extra bhp

[northmanuk]

the question i am asking is not meat to be rude to anyone or a put down. how much power do you use.
As a mechanic in my past i saw people ride tuned up kwaka 1000 them bikes had trouble with standard power,RD 400 ported until they blew
and so on many of the guys way back then never used all the power
Myself i bought a gen 1 hayabusa joined a forum tuned her fitted cams, power commander, race pipe etc etc . used set up dyno runs @£250 a piece, fitted lock up clutch,brembo brakes, clutch casing strengthener brackets, and after locking out my credit card i had a 180 bhp at rear wheel ,not at crank, (not a lot these days) the bike was just toooooooooooo much i did 185 mph on a motorway once, a speed a standard gen 1 did out the box. I just listened to the wrong people wasted a lot of bread and went quite fast once
So how many people build bikes for guy martin to ride but dont ride them at 80 percent
I for one think my vtr when i get cct modded will be more than enough for me
ps i fell of tuned rd's old gsx 1100's
150mph is fast enough for me i wont use it,but iam not a slow old codger either.
happy riding to all

[Kev L]

I think many folk come to the Firestorm, or other V2, from multi’s because of the usability of the engine. Certainly not for the economy
Doing odds and sods to the bike to make it your own is par for the course on any bike you own I’m sure. Just depends on the depth of your pockets as to how far you go. Had mine for a few years now and still get off it thinking how much I enjoy riding it and looking at it.

[AMCQ46]

I think you are right, especially for road use. Max power is the last thing I would be throwing my money at.

I will (have. ) invest in suspension & brakes though, as they deliver improvements in the real world and improve the safety margins when you are being a tit.

I rarely go over the ton, but I do like a lot of midrange torque to pull out of bends and lift the front wheel

[tony.mon]

With storms, the cost of real gains (20-30+ bhp) are not worth it. Better to sell it and buy an SP1 or 2, although you can achieve these gains with a storm it always works out more expensive than selling and buying a bike designed to do it. It's not as much fun, though...

[mik_str]

'tis why I always tuned for response and mid-range...

[sirch345]

Probably the majority of us have more power than we really need or are capable of using all the time, but as others have mentioned, its more about the mid-range torque etc than flat out top speed.

One of my brother's had a brand new Hayabusa when they first came out, so I know what they are capable of
For me it was just too tempting to be breaking the speed limits far too often,

Chris.

[gilson]

On track the friendliness of the standard Firestorm engine is probably what I enjoy the most. It just doesn't scare me and encourages me to fully open the throttle earlier and earlier. I'm not sure the same could be said for a 180bhp Fireblade? I'm hoping to try my mate's fireblade track bike next season so I could be wrong.

It's always annoying down the straight though.

[tony.mon]

On track the friendliness of the standard Firestorm engine is probably what I enjoy the most. It just doesn't scare me and encourages me to fully open the throttle earlier and earlier. I'm not sure the same could be said for a 180bhp Fireblade? I'm hoping to try my mate's fireblade track bike next season so I could be wrong.

It's always annoying down the straight though.

That's what TC is for.
I'd be riding my Tuono v4 like a pussy otherwise. The blade will have it, if it's a later one.

[Jamoi]

Lots of power is great fun, I love how savage the RC8R is. 170bhp and 91ft-lbs of torque at the tyre and no electronics makes it quite a handful on the road, but would no doubt be way faster round a track than the Storm.

But on the road, the Storm is just as capable and a whole lot easier to keep everything in check!

I guess power is relative to the job in hand. If you were racing around Assen you'd probably want every HP you could get your hands on. Then if you were doing trials 40bhp would be loads. I reckon for most of us on the road, 75 - 110bhp is plenty enough to make progress.

[MacV2]

''75 - 110bhp is plenty enough to make progress.''

You may want to take that up with Mr Mons & The Welsh Rossi...Hahahaha

[Jamoi]

''75 - 110bhp is plenty enough to make progress.''

You may want to take that up with Mr Mons & The Welsh Rossi...Hahahaha

Hahaha, Rossi aka "Horse and cart"

In that case, 1 horse would have been sufficient.

[tony.mon]

I spent a pleasant week looking at the scenery that day.

It made a change from focusing on kerbs, drain covers and apexes, which is pretty much all of Wales I normally see.

[fabiostar]

For public roads the storm puts out a nice amount of usable power .. as a few folks have said handling gives better results..

iv blasted faster bikes and been blasted by slower bikes on the road .the limiting factor is the lump of meat sitting on the bike

[northmanuk]

h2r jamie whitam(i think thats right name) a real good racer said the Kawasaki race vesion of the supercharged h2 was unrideable as it just wheelied all the time my turbo ss 50 (honda 50 sports moped for you younger guys) has same prob
I think we all admit very high bhp bikes are riden to the max by very few and only on the track

for those who red line 200bhp we salute you

[tony.mon]

It depends on what you want to do in the moment:
Traffic light GP?
Straight line max speed?
Grunt off corners?
High corner speed/lean angle?
Cross continents in a day or two?
Affordability? (or what the other half is willing to let you spend)

Each one would lead you down a different path, tuning, braking, suspension, electronics.

Imagine those sliders are all adjustable. Manufacturers have to build bikes that can make a fair job of all of these things, because most people have one bike that they use for all of the above, plus sunny afternoon rolling around, commuting, shopping and carrying a pillion and luggage.

But once we buy a bike, we start to make a few changes, adjust some sliders, to suit our own personal preferences. Nowt wrong with that. But just be aware that as you move one slider up, another one comes down to compensate. Tune for more bhp? OK, but reliability might suffer, or it might require more frequent servicing, vibrate more, get hot in traffic, etc. (Or get banned sometimes )
Better suspension? Sure, but it'll cost you more than you factored in when you budgeted to buy the bike.
Track day/race bike? Fine, but you might find it a bit uncomfortable on longer trips or the commute.

As with so much in life, it's about finding compromises you can live with in order to tick the boxes you personally find important.

But a general rule that seems so work is that it's cheaper and easier to start with a bike that has the sliders somewhere near where you want to end up rather than trying to supercharge a moped or go round corners on a vmax.

Before someone points it out, my Storm was a perfect example of how I acquired this wisdom!