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180mph+ fuel consumption on a motorcycle?

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TridenT said:
I was trying to figure out how plausible it would be to do the Seattle to Portland ride in less than a hour on a motorcycle. I was trying to figure out how large of a gas tank I'd need or how many fuel ups to be done. (At strategic points along the road. Never done at a station. Too long of time)
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Do you even own a bike capable of reaching speeds of 180mph? How about the ability to ride a motorcycle for 1 hour at 180mph on public roads?

I'd say it is completely implausible once you factor in traffic, traffic laws, stop lights, curves, likelihood of crashing, balls (or lack thereof) and fuel economy (you'd be stopping every 50 miles to refuel). Putting a larger tank on a bike and expecting to go 180 miles per hour on it is also not plausible. You'd have to quadruple the tank size which would affect the weight of the bike plus aerodynamics, hiding an extra 15 gallons of fuel under the existing shape would be impossible and that extra 90 lbs would change the handling dynamics of the bike.
 
Just do the IoM TT. Legal, safer, still road-like. There's no thrill going fast on public roads, too many ruhtards out there. Within 5 minutes you'd be dead.
 
JulesMaximus said:
Do you even own a bike capable of reaching speeds of 180mph? How about the ability to ride a motorcycle for 1 hour at 180mph on public roads?

I'd say it is completely implausible once you factor in traffic, traffic laws, stop lights, curves, likelihood of crashing, balls (or lack thereof) and fuel economy (you'd be stopping every 50 miles to refuel). Putting a larger tank on a bike and expecting to go 180 miles per hour on it is also not plausible. You'd have to quadruple the tank size which would affect the weight of the bike plus aerodynamics, hiding an extra 15 gallons of fuel under the existing shape would be impossible and that extra 90 lbs would change the handling dynamics of the bike.
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Seattle to Portland is really not that harsh of a ride. There will be very few turns where you cannot go 180. And traffic lights? LOL(not like there are any). If you're going 180, you think I give a fuck if a light is red? I am going to approach it with caution, but if I see a gap... You bet your ass I'd go through it if I am racing against a clock. (And mind you, with a bike that goes 180+... I'm sure it has decent pick up)
 
TridenT said:
Seattle to Portland is really not that harsh of a ride. There will be very few turns where you cannot go 180. And traffic lights? LOL(not like there are any). If you're going 180, you think I give a fuck if a light is red? I am going to approach it with caution, but if I see a gap... You bet your ass I'd go through it if I am racing against a clock. (And mind you, with a bike that goes 180+... I'm sure it has decent pick up)
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rofl.

You'll be cleaned up with a sponge.
 
TridenT said:
I'm waiting until I win the lottery to try this.
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Well if thats the case I would forgo the motorcycle and just get a jet.

You'll go further faster, arrive legally and with your life intact, and for the pièce de résistanc you'll get way more "Hey look at me, I'm an attention whoring big spender" points.
 
SithSolo1 said:
Well if thats the case I would forgo the motorcycle and just get a jet.

You'll go further faster, arrive legally and with your life intact, and for the pièce de résistanc you'll get way more "Hey look at me, I'm an attention whoring big spender" points.
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Nah. That would actually be slower. The time to do checks and shot would make it take longer for sure. You'll spend an hour just taking off and landing.
 
TridenT said:
Nah. That would actually be slower. The time to do checks and shot would make it take longer for sure. You'll spend an hour just taking off and landing.
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Well, you'd actually get there, instead of looking like this:

KmLXP.jpg
 
TridenT said:
Seattle to Portland is really not that harsh of a ride. There will be very few turns where you cannot go 180. And traffic lights? LOL(not like there are any). If you're going 180, you think I give a fuck if a light is red? I am going to approach it with caution, but if I see a gap... You bet your ass I'd go through it if I am racing against a clock. (And mind you, with a bike that goes 180+... I'm sure it has decent pick up)
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You have no comprehension of how fast 180 MPH is. A gentle curve at 60 MPH is so much more when you're doing 180. You won't approach a light with caution. You'll approach it at 260 feet per second. You're traveling the length of a football field (you have seen one of those, right?) in little more than a second. You won't see a gap, and you won't see the car that turns you into a greasy smear.

At 180, you don't have much acceleration left. And hitting your brakes at that speed should be... interesting. JLee is right. Sponge.
 
Lets take the Hayabusa as an example, 45mpg highway at 65mph lets say. Aero drag alone goes up with speed^3 and we'll assume that's far and away your biggest loss factor, so it's the only one we'll consider.

45mpg*65mph^3/190mph^3 = 1.8mpg (gold star to Doppel)

With the Hayabusa's 5.5 gallon tank you could go for less than 10 miles per tank, you would need 17 fueling stops.

Alternatively you would need to carry about 97 gallons of fuel, which weighs about 590lbs, more than doubling the weight of the motorcycle.

The answer is: you can't. For every reason ever.
 
TridenT said:
Nah. That would actually be slower. The time to do checks and shot would make it take longer for sure. You'll spend an hour just taking off and landing.
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Your pilot does that before you ever get there. You just drive up to the tarmac in your chauffeured Maybach, get out, get on the plane, taxi, take off, fly, land, get off the plane, and get in to your waiting limo. Private flying is nothing like normal airports.
 
A5 said:
Your pilot does that before you ever get there. You just drive up to the tarmac in your chauffeured Maybach, get out, get on the plane, taxi, take off, fly, land, get off the plane, and get in to your waiting limo. Private flying is nothing like normal airports.
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This.
 
jlee said:
174 miles in less than an hour?

The chances of you being dead before you got there are probably better than your chances of getting there in less than an hour.
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This LOL. Do you not comprehend how fast that is? I've done 120MPH on the highway in a car and that's pretty frickin fast and dangerous. At 174MPH on a bike the smallest blip in the pavement will turn you into nothing more than a strip of red paste on the road.
 
dpodblood said:
This LOL. Do you not comprehend how fast that is? I've done 120MPH on the highway in a car and that's pretty frickin fast and dangerous. At 174MPH on a bike the smallest blip in the pavement will turn you into nothing more than a strip of red paste on the road.
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Don't be ridiculous. It's not as though a pebble is going to make you crash and die on a bike at those speeds. 🙄
 
TridenT said:
How big is the tank on that thing? 😛
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Typically 4.5-5 gallons so you might make 20 miles before you'd have to fill up again.

So, figure 20 miles every 7 minutes and you have to stop to fill up with fuel. If you have fuel waiting for you every 20 miles you might be able to stop, turn off bike, open tank, pour fuel in, close cap, start bike, get on and get back up to speed so even if you could do this in 2 minutes you'd have to do this roughly 9 times in 174 miles. With time for refueling it would take you almost 20 minutes longer than your target of 1 hour.
 
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'Serious' answer?

Doing trackdays etc on literbikes usually end up around 10mpg. So for ~4 gallons you get 40 miles of top speed.


Keep in mind that your rear tire will wear out very very quickly... Like in a few hundred miles.
 
I'll also add that while it's definitely not safe on public roads, a modern supersport has no problem doing 150++ for extended periods. A pebble or raindrop etc will not cause the bike to disintegrate.

Yes curbs, cars, lights will kill you - but from a mechanical aspect the bike can handle it.
 
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