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Quarter mile and top speed

41K views 100 replies 32 participants last post by  Wazzanz 
#1 ·
I just got a new t-bird 1600 with the shorty TOR's and still breaking her in. I was trying to find performance numbers and found one site that claimed a top speed of 115mph on the stock 1600, that seemed kinda slow considering how strong she pulls. Anyone got some real world numbers to share on a stock 1600, 1700 or with mods? Quarter mile and top speed or whatever you got. Thanks.
 
#40 · (Edited)
Wrong. the speedys sprocket has nothing to do with it. It's not just the final drive, it's the internal gearing. look it up. And no bike scares me except maybe a boss hoss just because they're so heavy. I spent several years in the 70's on a kawasaki MKII and another few on a suzuki water buffalo. I know what quick bike is. The MKII ET'd slightly better back then than the R3 does today. by the way, torque is something you seem to ignore, but enough torque will make HP figures irrelevant. the speedy had a lot more a lot lower, the Tbird doubles the 900's and even lower yet at 2500 peak., the r3 guys will tell you a pillion makes no difference. weight is a big factor yes, but with gobs of torque that factor quickly diminishes and with enough makes weight nearly irrelevant.
 
#42 ·
For your info you dont know what you are talking about all of the 270 and 360 motors have the same trans I should know I have a few of each here.daz your a trip ,anyone that has ever raced any thing knows weight maters as much as power.I drag raced h1 and h2 kaw I know how fast they are but they didnt weigh much ether.speedy is just plain slow a stock bonnie is slow to but alittle faster a bird is no better.As far as carrying people on the back the low end does help just as a dump truck can pull more weight then a pick up but it dont make a dump truck fast.your bike is good for what it was made to be .But you shouldnt think its fast .I had a h2 that ran 11 second 1/4 mile years ago .I have had a 904 that made 85 hp and 65 ft/lbs on the rear wheel .I had a 988 that made 89hp and 70 ft/lbs on the rear wheel.I use to think they ran good but this new 1087 scares the hell out of me.Thats why I say you dont know what a fast triumph twin feels like.
 
#41 ·
It is what it is. I think it's amusing that the T-Bird and the Bonnie both posted identical low 13's in the quarter, and was mildly surprised when I first read it - but...

The T-Bird is about 300 pounds heavier, that's got to count for something! I'd still like a big ol' T-bird for relaxed two-up cruising though. Beautiful bikes.
 
#43 ·
Yeah, lets just keep ignoring the gearing factor. Put a 25 tooth front on yours and then come to me and ask me why it does 25 second ET's. I'll have the answer, tho for the life of me i can't understand why you don't get that. If you can finally confront that issue maybe we can talk. till then nothing you say means much.
 
#44 ·
Personnally I question the quarter mile times. I moved from a stock Bonneville to a stock Tbird last June and there is simply no comparison. I could open up the Bonneville and feel totally comfortable, whereas I still worry about flying off the back of the Tbird.

I've read here that the Tbird just feels faster and that could be, but pull on the handlebars is a real, not imagined, thing.
 
#45 ·
Gearing, weight, torque, hp, it all matters in a drag race... As speeds increase, drag becomes a factor too - but neither the Bonnie or the T-Bird is exactly streamlined & low drag...

Read about some mildly worked over Bonnies pulling 12's in the quarter, which impressed me. My old Suzuki GS750 was supposed to be able to pull 12's, but I never raced it.

I don't have any problem believing a Bonnie can pull low/mid 13's stock.

Mike - do you think the new fuel injected Bonnies are considerably quicker than the late-model carb'd 865 Bonnies?
 
#48 ·
What makes one think the t-bird is faster is its low end power .You can feel that.HP is harder to judge its made in the higher rpms.You can see more hp on the stop watch.
Lets say you have a motor with lots of low end that rev to 6000 rpm real quick but thats as far as it revs.Then you have another motor thats alittle slower to 6000 rpms but it revs to 8500 rpm and from 6000 to 8500 quicker then the other motor did to 6000 rpm .
What you get the motor with the low end pulls the other maybe 25 to 50 yards the the high rev motor blast by and never goes below 7000 rpm and wins the race.A stock bonnie looses alot to the t-bird off the line but then makes up for it once it gets rpm that the t-bird cant do.A good hot rod bonnie only drops less then 1000 rpms on speed shifts. A stock one drops more.
 
