What's fastest? Lets see how long..

Like I said earlier, I consider magazine articles to be advertising more than truth, and the facts conveyed therein are suspect. one proven example is a 110 hp rating for the zl's. proven fact is that a stock zl does not put 110hp to the pavement. now there are those that will say that this is because they did not pull that number from the rear wheel. musta been from the crank or somewhere else..... manipulation of information to make sales......factory data is suspect.

the bikes that score these incredable runs have been tweeked and tuned and whatever else the high dollar factory tech's can do to get a great number...bone stock like what you would actually get from a dealership...I seriously doubt it.....c'mon...

Im sure they had specail "factory" made heads and cams in those "stock" bikes made to particularly tight tolerances so as far as I'm concerned the only thing you can say for cetian about factory numbers is that It wont be true about your bike !

you guys should also remember that drag racing is not machiene vs. machiene...... it is man + machiene vs. man + machiene. that changes everything. A zl can impossible to catch if the other guy makes any mistakes. to me this is one thing that is particularly fun about racing a zl. there are faster machienes at the track no doubt. mechanical advantage usually goes to your opponent but, Ive won alot of races none the less.

you opponent gets caught sleepin' at the line or makes a late shift there is just not enough track to catch up alot of times..tee heee hee when you win on a zl vs. a more modern or powerfull machiene it is because you, the man, beat the other guy with skill. Personally, I take some pleasure in giving up the mechanical advantage when racing, it really puts the pressure on me to have a clean run, and cleanest run usually will win. and win I win .....I win

as far as I'm concerned the only test that counts is the real world power to the pavement on the track test, magazines specialize in hype not truth. I just dont accept that the bikes tested are the same exact ones you will get from the dealer, and what the mag says the bike will do is not what will happen when you run yours....period. I think that we have to admit that this has been proven by several members here. so the question then becomes what is reality???

I think the event that has been discussed is an excellent opportunity to put reality to the test, and reality must be tested.....I think that a shootout for 80's muscle bikes could be a real deal event. would stroungly urge connecting with and including other clubs in this idea, I will say that it can be difficult to get guys to quit talking about how fast their bikes are and actully show up to race....every body talks a good game but looses their mojo when its time to line 'em up.

this idea combines vintage bike show, with racing event, to include multipul classes of collector\enthusiests seems like alot of potential appeal to me.

Let's get in on....!
 
As far as the mag test reports are concerned, I don't think any reasonable reader expects to equal (or sometimes come near) the times that were documented. Although I have a lot more faith in the magazine shoot-out camparo's due to the bikes are run by equally qualified riders on the same day with the same weather conditions. Providing the test bikes are prepped equally and none of them break down (cluths, etc) , you can pretty much gage the results as a catalyst to which one is the strongest. Otherwise , individual test reports must be taken with a grain of salt. They should all just be used as a barometer when choosing a certain model. Fast foward to the vintage bike shoot-out , that too has more variables than you can imagine. Bike condition, milage, rider weight and capability , reaction time, mechanical clitches all have a huge effect on the end result. I have seen vintage bikes vary to the tune of well over a second or two from my expectations. A good example: Just 2 weeks ago at Moroso I saw 2 vmax bikes that couldn't go under 12 seconds! So the shoot-out shouldn't be taken that seriously in my opinion, but as Texas mentioned....should be a ton of fun!!!!:headbang:
 
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Yep! Should be a lot of fun! Getting together at Ohio has been a good time so far and everyone I have met from this club has been top notch people. So here is to meeting a few more at the races this year and having some fun while doing it:groupcheers:
 
Yep! Should be a lot of fun! Getting together at Ohio has been a good time so far and everyone I have met from this club has been top notch people. So here is to meeting a few more at the races this year and having some fun while doing it:groupcheers:

Yea, except Ohio is too far north!!! Are the dates for next years Ohio get together been discussed yet? Why can't we just use this same yearly get together, and just move is south a bit?
 
one proven example is a 110 hp rating for the zl's. proven fact is that a stock zl does not put 110hp to the pavement. now there are those that will say that this is because they did not pull that number from the rear wheel. musta been from the crank or somewhere else..... manipulation of information to make sales......factory data is suspect.

the bikes that score these incredable runs have been tweeked and tuned and whatever else the high dollar factory tech's can do to get a great number...bone stock like what you would actually get from a dealership...I seriously doubt it.....c'mon...

Im sure they had specail "factory" made heads and cams in those "stock" bikes made to particularly tight tolerances so as far as I'm concerned the only thing you can say for cetian about factory numbers is that It wont be true about your bike !

All the majors quote their HP numbers from the crank - and it may not be a measured number, but calculated for ideal conditions.

Also, I believe most of the magazines use a correction factor for their 1/4 mile results, corrected to sea level and some standard temperature (again ideal conditions).

As for the magazine test bikes - I once read somewhere that the techs do use stock assembly line parts, but they are carefully chosen/matched for max HP, minimum friction, etc. just like they do for their stock class roadracing bikes. So they are "stock", but not typical.
 
As for the magazine test bikes - I once read somewhere that the techs do use stock assembly line parts, but they are carefully chosen/matched for max HP, minimum friction, etc. just like they do for their stock class roadracing bikes. So they are "stock", but not typical.


