[hoofhearted]

hey fellow tw riders. i recently bought an 05 tw, this is my first road legal bike. iv had couple 125 two strokes and a little xr 100 wen i was a kid. my question is how dose the tw do on the highway? id like to ride it to my dads house in pennsylvania this summer. its about a 3.5 hour trip from upstate NY with a few 65mph highways. just wondering how the tw would do at 60 or 65 mph for an extended period of time.

 

[RodneyReed]

At 65, it will seem like you're pushing too hard, but the engine can easily handle running wide open for as long as you want it to.



I wouldn't hesitate to ride mine from here to Gibraltar.

 

[sinophilia]

60 mph is very feasible, more than that for extended periods of time might be a little hard on the engine if you have a 50-tooth rear sprocket. If you plan to ride a lot on fast roads, use a 45- or 47-tooth sprocket and it will run like a charm up to 75 mph.

 

[hoofhearted]

nice thanks for the info guys

 

[PJungnitsch]

For mine it really depends on wind and hills. With no wind and flat ground it will happily sit at 68 mph (110 km/hr) forever. I have a temp gauge and it doesn't heat up or anything. But against a strong wind last fall I was down to 50 mph, which is not really fun on divided highways. And hills will also really kill the speed.



For those reasons I'm really interested in the camshaft experiments around here, a bit more power would be great.

 

[Hobopoet]

Sure,the TW may handle those speeds easily enough. But, if you have time, why not plot out a different route, on smaller roads with lots of curves, etc. I approach riding my TW like riding a bicycle. I've cycled all over the US; and a number of years ago I made a solo, cross country ride. Of necessity, I had to plan out a route to avoid faster roads with more traffic. Believe me, that approach defined the satisfaction from the ride. If this brutal Michigan winter ever ends, I'm already planning some longer rides through this part of the country. But I'll look at all this as a cyclist bound for fun, not as a generic traveler simply trying to get someplace quickly.

 

[hoofhearted]

that sounds like the right way togo. im sure there are some county roads that run pretty close to the high ways il have to do some research and find a more relaxed rout. the last thing i want is 18 wheelers riding my tail mile after mile.

 

[qwerty]

1've done 1004 miles in 19 hours on a TW. A 15T countershaft or 47T wheel sprocket (not both) improves highway.

 

[Hobopoet]

I had to smile at that. Some time ago, a friend of mine in Phoenix qualified the Iron Butt Award by riding his 49cc pocket rocket 1000+ miles from Phoenix into west Texas. I've done 1000+ days on big displacement sport tourers but anything like that on such a small bike is a completely alien idea to me!