What's the fastest you've gone on a Motorcycle?

[Tom Penton]

So ... what's the fastest you've gone on a motorcycle?

Wait: there's rules!

   1. Well, speed is relative. I'm seeking the awareness of speed, not necessarily absolute speed. For some that might be through the trees of a tight woods at below 20mph, and that is perfectly legitimate.
   2.  The conscientiousness of mortality, or to be more specific, an "aw, ****!, best dial it down" moment. The dawning awareness, or dread,  of being in over your head.
   3. No crashes or even awesome tank slapping saves. That would not be a "dawning awareness" of being in over your head,  but rather a confirmation!
   
   
My story:

It was I believe 1976 or '77, at an ISDT type event during summer in Tennessee. We were assured that had it been wet, it would be challenging, but it hadn't rained in some time and was bone dry, and not anticipated to be too hard in the trail. So it would come down to the special tests. The word was there were some tests with quite fast sections.

I had been on the Penton 250 for a couple or three years by now and had it dialed in with a Carl Cranke cylinder. Besides fast, Carl's cylinders had a wide power band, and we had found a gearing setup that worked in a variety of areas, and I really didn't need to change anything. But I looked down at my chain, saw adequate adjustment forward, and decided to throw on a one tooth higher countershaft sprocket that happened to be on hand. I'm generally lazy, but, come on ... it takes what? Five to ten minutes?

This one special test was mostly on a somewhat typical two track road through the woods. It was quite smooth on the two tracks, but even smoother on a track that was developing in the middle of the grass median. There is a natural instinct to be centered vis a vis the trees at the side. Normally, I wouldn't want to ride there for fear of hidden rocks or pot holes, but this was a special test, and hopefully was vetted by the club, so I went for it.

It was a beautiful winding road through the forest: 3rd, 4th, 5th gears up and down. I rounded a corner, and there was a long straight-a-way I could see. Special test "rules" for that situation is wide open throttle, go through the gears as fast as possible. That's what I did, seeking that non-existent 7th gear before I knew it. There was nothing to do but open it all the way up and crouch down out of the wind a bit! I got up to what I later figured was about 80mph, at which point my complete focus on the track ahead widened to those trees in my peripheral vision. They all of a sudden seemed to be an arm length's away: way, way TOO close. Now, NEVER slow down on a smooth straight in a special test, is the rule. But oh, yes. I rolled off the throttle!

Tom Penton

Edit:

I've received additional info regarding this story (and thus a memory confirmation) through the following Facebook exchange:

Tom Penton Tennessee guys, I had posted  on POG site, wonder if you can help me where/when it was, or if I'm just dreaming:

Dennis Heilmann Tom if you remember a grass track at the end of the second day it would have been the 1978 "Foggy Mountain National 2 Day ISDT Qualifier". In 1997 we put on the "Foggy Mountain Qualifier", , but I think it was a 1 day event and not a ISDT Qualifier. But i do think you guys came to that event also. Both of these events started from the Ball Field in Tellico Plains, TN.

From <https://www.facebook.com/thomas.penton.77/posts/2476213026002690:0>

Tom Penton Dennis, I think you answered my question. It would have been the 1977 event. I somewhat remembered it as a 1 day, and more laid back as if not a qualifier. I had moved to Oregon by 1978, and although still riding, with the Suzuki team, would only have gone to 2 day qualifiers. I also don't remember a grass track, but then I wouldn't trust my memory on that. As I have written ... a very memorable event, and a thanks to all to have made it happen!

Dennis Heilmann Thinking back that special test section was on a fire road called "Sycamore Creek", it was a curvy fast 8 mile mountain section that ended at a fish hatchery on River Rd. We still ride it. but not quite as fast as you guys did. Thanks for the post, I haven't thought about all those good times for awhile.


Tom Penton Ah! ... Sycamore Creek, Foggy Mountain, Tellico Plains. Now I can put names to my story. Thanks for the memories!

[Larry Perkins]

For me fastest on road was over 140mph on a Z1 Kawasaki 900 my first street bike.  Had Wirges pipes and a cam. I road it like a mx bike.  Only God kept me from dieing on it.

