I know it's hard to know the top speed when the speedometer is pegged. I use to own a Honda V65 Magna, I never knew what top speed was. It would still be pulling hard past the speedometers 165 max. I heard different opinions on how fast the Magna was, 173, 181,etc. All I know is I gave all she had for miles at a time. It had a 10,000 RPM redline. It held the road, that was a good bike. I could see the Rocket going over 180 in the right conditions.
I opened the bike up a little yesterday. I ran across a man on race ready drag bike,Hayabusa. It definitely was not built for the road. I followed him for a ways then we decided to air it out in a straight away. I have a Corbin fairing on my bike and around 135-140 there was either wobble from the steering or the fairing was oscillating. I slowed it down then I sped back up the vibration returned. This started me thinking about the strength of this fairing. How much can it withstand? I know the down forces were probably pretty high as well.
It is in my nature to push my machines to their max. I need to ensure that I have the right equipment on my bike: tires, steering damper(thanks warp 9), etc
I thought maybe somebody somewhere put a radar gun on a Rocket on a closed course. Dodge built a truck a few years ago and they did this. I think it's top speed was 144?