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Remember the Kawasaki Z1-R?

I had one of those things in 1978. It had a little bikini fairing with the instruments built into it.

I decided one day I would wring it out and see what she'd do. I picked out a nice, flat, straight country road, tucked down into the boy-racer crouch and turned up the wick. It seemed to get to 130 mph awfully quick, with a little throttle left over.

When I'd had enough, I rolled out of the throttle. When the beast got back down to 120 mph, I straightened up out of the tuck. Big, big mistake! The wind blast nearly tore me right off the bike. To this day, I don't quite know how I was able to hang on long enough to decelerate down to a reasonable speed.

That was my first and last ride over the Ton, on two wheels, anywhere.

I have a deep, viceral respect for motorcycle aerodynamics and how they relate to speeds above 100 mph. There are forces in play at that speed you wouldn't begin to imagine. I agree, the Tomahawk may well do 200+ mph. However, hitting the slightest bump at that speed would probably eject the rider into the windstream.

I know EXACTLY where you're coming from. That pic of Rollie Free...some people have no point of reference to know just how on the edge that was/is. At least your Z1 handled better than a MachIII.I know where one of those 2-stroke 750's sits just waiting for a new owner. There was a beefier front end on a Suzuki TS50 Gaucho.

I've taken my Triumph up to about 120 but the chin of the helmet was being pushed down on the gas tank HARD. Pretty good for a bike coming up upon its 40th birthday. Been on a GSXR 750 at 150 and the really bad thing is how it felt like 100mph.

Maybe the best thing about having no fairing is that it keeps you from rocket speeds. I very rarely will do over 80mph and that's on a very open, straight and empty road with little chance of traffic....still, nail a small animal at speed and you're just as dead.