Off-road was at Baja in 2008 on Little Thunder our Pro Circuit built Honda CRF250.  It had all kinds of mods.  Pro Circuit built the whole motor.  Even had beryllium valves.  I had a fast dirt road section in the first of the Baja Series races the San Felipe 250.  My section had about 30 miles of dirt road where you never got below 80mph and several places you were tapped. Tapped out that bike would go 107mph. Much more scary than the 140 on road.  At that speed a dirt bike wanders around a lot.  It was our first Baja race and we took second losing to the eventual Champions by less than 30 seconds.

Larry P

[Mike Rosso]

For me on a street bike was 161 mph on a RC8 at Mid Ohio road course but that was near the bottom of the dog leg straight when I had the nerve to look down at the speedometer and said to myself what the heck are you doing looking at the speedometer idiot Fastest in a quarter mile has been on my 990 Super Duke at Norwalk drag strip at 126.4 mph in 10.99 seconds. Fastest on a dirt bike has been on a modified 620 RXC topped out at 118 mph if the speedometer was accurate which I doubt. Then if you have any displacement bike tapped out and it won't go any faster then that is way too fast and someone should slap some sense into you and tell you to not do that again. Also speed is way more scary when you are by yourself and things are whizzing by. I road raced a TZ125 Yamaha at Bridgehampton NY (Long Island) a few times and at one race I raced with a WERA official on a Honda 125 rr machine and we were side by side the entire race. We looked over at each other and it was like we weren't moving even though we were going 70 or 80 mph. I had no idea how fast we were going until one or both of us would miss a braking point then the Oh $#!t factor would hit us, yep way too fast. Funny part of that kind of racing if your elbows were just an inch out too far or you lifted you helmet a little too high then the other rider would inch forward or was that, that you were inching rearward??? I wanted to just reach out some time and pull on his arm or back of the bike and pull myself ahead....didn't think that would have gone over too well. That was a great time inch racing the entire race he thought the same thing. As you said Tom fast is relative. Oh and my last race there at Bridgehampton was a weekend after 6-Days in Italy (Elba) and I got spit off the 125 at top speed when the bike seized in practice on the first lap. I broke my ankle (talus) and ended my riding for a year......but the best part was during the recovery period I decided I that I would quit my job with Suzuki and take the job with KTM.....which lasted just into the start of 34 years with KTM when I decided to retire. So some things happen for a reason, started my off-road racing with a Penton and ended with a KTM (Penton) full circle. Enough rambling, more scary speed stories please.



This is what I had to go up against to take top eliminator one night, full on stretched swingarm and locked down front end trailered drag bikes. Me on a SD that I can't launch flat foot on the ground:D



and more than a few bikes....the line goes around the staging area to the photo's left.

[Mike Rosso]

Tom if you decide to delete "on a Motorcycle" I'll submit these photos from a trip from the KTM factory to Spa, Belgium to the KTM Fest at the F1 track. Yes it was down hill with a strong tail wind and my brother and I got to pre-run the course (Autobahn Germany) when I missed a turn and got to double back. My brother looked over at me and said "what do you think you're doing?" I said "my personal best attempt driving and your personal best as passenger" Taking the photo was the trick. BTW that's still not as fast as the RC8, close but no cigar.



And "The Best or Nothing" down hill racer. Disclaimer: SPEEDOMETER IS IN KPH not MPH

[Tom Penton]

Mike, Ha! I have a Spa Story too ... not so much speed, though. 1998, my two older teenage sons Danny & Spencer and wife Julie and I took a cheap flight to Europe, staying and eating with friends on the cheap. Included in said economy was renting a 1 liter 3 cyl 5 speed Opel, absolutely stuffed with the four of us. So there we were driving from Brussels to Bitburg, Germany when we see a sign for Spa. My boys were Formula 1 fans from us watching the British broadcasting on Armed Forces TV a couple years back when we were with Major Julie, USAF nurse, at Yokota AFB. So we hopped off the Autobahn and started looking for the race course off to one side or the other of the highway. Well, we decided we must be close because the walls of the road were covered in banners. About then a couple motorcyclist on crotch rockets buzzed by us, and it dawned on us we were ON the racecourse ... it was set on what were normally public roads! It got narrow and twisty, and I could see in my rear view mirror some bikes were starting to back up behind me, so I really had to up the revs on that Opel and work the gears to not too badly hold everyone up! The boys loved it ... my wife, not so much! So, can I count that as racing Spa F1 course, along with Monza, Italy and Imola, Spain (on knobby tires) in the ISDT's? Include Isle of Man, too.

