Well had a windless day so mi amigo y yo decided to see if my GPS was accurate on "speed" runs and he knew a guy who has a nice private air strip in a remote area of grass land not too distant. We loaded the Copper Gator & spent a few hours tuning and riding the little beast, still think it ate the shop cat, nice morning cool air & no wind. The strip is asphalt & real smooth and almost a mile in length. Story is the owner was an old hippy back in the early '70's and flew loads of some "special" grass to big city folk. Probably just a story anyhow luck ran out on him & he did time for his misdeeds rehabilitated, and returned to raise proper livestock fare for a living. Must me money in it cause he sure has a nice place, course they also raised a few oil derricks as well & there's a living to made there as well.
Pleasant day all in all. GPS is close enough for Government work. Drill was to measure off a quarter mile, ease up to 65 mph at the quarter. The truck leading the bike by approximately 75 yards. With the trucks speed control set at sixty five he held that speed for another eighth mile before breaking. I at that point also started breaking. Four runs, only one was inconsistent and that on purpose as I wanted to visibly gain some ground on the truck while it was on speed control. Results on the GPS were plus or minus 1 mph on the three consistent runs at 65 mph and 76 mph as the peak speed reached that day on the closure run.
Tire pressure was checked after each run & tires were allowed to cool back to ambient. Tire temperature was also read each time as well. The Vee brand front tire varied very little. The 3" Kenda did increase more(% wise) in pressure & temps were higher of course. Vee brand Nola 26" x 2.5" max pressure 65 lbs. I ran at 60 pounds. Kenda 3" cross section max pressure 45 pounds pressure. I ran the rear at 40 lbs. Cool morning, 70 % humidity. Temps didn't get much higher on the 4 test runs than cruising for 20 minutes at a constant 40 mph later that day when the ambient temp was 15 degrees warmer. Quality digital gauges were used for both pressure and temp readings.
I'm now assured my GPS is accurate & I'm gaining respect for the Vee NOLA tire. The importer/distributor has stated that his goal when commissioning the design & production of his Kevlar tire was to surpass that of the Coker Simplex brand at a competitive price in the New Orleans pedicab industry. He may have succeeded. I can't wait till the Vee NOLA are back in stock...I'm ordering some more, though the Kenda tested better than expected, the tire is just whimpy feeling when compared to the Vee NOLA. Though I'm not a fan of the "look" Flame or Hookworm tread patterns they really perform quite well. Won't be going faster on the Copper Gator till I get the Vee Nola's mounted on a new pair of Worksman wheels front and rear.
So far the little beast has been surprisingly lacking in the unexpected. Rick C.
