Performance, what's up?

[Tbone]

Let me first clarify I am a knucklehead and new to Buell. So with that said, I am just saying:
It seems on this forum there are some references comparing a Buell's performance to a 600cc motorcycle, or just references that it is not a high performing bike out of the box. Leads me to ponder if there has been changes in Performance of Buell's over the years of it's production? Maybe it is obvious to an average person, I did say I am a knucklehead, but my 7 months of experience on the ULY there has not been a performance issue for me and I am on a nearly all stock bike, with a K&N filter and breather reroute, so it is practically out of the box. Just Saying......

 

[snrusnak]

The buell's are 984cc and 1203cc vtwins and as far as acceleration and on a track they barely keep up with most 600cc inline four cylinder engines. It's the nature of the beast, a vtwin has more torque, and inline 4 spins higher rpm and produces more hp. Typically, vtwin is good on the street and inlines dominate on the track.

HP = Torque * RPM / 5252

So either more torque or higher rpm will produce more hp. Inlines produce more hp than vtwins typically because they are able to rev thousands of rpm's higher than vtwins.

I agree with you, the performance is not lacking on the street, but if you ever get over 100mph just about any bike will smoke you. So going around a track where speeds are typically 75mph-125mph you will get beat most likely by 600cc, 750cc, etc bikes.

 

[Tbone]

Wow! another great answer, thanks.
It reminds me of my first motorcycle, a 1967 Suzuki 250 scrambler. Used to ride it on some bandit trails in the corn fields in IL when I was a kid. That bike had 2 power bands, idle and screaming. Thanks again

 

[snrusnak]

Yeah my last bike was a suzuki, a 599cc engine. It was probably as fast or just barely slower than my 984cc buell. But you also had to constantly shift to stay in that power band, it wasn't nearly as fun to ride. My left wrist would get sore often when going through the twisties(constantly shifting from 4th to 3rd to 2nd to 1st, then 1st to 2nd to 3rd to 4th, repeat. With the buell I rode the dragon at deals gap and stayed in 3rd gear the entire road, anywhere from ~15mph to ~90mph(kind of guessing here as I was watching the road, but you get the idea).

 

[steve92106]

I hit 121 mph indicated on my Uly on I-40 coming out of Williams AZ a couple of years ago and had plenty left over if I'd wanted to keep the hammer down. Two things prevented me, I was getting blown around by trucks I was passing and I couldn't(still can't) afford a ticket at that speed. I think the 132 mph published top speed is probably right on. Nothing like that V Twin torque coming out of those tight curves. You can own those 650s in the short twisties.