difficult!).
Never got close with anything else since I was 17 but Lambrettas, BSA A7 and a 650 Panther probably don't count.

[Yorick]

I did get the heads down on some BMW thingy at Donington

[Count Steer]

I did get the heads down on some BMW thingy at Donington

Probably not a K series then.

[Horse]

I did get the heads down on some BMW thingy at Donington

Probably not a K series then.

My neighbour did that.

With one of mine. When it was parked and he reversed into it.

[Yorick]

I did get the heads down on some BMW thingy at Donington

Probably not a K series then.

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[Noggin]

The bike I've ridden closest to its limits without getting to mine was the little 390 Duke. I did ride that hard, road and track! To the point that people would come and look (at the cafe I used to stop at, not just at mine, at all the bikes) then do a double take cos of both tyres

I did ride the Blackbird hard - I wore away patches of the fairing on the front lower behind the front wheel. Bollox to anyone who says Blackbirds don't handle/go round corners!! That one did I never reached its limit in a straight line, I lacked the balls for that, but corners I'd keep up with most people I rode with - always caused a bit of surprise/consternation the first time out!


I don't have the bottle to have ridden anything else I"ve owned to it's limit. They've all been big engines and I'm quick in corners and severely lacking balls on the straights

[Mr. Dazzle]

It's relative, of course the answer is none, for all of us.

Yeah that...

If you are riding to the limits of the bike you're saying that no-one else could get on the same bike and go faster than you on it. How many people is that true of - probably half a dozen in the whole world surely? Not even the whole MotoGP grid can make such a claim I would have thought.