BUG speed

[Bill]

On 6/1/2000 XSive Larry Reed wrote:

Several years ago I noted that after every ride, I had bugs stuck to my visor, headlamp, fork tubes, etc. The thought occurred to me that if I backed off the throttle and kept the speed under around 50 mph, the bugs would not stick. Lo and behold this seemed to be the magic number. After that observation, anytime I wanted to have my bike looking nice and clean after a short ride, I just kept it under 50 mph...now recognized as bug speed or just BUG.

Most of my riding nowadays is around 1.5 to 1.75 BUG. Occasionally when passing a line of traffic on a stretch of 2 lane road, I get up to over 2 BUGs. Most of my riding buddies are familiar with my motorcycle speed unit (BUG) and seem to enjoy referring to their own speed experiences using this unit of measurement.

Many newer members may not be aware of the meaning or derivation of BUG speed, so I reposted the original. It's handy as a common reference between MPH and KPH. One difference of common XSive usage is that BUG is most often expressed in the same manner as MACH, such as BUG 1.0 (50 MPH or 80 KPH).

[strom]

A few biker guys decided one drunken night, that they'd go with mopeds to Beograd, Istambul, etc... bout 2400 miles or sth like that... and they did... and the most frustrating thing was when a bug hit the visor, it just stood up and walked off... he rides a bandit 1200... I guess 50ccm just don't cut it... kill it... whatever

Another guy got a speeding ticket and the smeared bugs were the proof he was speeding... LOL

LP

[Bill]

Strom wrote:

Another guy got a speeding ticket and the smeared bugs were the proof he was speeding... LOL

Wow... that's the first time I've heard of bug guts being used as forensic evidence for a speeding ticket!

[Dragonrider]

Well, that was educational. I knew the "Bug standard", I feel it is a classic, and use/reference it frequently.

I thought it was a TKAT originated unit of measurement though. Thanks for the correction/update.