#51 ·
A serious observation I made years ago was that cruiser type riding positions tend to exaggerate acceleration, whilst rearset riding positions seem to decrease the feeling. It isn't always down to stats, its often down to how things 'feel', usually sorted when they see the hard facts on paper. Either way, does it make much difference? 99.99% of our riding lifetime will never see any difference by a couple of tenths knocked off a 1/4 mile time, or an extra 10mph.

Just get out and ride.
 
#54 ·
What matters is if your happy with what you ride.The only reason I been giving daz a hard time is because of all the bragging he has done about how powerful the T-bird is.Its agood bike for what it was ment to be.t-birds speedys ,bonnies none of them are fast
enough stock to brag much on.We all give hd hell but there the only thing slow enough we can beat lol.If all I wanted was speed I wouldnt be rideing a triumph.I have never been into crusers but thats just me ,I am not knocking them.I just dont understand why people like bikes that look like harelys ,all of them copy something from harely,even the t-bird,speedy and america (harely styled speedo and rear fender)can someone explain this to me?Dont take it as me being a smart ass I want to know is all.
 
#55 ·
What matters is if your happy with what you ride.
Agreed

I just dont understand why people like bikes that look like harelys
Don't Agreed

Your suggest that any all cruisers are copies of Harley and if that holds true than the Daytona's and Sprints are Japanese copies, the tiger is just a german copy and the only original thought that Triumph ever had lies solely in the Bonneville line.

There are certain characteristics that make a cruiser a cruiser, without them it is no longer a cruiser and yes the tbird has them along with Harley, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and any number of other brands. But as much as the tbird shares with those other manufacturers it deviates just as much. You don't care for them so you see Harley-clone just like the guys that hate sport bikes see just another crotch rocket and can't tell one from the next.

If it's not your thing, why talk about it.
 
#56 ·
Well said about the speed thing Mike but if I can add something? It also depends on where you ride.

Around here we mainly ride on quite narrow twistys and a good rider on a Bonnie can usually mix it with many riders on far more superior machines. Our location (English Lake District) is better suited to mid-sized nakeds rather than sportsbikes and certainly cruisers if you want to make decent progress. Many people on this forum are perhaps more used to long expansive roads with sweeping curves so what I'm saying won't apply to them. The number of times riders have been unable to leave me on their sportsbikes, including an RSV on one recent occasion (what a waste of a bike, the guy had more money than ability), makes riding a Bonneville around here so much fun. Its all so easy to often stay on the tail of a piece of exotica ridden by a fair weather biker, although getting past is usually totally impossible. Get to a main straight though and its bye bye Bonneville...

It's all horses for courses isn't it? Buy a rideable bike you like thats suits where you ride and serves the purpose you require the bike to do. If you to pose get a T-Bird (or Harley!), if you want go fast on good roads with sweeping curves then get a sportsbike or high performance naked bike. A good all rounder, then get a Sprint. Want to have a great time without taking it all too serious? Then get a Bonneville. At least that goes for over here.
 
#58 ·
bragging he has done about how powerful the T-bird is
You're either clueless as to what i say or you just read into it what you want to Neither bike is powerful to any great degree. the Tbird however is far more powerful than a bonnie and stronger than the majority or cruisers out there. thats fact, not my opinion. It's hindered a BIT by the weight, hindered far more by the gearing. It''s not the weight thats drags it down as you keep saying. I'll say it once again even tho i realize it will go in one ear and out the other....gear the bonnie like the Tbird and scooters will be giving you a hard time Bonnie: 65@4000RPMs, Tbird, 105@4000RPM's. Doesn't get any clearer than that. The tbird is geared that way purosely, and thats the way i like it because it's already quick, and if i want more it's easy to come by and LEGALLY no less with the 1700. i don't like bikes that scream at 90, therefore i like the way it's geared and will eventually have the best of both words.

