Quarter Mile times

yup. pedal off the start, engine running, take off and time it.

most importantly, PICS OR VIDEO! that way, the proof is undeniable.

also, adding in rider's weight, road and weather conditions, temperature, type of bike, engine, mods, etc, not to mention what type of equipment actually used to measure your speed...

all of this will help establish baseline speeds, performance gains, and add a sense of reality to the tired old "i know my bike does 50 because my nose was running..."

Anybody got any times yet? I am waiting for parts for my bike to come in so I have not been riding in a while. I hope you guys have not forgot about this thread

Well TBH I kinda forgot about it

I also suspect there's a conspiracy afoot... Even had I not forgotten - almost every weekend lately has been rainy, dreary & cold. While it's often quite nice out during my workweek, when I am finally free of the shackles of employment it promptly rains.

It's gonna be a loooooong winter.

here is a 1/8 mile to 1/4 mile conversion for cars. not sure if it would work with bikes, but after someone does a 1/4 mile we can check it out to see how accurate it is.

eight-to-quarter

so far the only number i've seen from this thread is 20 sec in the 1/8 which would equal
31.2 seconds. it would be really cool if someone could test this.
once i get my bike done i'll test it for sure. i know of many 1/4 mile spots that are nice and flat.
if our local track (1/8th mile) wasn't $40 to race i'd drag race my bike for sure.

Taking your bike to a drag strip. That would be epic.
Cool thread, when I get my clutch issue sorted out, I'll see if I can find a flat 1/8 mile. Rather a big challenge in Maine ... but I have GPS and watches and stuff. Can't wait to see some info start rolling out.

i was all ready to go today. got a NOS stewart warner "cadet" speedo, and calibrated the odometer to my wheels (the directions say "for 24" and 26" wheels," yet there's no way to change between the two.)

to calibrate it, i marked a spot on my tire, rolled it through a full revolution, then measured that. installed the speedo and put a zip tie on one spoke, then hooked up a drill with a skateboard wheel as a friction roller, and let 'er rip.

counted how many times the ziptie spoke hit the fork as the odometer spun through a mile. (don't even ask how long that took.)

then i took the revolutions, multiplied it by the tire dimension, and was surprised that i was only about 100 feet off. given that this wasn't under load (which won't make that much of a difference) and i coulda missed a turn (or twelve), and i dunno if the numbers on the odometer where exactly zeroed out, that's pretty freaken close.

if the odometer is correct, i'm pretty satisfied that the speed would be correct, but i wanted to do some timed runs to make sure.

so, i was pretty satisfied with a 100' discrepancy in a mile, so i took off to my secret testing spot. the Santa Ana river trail. it's a bike trail with mile markers, there's some almost straight mile runs, and it's nice and smooth. ignoring the fact that motorized bikes are prohibited (anything for the sake of science) i had a stopwatch mounted to my handlebars, within easy access on my left grip.

my plan was to make some timed speed runs, calculate the times against the speedo reading, take some pictures, and post some proof.

BUT...

the speedo stopped working 2 blocks from my house, my camera fell out of my jacket pocket and the battery door broke off (still works with some tape,) and i ended up just going to get a burrito.

turns out, my NOS speedo cable snapped. i mean, it was 60 years old. i already figured out how to fix it but i need to go to the junkyard for a drive cable from a car, then the liquor store for a pack of smokes and a 6pack (that's about how long it takes to calibrate it.)

so the only times i have to post, are these:

burrito store's about a half mile, took me about a half hour there and back, including the time it took to make me a carnitas burrito.

ha ha, was the burrito good?

it was muy bueno.

so far you have the best post in this thread....