Quote:
Originally Posted by bwader
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.
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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?