Hitchcocks Forum

I have now done 3000 miles on my gt. I guess the engine is fully loosened up and I am certainly happy with the performance for the type of B roads I normally ride on.
Its top speed however seems to be quite low and I can only just squeeze 75 prone or 80mph flat on tank. This does seem rather low compared with other British Bikes I have owned.
Of course I haven't got the bike for high speed runs however I am curious to know what other owners can get out of their unmodified machines.

I've ridden UCE 500s and classic engine 500s, I'd imagine a 535 EFI is somewhere between the two in terms of sophistication and power output?

In which case. I'd say that's probably about right in terms of top speed. Various things can be done to them to give more power if you want it. Power is a matter of money.

My 2016 GT535 has a Motad silencer and that's it. I have seen 75 but not tried for flat out. It's only got 1300 on
N the clock. It's the acceleration and torque that is the winning combination

The speed you report Mapman is about right for the 535 GT Continental. The engine output is well-below what it ought to be in terms of BHP and speed for its capacity and for what is, in many respects, a ‘modern’ designed engine. It’s even less than many a good 250, and about the same as the 250 GT Continental of the mid-1960's! As our hosts have found, fitting a range of Hitchcocks performance parts dramatically improves engine output (up 40%!) with an increase in speed commensurate with the increase in max BHP.

Sadly the effort that the factory put into making the bike look the part (which it does) was NOT matched by by the little extra effort required to give the thing sufficient poke in standard trim to perform convincingly, though sorting this out was a predicable revenue stream for our hosts! Let's see how many 4 valve heads they sell.

A.

I’m not sure it was lack of ‘effort’ by the factory that produced this under-powered engine but the priorities of the design brief, that seemed to put the ‘classic’ sound of the engine above almost every other consideration!

Maybe Indian priorities are different from those we’re used to. Neither the Himalayan nor the new 650 twins will match other makers’ equivalent capacity bikes for speed, as good as these two models are on their own terms.

Would be interesting to hear the experiences of other 535 owners as, although we all understand that owning one isn't about top speed, 75mph prone does sound a bit feeble and is certainly less than I was expecting to hear.
Without wishing to get all 'mine does a ton uphill, mister' on the good people of this forum, my well used and abused 2008 efi will register 75/80 (on the highly accurate speedo ) on the flat, in usual 'kite' riding position, 85 if I can bear the feet forward crouch for long. Although it's got a K&N, power commander and free flow exhaust, it's probably the 19 tooth sprocket and my willingness to ignore explosion pre-empting vibration that makes more difference to top speed than the 0.8 bhp extra that lot adds.
I would have thought the that 535 should at least equal that given that it's quoted with marginally more power and it's riding position is more aerodynamic - (it could hardly be less so if it was towing a parachute )

Is that a fellow Salopian I see here Presto?

Not sure what my 535 does, had her up over 70 a couple of times, but tend to pootle about on her.

Seems a bit disappointing that a 535 will only get up to 70 or 75... my 1964 BSA C15 250 would do that.

I have a Euro4 CGT 535 and with the standard exhaust or a baffle in my Megaphone exhaust, the top speed is 75 mph. However, the top speed increases to an indicated 85 mph with the engine revving much more freely when the mega is used without any restriction. The bike has only done 1600 miles and it was an ex-demonstrator so it will have been trashed from new.