I've come across that info as well. These are what you call "factory blueprinted" built bikes. Stock parts, but gasket matched components as well as carb and timing performance tuning. I forget the number, but back then (maybe even now) the factories had like 10-20 of these type of assembled bikes in every size and category just for the magazine tests. And I even read way back that if they knew where the tests were being held, they would send a couple of factory techs to "dial-in" the carbs and plugs for altitude & temp conditions as well. All makes for a geographic specific bad-azz.:victory: I often wondered if they sold them afterwards to the public? May explain a few races!
 
Yea, except Ohio is too far north!!! Are the dates for next years Ohio get together been discussed yet? Why can't we just use this same yearly get together, and just move is south a bit?
VMD '10 is the weekend after July 4th....7/9, 7/10, 7/11. I wouldn't mind doing the SRCA dragstrip in Kansas instead of VMD. Thats alot closer to Texas, AZ, and MN. I used pauls location and bacchus' location to come up with it. If you have any input on the ZL-OA Day at the Drags or the 2010 80's Muscle bike wars please post it in the correct thread:
http://www.zl-oa.com/forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=11300
 
I've come across that info as well. These are what you call "factory blueprinted" built bikes. Stock parts, but gasket matched components as well as carb and timing performance tuning. I forget the number, but back then (maybe even now) the factories had like 10-20 of these type of assembled bikes in every size and category just for the magazine tests. And I even read way back that if they knew where the tests were being held, they would send a couple of factory techs to "dial-in" the carbs and plugs for altitude & temp conditions as well. All makes for a geographic specific bad-azz.:victory: I often wondered if they sold them afterwards to the public? May explain a few races!

I agree with all of this conjecture, but if Honda did it, why wouldn't Kawasaki? Whatever games they were playing, my bet is ALL of them were doing it, so in my eyes, all of the numbers were relative. I suspect Kawaski did ALL THE SAME TRICKS that Honda did, and they still couldn't post a 10 second quarter mile time! Which in turn, leads me to believe that the V65 was and IS faster than the big ZL! That, and my highly sensitive seat of the pants feelings!!!!!! Seriously, it's all good, like I have said over and over again, the ZL900 is one of my favorite bikes of all times. I have gone through several dozen V65's over the years, but I've only had one mint condition ZL900, and I intended to keep her for a very long time!
 
I believe they did this mostly with shoot-out articles, although I've seen the same magazines run an individual test report on one of the contestants a month after or before and sometimes in the same magazine! If I remember correctly, They were allowed to have the bike for a couple of months. I remember some of the riders saying that they were "regretting giving it back" to the factory. Also sometimes the manufacturers would allocate a regular production bike from a local dealer. But this never happened in an upcoming shoot-out. But did the ZL1000 ever participate in a shoot-out? Mark, you may know this.
 
I agree with all of this conjecture, but if Honda did it, why wouldn't Kawasaki? Whatever games they were playing, my bet is ALL of them were doing it, so in my eyes, all of the numbers were relative. I suspect Kawaski did ALL THE SAME TRICKS that Honda did, and they still couldn't post a 10 second quarter mile time! Which in turn, leads me to believe that the V65 was and IS faster than the big ZL! That, and my highly sensitive seat of the pants feelings!!!!!! Seriously, it's all good, like I have said over and over again, the ZL900 is one of my favorite bikes of all times. I have gone through several dozen V65's over the years, but I've only had one mint condition ZL900, and I intended to keep her for a very long time!

Its not always a matter of who cheated; but rather who cheated the best or the most or for what reason?
I have seen some strange things, when you talk about the variation in bikes performance from all makes. Most noteable was the overall difference between manufactures printed HP/ET compared to the actual performance of the bikes. Comparing numbers posted by actual times the bikes ran locally I always saw the bigest differnce (as I stated before) in the hondas.
 
I've got another muscle bike shoot-out article at the office, it was the ZL1000 vs. the VMAX and the Madura I think, I will check it tomorrow to find out. In that one, I'm pretty sure the ZL1000 came in 2nd behind the VMAX, quarter mile time was 11.2 if I remember correctly. I will try to bring it home and scan it into the computer!!!!
 
Sorry. That is NOT a shoot out. Although it looks as if the V65 numbers are exactly 1/2 a second slower than the 10.75 that was posted. I see a 1/100th second difference there between the zl and the V65. WTF! I suppose that "seat of the pants" is superficially the initial torque of the V configuration of the motor. In lines do not traditionally have that advantage. These bikes are closer than I thought. I may have to re-evaluate this!BTW, a much more realistic camparo, although I still would love to see these 2 bikes go at it head to head (to quote Paul).
 
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I see a 1/1000th second difference there between the zl and the V65. WTF! I suppose that "seat of the pants" is superficially the initial torque of the V configuration of the moter.

Actually it's 1/100th of a second, but yeah, the "seat of the pants" may be full of **** :)
 
gentlemen..how are things going..im reading all your guys input on the quarter mile times...i was just wondering about whats going to happen after one run with the v65 s,,,,the tranny is going to granade !!! they have weak gearboxes,,i have great respect for the hondas,,,,but i dont think the trannys can take to much abuse,,,i hardley even jumped on my friends in CT...before i could start enjoying the new clutch he put in,,bye bye 2nd gear,,,quarter mile times mean nothing without reliability,,,anyways i dont want to make anybody angry...just wanted to see what you guys thought about that aspect..thx brett
 
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