If you geared a bonnie to do 105 at 4000 RPM's would you be happy turning 17 or 18 second ET's? or would you gear it down? And if you did gear it down would you then say it's a pretty quick bike? If so, then why do you put down the Tbird as slow when it's geared that high. you can't have it both ways. If what you say about it is true, then the bonnie is scooter prey. It's just geared much much lower in order to keep from being embarrassed by a moped.
 
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#65 ·
This is probably the best posting on this whole thread. Why would you gear anything to sub-optimalize it? That would just be plain stupid. Or wouldn't it, Dassco? Guess what "dass" means in my language!
 
#59 · (Edited)
jim i been wondering the same thing.
Daz whats the pont in changeing my gear I have a 19 front and stock rear now.I dont know how much power my new motor puts out yet but it should be 110 or better near 80ft/lbs on the rear wheel and it can rev 9000 rpms.I could prob pull any gear your bike will but why would I want to it will run faster top end then any of us would want to be on it with the gear it has now.
turn this around yours would be quicker with my gear but how fast would it run?There is a online gear calulator go look it up.
Your bike is better then mine for what it was ment to do long trips on the open road .It is what it is ride it and love it.
 
#63 ·
jim i been wondering the same thing.
Daz whats the pont in changeing my gear I have a 19 front and stock rear now.I dont know how much power my new motor puts out yet but it should be 110 or better near 80ft/lbs on the rear wheel and it can rev 9000 rpms.I could prob pull any gear your bike will but why would I want to it will run faster top end then any of us would want to be on it with the gear it has now.
turn this around yours would be quicker with my gear but how fast would it run?There is a online gear calulator go look it up.
Your bike is better then mine for what it was meant to do long trips on the open road .It is what it is ride it and love it.
What your highly built illegal motor has is 100% irrelevant to the comparison. I've said it 1000 times but you refuse to listen. If you want to compare a highly built bike to a stock one then thats fine. But don't try and use that horribly flawed logic to try and convince me a bonnie is as strong in any way as a tbird. If you wish to used flawed logic i could tell you to compared yours to what the Tbird is capable of with the same mods. It would render your bonnie pathetic......but who cares? Whats the point? theres no point in any of this. the Tbird is a bigger stronger bike thats geared to cruise at high speed and still accelerate quickly enough. But instead of accepting that fact and realizing what each bike is and why, you just want to throw rocks and tell me how pathetic mine is and how your much smaller bike is it's equal or better in every way. Then when i try and explain those things to you you tell me i'm mouthing off. I gotta tell you man, common sense will tell you that what you call mouthing off is to most called speaking facts. if you really believe the bonnie is as quick and powerfull in stock form, then you've got a job ahead of you explaining why the bike is thier best seller at the moment and is outselling every cruiser on the market and won cycle worlds cruiser of the year the day it came out and again a year later. seriously...can you look me in the eye and tell me that a bike that has done that is just the big worthless pig you have been saying it is over and over again?

thats all i will say on the subject. I'm not sure how old you are, but i seriously question how you can really have much life experience and spout the sort of flawed logic you do. I don't mean to be nasty about it, but i'm just telling it like it is. I'll leave it at that, this just isn't worth pursuing further.
 
#61 ·
Sport bikes, standards, tourers, cruisers...........all great bikes designed for a particular type of riding. All cool in their own way. What suits one probably won't suit another. I have a T-Bird because it is comfortable for me being of taller stature and (for a cruiser!!!!!!) it performs well in all areas. Is it a quarter mile ripper???? Of course not.

So I will cruise down the road at sane speeds, enjoy the smells of the country, the sound of my motor, go for days at a time while being comfortable, leave it in 6th while I pass and have a bigger grin on my face than anyone. If that makes me a poser fine..... because it's a hell of a lot better than being a bike biggot.
 
#67 ·
I find it interesting that Bonnie riders want to call cruiser riders posers. I can't count the number of Bonnie riders I've seen with googles on the tops of their helmets, scarfs blowing behind them trying desperately to play the part. The fact that anyone wants to make judgement on what type of person you are based on or a particular possession they own is really rather pathetic. The tbird owners I've met (as well as the bonnie riders, S3 guys etc) are all over the place in personality types and reasons they purchased that particular bike. But, if it makes you feel better to categorize people based on a 'thing' they own, go for it. I think it says more about the one making the judgement than it ever does about the one being judged.

