Top Speed/Highways
 

Probably a topic done to death ... but ...


So, took my first ride on a GZ250 this weekend. A friend bought one as their first bike. Wife and I and friend took it to an abandoned parking lot and friend was practicing, getting use to the feel. Learning counter-steering, emergency stops, etc.

Anyways, I ran it down the service road. I weigh 250lbs and was running the bike at 60 mph. It didn't seem to mind at all.

Everyone has been saying, "It's not a highway bike, but it will be great in town". Is that true? I didn't get it out on the highway, but I was feeling like I would be able to keep up. And if friend is a 100 lbs lighter than me, she should be fine, right?

I mean, once she's built up her skills.

These bikes can hold speed just fine. I took many a road trip between 65-80mph.
What they mean by it not being a highway bike is that these bikes max out around 80mph. It's not good for any machine to operate near 100% capacity for long periods of time. So driving cross country trying to keep up with traffic is not the best idea. If you are pinpoint with maintenance and know what you're doing, a bike is a bike. A long time ago, when clearances weren't nearly as precise, a 250cc machine was considered mid-level and people crossed the country on them. The common misconception now is that they are entry-level or "beginner bikes", which is just roughly better than calling it a toy.

Take care of your bike and it will take care of you -even if you thrash it around at freeway speeds.

PS: for safety reasons, when highway speed if your max speed, you don't have any juice left to avoid situations or to get out of the way at the last second. So keep that in mind when doing long highway jaunts.

Yeah, that makes sense. Especially about running the bike at it's limits. Anyways, even if the bike can handle highways, it'll be a bit before the owner will be ready.

Get her ready and then get her rollin'. These are good, solid, simple and efficient bikes. She'll be happy - back roads and highways. :)

top speed/ highway
 

I mainly ride on 55mph highway and can maintain 60-65mph on flat ground in 5th gear even at my weight of 250. 16 tooth front sprocket too

Top speed for me has been 72mph on GPS and I had to be in 4th to get there and maintain it. WOT in 5th gear is about 65mph depending on wind and slope.

On a faster highway I just stay in the slow lane or with people going the speed limit up to 65mph or else I got to shift to 4th to accelerate then back to 5th to maintain.

I'm sure your lighter friend will do fine on the highway on the GZ. But like most you start thinking about slightly bigger bikes that are better for suited for highway riding the more highway riding you do.

I'm loving my GZ at 7,200 miles now and average 60-65mpg, I just paid state taxes and fees and it came to $8. Yes eight dollars. Virginia tax assessed value of my bike is $750 and tax credit for smaller vehicles and cars you get a discount, so mine I just had an $8 fee and free taxes for this year. compared to my car which they assessed at 3,500 and was $90 this year with tax credits.

I running 140 main jet, 2.5 tuns on the pilot. shim on the needle, 16T sprocket and mode air filter (see pic).
I can maintain 65 to 70 mph on 5th gear with no problem
do not mod the filter without change the main get

I'd be happy with that, my annual tax is 88 euro for the bike and 190 euro per quarter for the car, roughly one thousand dollars (US) I'd hazard a guess at.
That said, I've been wondering if I'd been flogging the bike too hard, I can get almost 85 (on the speedo) flat out going down a slight hill on the motorway, but wondered if I was pushing it too hard at 60+,maybe even 70+ a lot of the rest of the time, I'm sure I can squuezemore out of it easier since i put on a small windshield.
I try to run it more gently near the end of a journey to aid cooling.
I've already considered getting bigger engined replacement, although the gz I think is mostly quite suitable and more than adequete for getting about in traffic and even short motorway journeys.
The money isn't really there yet and despite what I've estimated to be people looking down on a 250 I'm not even sure I'd get a reasonable value from selling so might keep it in storage if a replacement happens.
I haven't seen much in the way of vulcans, or many older bikes which I think look nice, but might require some work, which I don't have the time for. As much as I'd like a Suzuki again, I like the Yamaha xvs size.
If I could get a Suzuki that size and style.
In regard of maintenance, my gz was laid up for a while and needed little to get going again.
Is there a cult following of the bike I chose for other reasons?

My annual tax bill came yesterday. € 12.57 ($ 20 ?) for the year :clap:

I feel ill hearing of people in places paying reasonable vehicle tax

When Lynda had her GZ she would cruise at 100 kph(62 mph) with a little power left over for grades and headwinds. The bike was happy and performed like a champ.
For those of us who like the GZ but want a bit more the S-40(650 CCs) is a good alternative. Still a single cylinder bike with a belt drive instead of a chain. Lynda looked at one, liked it but finally decided on the M-50 when it was time to move up. The M-50 proved to be a great ride without fear of being too big and bulky for around town. Any of the 50 series Suzukis are a good ride.