Hi all,

I have a 1995 Virago XV500 . Its a nice clean bike which starts first time every morning and which i ride to work 15 miles away.

I've only been riding it for a few months now and so far my top speed is about 75 miles per hour.

It seems to me that this is probably at the top end, i can't see me getting any more out of it.

I'm wondering is this about the norm for this bike and would like to hear about other bikes of this size.

Cheers

Ray

Hi all,

I have a 1995 Virago XV500 . Its a nice clean bike which starts first time every morning and which i ride to work 15 miles away.

I've only been riding it for a few months now and so far my top speed is about 75 miles per hour.

It seems to me that this is probably at the top end, i can't see me getting any more out of it.

I'm wondering is this about the norm for this bike and would like to hear about other bikes of this size.

Cheers

Ray

I live in Thailand and I have a 1994 XV 535.

Yesterday I clocked 136 kph on my gps and 140 on the speedo which equates to 83 mph and there was a bit more left to come.

Mine also starts first time and now I am retired I can ride pretty much where and when I want. My normal cruising speed is around 115 kph or 70 mph.

I have only had the bike a month and I am very impressed with it.

That sound good. Its funny. If u take the 650 dragstar its top speed is about 90ish. Wonder if that's down to the different weights of the two bikes. Haven't had a chance to take mine out onto a good enough road to see what i could truly get outta my 500cc

If u take the 650 dragstar its top speed is about 90ish. Wonder if that's down to the different weights of the two bikes.

92mph according to the book. Had mine up to an indicated 107 before I started fecking around with it. Now only manages about 92 on a good day with the right abount of fuel in the tank.

Drag is 230 kg and has 40bhp.

Virago is 182kg and has 44bhp.

Draggie = 0.1792hp/kg

Viggie = 0.2418hp/kg

Have you had a full-on tune-up?

Haven't had a professional job done yet, but i have done alot work on it myself. Full service, cleaned carbs etc. As i said earlier i havent had a good opportunity to truly open her up. I'm purely interested in learning what the virago is capable of. It Will give me an indication of how mine is reforming. Looks like i can get another few miles out of it. Might need to loose a few pounds.:-))

If u take the 650 dragstar its top speed is about 90ish.

got mine upto 95 according to the satnav, speedo dosnt light up though so i dont know what the clock said

this was waaaaaaaaay overloaded so had the airodynamis of a brick..... and down a ever so slight hill, on the ever so slight up hill it slowed to 70 and wouldnt go any faster

this was waaaaaaaaay overloaded so had the airodynamis of a brick.....

As opposed to it's usual sleek, streamlined speediness?

As opposed to it's usual sleek, streamlined speediness?

ya like someone trying to break the land speed record with a brick. Nice looking brick but yet, its still a brick. :-))

haha, alright fair point

but mine was very brick like

this was before that green bag ripped and i got a bigger one that could take the same gear... plus two 10 leiter 'gas' cans

got so used to it that i need to get a rider backrest now

brick

Holy crap,, how long were you going away for??

Holy crap,, how long were you going away for??

i lived on it for 2 months

Well, i got a good chance to get the most out of my bike today. I got it up to 137KPM and not an inch more. That was it, i couldn't get any more.

My 96 year 535 I have not really taken it to top speed yet, only had her a few weeks - It's still got a MPH speedo even though I am in Malaysia. I could cruise all day at 75mph - I took it up to 95 Mph for a short blast and it was still pulling like crazy. So I guess first thing I need to do is check the Speedo against a GPS reading.

I will come back with more news when I've done that. Apart from being a real bitch to get into neutral when stopped with the engine running, she's a real good girl.

This sounds like a good un "