I also had a roadrace experience maybe something along the lines of what you had. Nelson Ledges 24 hr Marathon: Jack, Dane and I teamed up on Jacks Honda CB400 4 cylinder. We were in the production class, but all classes were together. There was a long back straight, and we were tapped out at about 110mph. The "real" racers would buzz by at significantly greater speeds. It was disconcerting at first, but after a few hours, we'd hardly notice. I was riding a night shift and heard one of the faster bikes coming around to pass and thought nothing of it, and didn't really notice him slowing down to startle me with a tap on the shoulder ... at what had become a slow motion over 100 mph speed!

Tom Penton

[Mike Schulz]

Great question Tom,
My fastest is 220 kmph on my boss Douglas Kirk's 1976 Ducati Desmo 750 super sport. Lunch break from summer high school job at his injection molding factory in Starks, Illinois. 5 mile two lane asphalt country road with unmarked intersections and only a few driveways coming off the road in the middle of corn fields. Concentration on the road ahead and shifting the bike correctly so no awareness of speed until I saw that the telephone poles along the side of the road were going by very quickly. Looked at the speedo and saw 220. Rode it back at the posted limit and figured that 220 was about 135 mph. Thought about it some more and figured that was about 200 feet per second. Thought about what might have happened if an animal had run out of the corn field in front of me while traveling at that speed with only a T shirt, blue jeans, gym shoes, and only a helmet for protection. Decided that I would stick to riding in the dirt and stay away from street bikes - way too easy to go too fast.
Mike Schulz
Do you know where to get one of those Carl Cranke 250 cylinders?

[Don Roth]

Not a streetbike, but back before  I got the penton bug owned two sachs 340 Rokons, one mx and one enduro, both plated (thanks west virginia) my riding buddy and I had a nice ~15 mile loop through the local coal mines, wide open for grins, i quit at 83, there was still some left, the torque converter worked great until the belt got wet. Ah to have the bikes we sold and the lack of sensibility.
-don

[Pat Oshaughnessy]

I had a Ducati 900 Monster that always wanted to go fast! I swear it did not feel good below 70 MPH. Over 70 the wind held you up & took the strain off your arms. It was supposed to be capable of 140 MPH. I  was on a 2 lane rd. with no one in sight! I layed down on the tank & held it wide open! I was looking way ahead & not at the Speedo. I thought what if a squirrel runs out in my path.  I backed off & never did know if we made it to 140MPH. or not . All i know is that was fast as I wanted to go![]

[johnborn]

Tom , there was a time I thought I was getting pretty fast on a dirt bike , until one Sunday at the Meadowlarks , during a harescramble , your younger brother went by me so fast , I realized right then and there , that there would never be any stories of me going fast on a dirt bike. It was Jack in his prime about 1978.

[454MRW]

In May of 1984 I bought a new Honda 700 shadow. It was so hot that month that I could not ride it for more than a little while before it was like being in a sauna. Once the weather cooled down a little more I found out that the riding position was too cramped for me @ 6'2", and I could only ride the bike for a day before I would want to be away from it for several days. I decided to trade it in on a shiny New Black 84 V65. My first ride was riding on the back of my father's Honda 650 to the dealership where I'd left my 700 shadow while they prepped the V65. unfortunately that first ride was short-lived as about two miles from the dealership the gauges showed that the bike was overheating, so we turned around and took it back to the dealership and as it turned out they replaced a defective temperature sensor. the bike turned out to be very comfortable and I rode it everywhere, for great distances and long periods of time without any fatigue. Later after I got used to riding it around on one wheel in 3rd gear way too fast, I would almost always run the bike up to 160 miles per hour + once it was warmed up on the way toward town, and on the way home before putting it up for the day. This became quite a ritual until a couple years later the bike started to develop a shudder from the front wheel, either from wear, or out of balance, but if you could keep your nerve up and pass the 120 mile per hour mark, it would smooth out and the rest of the way to 160 + was smooth. This was about the time that they passed the law requiring insurance on all vehicles. Well, insurance on a high-performance V65 was $1,200 a year, and that was a little out of my price range so I decided to sell it. But before doing so I had to take it out a few more times, until the last time which I only made it to about 130 miles per hour before the bars started to tank slap uncontrollably. I quickly applied just the rear brake and slowed it down to legal speeds and headed home where I parked it then sold it a couple weeks later, telling the new owner to not ride it until he replace the front tire and had the bearings checked etc. If I still had it I wouldn't be around I am sure. Some things should just be put in the past. Lol