As for the bird.... well, I guess I won't go there. There are those that love it, those that don't. All I will say is, I've had all kinds of bikes and this is the best one at doing what it was meant to do. If you don't like it, perhaps there are better things to do with your time than spend it on a board discussing it.
 
#70 ·
I don't disagree with what you say Thatch but as I said I'm speaking from MY experience. You're are speaking from yours. I can also say that I've met R3 riders who range from hardened all weather Hells Angels, to Company Directors who have just passed their test and end up buying the biggest capacity bike they can with all the gear. At the same time, many Bonneville riders get into the spirit of the bike, wearing open face helmets etc. Whats wrong with that? At least they are not hung up about the engine size, lack of chrome, 1/4 mile times etc.
 
#68 ·
daz I started rideing in the 60s .facts are facts and the facts are out now the t-bird is no faster then a stock bonnie so live with it your bubble is busted.I am done ,the longer this goes on the more you show how smart you are .lol have a nice day.
I am sorry to the rest of you T-BIRD guys just got so sick of daz running his mouth about how fast his t-bird was,sorry to cause trouble on you guys forum.Lets ride enogh of this.
 
#73 ·
trust me, my IQ whether low or high will have no trouble in the slightest whipping your IQ's a$$ in the 1/4. Won't even have to use the entire throttle. you just go on picking and choosing whichever facts (or fallacies) work for your side of the argument and ignoring those which don't and i'll stick to the facts. I think you and the bonnie are a good match. It's torque and your IQ are probably very similar. When you grow up maybe we'll see things eye to eye
 
#69 ·
Horses for courses.

In the Quarter mile: Stock Bonnie verses stock Tbird. It seems the bonnie is quicker.
In the twisties: the bonnie will be quicker.
On the interstate and over long distances: The Tbird is the better bike.
Price wise - the Tbird costs more, but then you can see the quality.
The Bonnie costs less and is more simple, so it's easier to mod.

Both bikes put their power down differently, for different purposes and so are geared differently.

Both bikes have a different image. Cruiser vs. Brit Bike early 60's: Each image is fun.

Horses for courses.
 
#71 ·
I honestly don't understand why people come on this board and trash the T-bird and its riders. Just because we ride the bird doesn't mean that we dislike the Bonny. I love the Bonny, myself, and so do most Thunderbird riders. It's a fantastic bike. So it the Thunderbird, for that matter. I got the Thunderbird because I liked the riding position and the way it felt underneath me. Plus wanted to be able to go on long trips on it comfortably with Ms. Hoo. I didn't think I could do that easily with a Bonny. So I got a Thunderbird. And I love it. A T100 is in my future, I think (or a Street Triple!). The point is live and let live. Sure, a lot of posers ride T-birds, but then quite a few nobs ride Bonnies. Who cares? In the words of the great Walter Sobchack, "F*** it, Dude, let's go bowling." Of course, he wasn't talking about riding, but you get the drift.
 
#77 ·
What an enlightening thread. I am 63 years old, been riding motorcycles since I was 17. I have owned Honda's, a Kawasaki KZ1000, Yamaha Daytona, a Harley Davidson Low Rider, and most recently a Suzuki Burgman 650 scooter (VERY nice machine). I met the designer of the Thunderbird last summer and he spent the better part of an hour talking to me about the new machine. I read the articles and finally took a test ride. WOW....did I like this bike. So I buy my blue bird thinking I have died and gone to heaven...BUT NOW I find out I am just a "POSER" because I ride a bird!! Damn, I didn't count on having to go out and buy some bandana's, get a tattoo or two, and drink enough beer to get my belly to hang over my belt...My God you guys saved me...I almost blew it.
Thanks
Len
 
#79 ·
Haggis-
Tim was very low key about his involvement. As a matter of fact I didn't even know he was the designer until I read the Cycle World article about him. My sales guy also told me as he was up at Alice's Restaurant that day and saw me talking to him..As it turns out, he was riding the bike up from So Cal and getting feedback from folks on his design..He is a great guy IMO.
 
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