1985 180 mph speedometer

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sarchin

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Hi all, I discovered a used parts motorcycle store by my house today. I go in to see if they have any Vmax parts (they don't) but I'm talking to the guy and he asks me the year of my Vmax and then asks me if my speedometer reads 160 or 180. I told him I thought it read 160, and he tells me that 1985 had a 180 mph speedo. Anyone hear of this? or maybe he's confusing it for another bike?
 
160, 180, Whats the differance? I think the bugs hitting your face at that point wont feel any different
 
Never heard of one.

who knows, maybe a few out there had tick marks up to 180. I remember my old Mustang SVO. the spedometer stopped at 85 but had tick marks up to 140.
 
It's a good story.... I had a Chevy Wagon with 200 on the speedometer once... KPH Though....:rofl_200:
 
Maybe the Canada speedo in KPH. Not 85's had one that read that high. Not geared to get anywhere near there. That's unless you put in our overdrive fifth!

Sean
 
Maybe the Canada speedo in KPH. Not 85's had one that read that high. Not geared to get anywhere near there. That's unless you put in our overdrive fifth!

Sean
I'm gonna need a little bit more motor or a really long downhill with a tailwind to hit 9500 rpm's with my OD. I have a mile section (old runway) that I got up to ~140 (if my memory serves me) before I had to hit the brakes. I think it was very slowly climbing but I wasn't watching it "that" close! I have no clue what the tach was reading!!!
 
That's about all mine is good for...I've seen it nudge a tad past 140, but at that speed I couldn't get a "good look"....just saw it was somewhere between 140 and 145, a little shy of 9000 RPM in fifth, with a Venture diff. Just didn't have enough beans to spin any faster.

I've found that 500rpm=10mph in fifth, so in theory it would be well into 150 by the time it hit redline, assuming it had more power. I think a stock diff bike would be redline in fifth at around 140 or so. Of course, that's if Mr Max feels like going in a straight line and not wiggling it's ass all over the road.
 
The overdrive Brian has in Redbone has been dyno verfied (a certified roller) to hit 200mph at 10K!

Sean
 
Yeah my speedometer bounces around maybe as much as 10 mph, so I maybe only going 135. Doing a little mental math I'm probably only pulling 7200- 7400 rpms???
 
13k tacho instead 11k? Yes but only for 1-2 years Im guessing. Personaly saw couple.

180mph speedo is a legend. EU speedos were almost the same. Japanesse speedos had bulit in speed limiter.

Virago speedos were similar tho.
 
Maybe the Canada speedo in KPH. Not 85's had one that read that high. Not geared to get anywhere near there. That's unless you put in our overdrive fifth!

Sean

Here is my canadian speedo - reads up to 260 kph (160 mph) ...... just about to fit a mph convertor to the speedo drive though, as trying to read the inner mph numbers at high speeds is rather difficult!

DSCF1776_800x600.jpg
 
Caution: Thread deteoration ahead!! :th_scared:

I gotta say, I'm amazed that nobody has pointed out what we all know to be FACT!! :surprise:

There were 180 mph speedo's on a select few '85's....the ones equipped with the 9 link carb chains instead of the oem 10! :punk:
 
Wierdly though, my friend used to have a Canadian model (1998 I think) that had a MPH speedo. Do they use KPH or MPH in canada? I thought maybe they use both, a bit like bi-lingual signs.

I have never seen another VMAX with a KPH speedo in real-life though. As I say, I'm fitting a little mechanical convertor to make the speed show the MPH speed on the Outer KPH dial, as all our speed limits in the UK are in MPH. The only problem comes when I go to the continent, as I won't have a KPH display at all. I'll have to remove the convertor on the ferry!
 
I'd think it would be a lot easier to just get a MPH speedo and swap it in. Then you get the units you want and still have the kph numbers on the inside.

Changing the drive ratio would make the odometer kind of inaccurate, since the number would be some kilometers, some miles.
 
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