Michael R. Winter
I enjoy rebuilding and appreciating Pentons!
1976 Penton MC5 400
1977 KTM MC5 125
1978 KTM 78 GS6 250
L78-79 MX6 175-250 KTM's
1976-78 125-400 RM's
2007 CR125R Honda
1977 MC250 Maico
2017 KTM Freeride 250R

[Mike Lenz]

I used to gear my 250 15/48 for cross country events with back roads to make up time. Went pretty fast with that gearing!

[derek martin]

Mike Winter - I had a 1983 V45 that "high speed wobbled" at 130 mph also - somewhat disconcerting that was.
I was lucky enough to attend a Kevin Schwantz Superbike school in 2004 at Road Atlanta after the AMA Superbike race. The speedometers were blacked out on the Suzuki GSXR600 school bikes but I felt like I was carrying the mail pretty good down the back stretch before what was the gravity cavity, but a youthful Ben Spies, Mike Martin, Jamie James and Schwantz himself smoked by me like I was sitting still. The school was supposed to be two days but was cut short by a hurricane to one day. Schwantz compressed everything as best he could and gave us about 90% of the content and only charged us 1/2 price. Good man that Schwantz.
Never been able to look at speedometer above 160 on my CBR1000RR  - really too fast for any of our roads around here.
Fastest ever on Penton was first special test day 1 of the 2013 Massachusetts AHRMA ISDTRR. Check-out crew thought event was actual time keeping enduro and were late to  man the check - a bunch of us ended up pretty well tapped out on a single lane fire road through the woods till common sense prevailed - pretty wild that was.

[SouthRider]

Only 137 indicated - on Robbie Burgess brand new 82 V750 Interceptor. That's when I backed off, as I could no longer see.

He had asked me to bring the bike to Alan McDuff's Honda shop in Covington La for it's initial 600 mile service since I lived there, and casually mentioned - take it for a ride if you like...

Like a red cape to a bull.....

LA Hwy 1088 is only about 15 miles long, and cuts through a paper companies pine forest. It is very narrow, 2 lanes, built on black mud, and hadn't been resurfaced in at least 25 years.

I was wearing an open faced Bell Magnum SERA Helmet I had won the previous year, and Scott goggles. I had contacts in as at that point my prescription was in the neighborhood of +7.5.

It was a clear evening with no moon, and just past twilight.

Up to 100 no problem. From there the wind began pushing the Scotts into my face to the point the lens was touching my eyelashes, then CRUSHING my eyelashes.

As I approached 130 the tears began flowing till I could barely see.

Around that point I glanced at the speedo, guesstimated it said 137, and suddenly remembered that I was on a brand new borrowed bike, had a 3 year old daughter at home, and was riding on a crumbled road through a pine forest that was chock full of deer.

As my sanity kicked in, I backed off well before the Honda was ready, and motored back towards Covington. In the sleepy little town of Abita Springs it was about 7:30 pm and no one was on the road. Stopped at the one stop sign, turned right and gently accelerated out of town. FLASHING LIGHTS.

Stopped by a state trooper for doing 45 in a 35, he actually started talking to me, admiring the bike. Noticing the AMA logo dead center of my helmet he asked - you an AMA member? Why yes sir, in fact I'm a card carrying expert AMA rider. Well then you know better than to go speeding through town.

Please back it off, stay safe, and have a good ride home!

That may very well have been the beginning of the end of my youth, and I never went that fast again.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, that we are now qualified to do almost anything, with nothing."

1972 Penton Berkshire 100
1983 Husqvarna 250 XC
2011 Jayco 31.5 RLDS
2009 Chevy 2500 HD Duramax