TestingSouthern California has a special place that only a few know about and even less actually have access to-Honda's test facility in the Mojave desert. Amongst numerous dirtbike tracks and twisty road courses is a magnificent seven-mile oval, which would serve as the ideal environment for the flat out top speed runs.
After a briefing from the facility's manager regarding rogue coyotes and road runners that like to occasionally play the role of chicken with test vehicles, I set off for the first run.
Those seven miles of pristine pavement turned out to be twice the distance we needed-halfway through the long first corner the bike was already into top gear and begging for the straight. With a mild squirm from the edge of the rear Dunlop the throttle was put on the stop as the road opened up onto the two-mile straight.
A meager 185.8 mph was the best we could get after several runs. Huh? That wasn't even to the stock speed limiter (if it was still functioning).
The obvious problem was the wind-I couldn't completely tuck behind the windscreen and the drag was physically obvious as my shoulders were being pulled back. This was gonna be an issue.
After several subsequent runs experimenting with body positioning, the best we could squeak out was 187.8 mph. But we still had nitrous to spray, and the bottle was filled to the brim, primed and ready.
The first run on the bottle was 191.3 mph-better. The second was 193.4 mph-cool. Now were making progress. But that's when it all came to a screeching halt. With 194.2 mph on the radar gun for consecutive runs it was obvious that 200 mph wasn't in the cards-not today, and not unless we found a significantly smaller rider.
The decision not to bring along a "mini-me" was made because it defeated the very nature of the experiment. We're confident the 'Busa would've easily cracked 200 mph with a smaller rider able to hide from the windblast, but so what? We could probably even get a liter bike to 200 mph with a pygmy pilot and mild mods, but we wanted to see just how feasible 200 mph would be for the everyday guy who likes to enjoy a few beers and a burger (with some wings and pizza on the side). Despite approximately 207 horsepower at the wheel we came up nearly six miles per hour short of the goal. Sure it was disappointing, but also shows just how mean a machine must really be to break (or reach) the elusive 200 mph barrier.
Thanks!Special thanks to Michael Candreia for the tuning assistance.