Hitchcocks Forum

i have a 2016 bullet 500 B5, what is the top cruising speed you would recommend?
i have a long distance trip to make and want to use the bullet.

How long a distance?

going to do about 1100 miles, aiming to do over 4 or 5 days

75% of top speed for cruising has worked for me with a variety of vehicles excluding of course those with excessively high bhp claims

Depends how many fillings you can afford or want to have redone....Seriously it depends on whether or not you still have standard gearing, the ride will be solo or with a pillion, the engine is fully run in or not. Personally I run mine as fast as possible before serious vibes set in. I intend to fit a one tooth larger gearbox sprocket for a longish trip next year to raise the cruising speed a bit - but I only ride solo these days.

standard gearing, run in , now done 2300 miles, have been cruising at an indicated 60 mph, or 3700 rpm.
is this ok ? will engine be happy at these revs ?

60 should be fine for long term cruising.

Just try and keep the engine happy at revs where you get a crystal clear image (or close to) in the mirrors. Then it's unlikely bits will either break from vibration or simply fall off.

The old iron 500 can cruise at 60mph all day on standard gearing, so your modern B5 should be fine.

I've done a few 400 mile days, including a couple of 800 mile round trips in a weekend - between 60 and 65 always seems to be a happy cruising speed just before it starts to feel strained and vibration kicks in. I upped the front sprocket by a tooth last year which I don't think had much effect on cruising speed. It might be a bit more relaxed at the same speed, but there isn't the power to sustain higher speeds. The raised gearing made the biggest difference in the intermediate gears, which just seem better suited now for maintaining speed on twisty roads and overtaking over 50mph.