Finally getting my bike this week, super excited but starting to worry about all the hills around here. I live in a very hilly area and I’m worried I wont be able to maintain the speed limit on 45 mph roads. It’s hard to find much info on this topic above and beyond bike is slow. Can someone around the 200# range tell me what kind of uphill (paved) speeds I can expect? If i’m constantly dropping to 30 on 45 mph roads thats gonna be a bad time with the way people tailgate out here.
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Uphill speed?
- Thread starter Tanston
- Start date
m in sc
Well-known member
i was around the 42-44 (when stock) stock up hills in the mts, same weight. hence why i went with a big bore kit and other stuff. can maintain 50 -55 up hills now depending on grade, of course. I know, frustrating.
I feel like hills are the Achilles heel of the CT125. I weigh around 140 lbs and there are paved roads in CO that the bike absolutely couldn't maintain 30-45 mph on in stock form. Expect to have to downshift a gear (or two!) to climb steep grades.
Steep hills in every direction from my house, one is 11% for a short bit. I definitely go for the 25mph -35mph hills if I can. There is a 40mph 1/2 mile climb that I try to time out ahead of when the traffic light lets the masses up and I can usually get to the top before the masses catch up at about 34/35 at the top. I'm 170# and have a 13t in the garage I may try just for the heck of it. Flagstaff is the third snowiest city in the country if you can believe that and this was the third snowiest year since 1898... Been still rolling the trail 90 to work regularly on all but about 6 days, I'll report back on the 13 if I throw it on. Day off today, to the ski hill!
Thanks for the replies everyone, it's sounding like my original assumption that I'll be ok as long as I stick to roads 45 MPH and under is not correct on account of these hills. I was looking around on https://www.plotaroute.com/ since I didn't actually know what the gradient of the roads around here were (there's no signs) and it seems most of the hills around here tend to average around 8% at least on the main roads where speed limit matters, some of the smaller 30 MPH roads kick up into the 10-14% range. Once I see how the bike performs at various gradients that website should be a good tool for route planning when i'm not planning on getting lost.
Personally I don't mind going slow, it's the best way to explore IMHO. But I for sure don't want road raging drivers behind me. So I guess i'll need to add pulling off on potentially soft shoulders so people can pass to my list of new rider skills I need to master.
I will be curious to hear how the 13t sprocket goes if you try it. I was thinking it might hurt my top speed too much to be worth the tradeoff and it was more for people looking to improve hill climbing on dirt but if it gets me a decent improvement on paved hills it might be worth the tradeoff considering i'm not going to be trying to go above 45 more often than not anyways.
Personally I don't mind going slow, it's the best way to explore IMHO. But I for sure don't want road raging drivers behind me. So I guess i'll need to add pulling off on potentially soft shoulders so people can pass to my list of new rider skills I need to master.
I will be curious to hear how the 13t sprocket goes if you try it. I was thinking it might hurt my top speed too much to be worth the tradeoff and it was more for people looking to improve hill climbing on dirt but if it gets me a decent improvement on paved hills it might be worth the tradeoff considering i'm not going to be trying to go above 45 more often than not anyways.
I moved a Sun Company CyclClimb Inclinometer over from one of my bicycles to the CT125 when I first got it to get a feel for the grade of roads and trails near me and what the Honda Trail was capable of on them. I didn't record any data using it, but same with bicycling when you're struggling on a stretch it's nice to look at an instrument and confirm "you're going uphill" or "this hill is much steeper than the last one" when it isn't visually obvious. Without it I'd likely have pulled the bike over many times checking to make sure it still had oil in it due to how much it can struggle up a steep grade.
I ran up the hill with the 13 on today, cant really compare speed as the speedometer is off now. Seemed like a small difference and it pulled harder?? I sort of think I liked the torque of the 14 better??? more of a "stronger" pull up to speed. I'll guess in a few weeks I won't be able to tell the difference. I may try to gps the speed up the hill with the 13 then swap it back and compare. In my head something to be said for an accurate speedometer but guessing the percentage it is off isn't much...
m in sc
Well-known member
its simple math:
stock is 2.78 ratio
13/39 is 3.0
should be 7.6% optimistic (higher) speedometer reading. so, example, at 45mph actual, your speedo will read roughly 48.6
stock is 2.78 ratio
13/39 is 3.0
should be 7.6% optimistic (higher) speedometer reading. so, example, at 45mph actual, your speedo will read roughly 48.6
I'm with you, I don't mind going a little slower uphill. But these tailgaters... geezus! My message to them is to try to be a little more civil and considerate with your fellow man.
m in sc
Well-known member
no, thats correct. its like being in gear '3.5' if it existed. tbh, if you aren't hitting the rev limiter w the 13t in 4th gear, you probably haven't lost any top speed.
Got my bike this past week and put about 40 miles on today. It is pretty darn bad in the hills that's for sure. Oddly enough though the only time I had anyone tailgating me was when I was going 10-15 over the limit on flat or downhill roads. So I guess there's nothing I can really do to keep people off my ass short of trading up for a turbo hayabusa.
So one thing that's confusing after that first ride is what's with the recomended downshift points in the manual? The manual lists 16 MPH recomended to downshift from 4th to 3rd. That's kind of insane and not realistic to do at the base of a steep hill. Downshifting in general I seem to be very bad at or this auto clutch is just weird and hard to get used to.
Hell of a fun bike overall. Makes me wish I had gotten into riding while I was still young.
So one thing that's confusing after that first ride is what's with the recomended downshift points in the manual? The manual lists 16 MPH recomended to downshift from 4th to 3rd. That's kind of insane and not realistic to do at the base of a steep hill. Downshifting in general I seem to be very bad at or this auto clutch is just weird and hard to get used to.
Hell of a fun bike overall. Makes me wish I had gotten into riding while I was still young.
MonotoneCulprit
Active member
Downshift suggestions are odd, but they mostly work. The rule around here generally is to upshift on 10s, and downshift on halves to keep it simple. So up on 10, 20, 30. Down on 15, 10, 5. This has worked fairly well for me. Gradients, road conditions, and what not will obviously change these numbers, but for flat street cruising these have been fine for me. You should fairly quickly get the hang of feeling when the bike wants to shift instead of peeking the speedometer all the time.
Definitely go through the downshifts on your way to a stop every time even if you suck at it. You'll get used to the feel of the clutch eventually. The downshifting/clutch on this bike is definitely weird, and takes some getting used to.
Definitely go through the downshifts on your way to a stop every time even if you suck at it. You'll get used to the feel of the clutch eventually. The downshifting/clutch on this bike is definitely weird, and takes some getting used to.
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Sorry, I was using my butt dyno and feel. Not super accurate, I defer to the others on here for accuracy!