Any stock 3500li do over 42MPH?

Normal top speed for me is only 39MPH per GPS.

Over-inflating the tires might give you a slightly higher real max speed. That reduces rolling friction and increases effective wheel diameter. A small, light rider (like many in China) would cut wind drag a lot, and also increase top speed.

For the "specification game" hard tires, little rider, very smooth road sudface, and very full, fresh batteries are likely used.

But, CAUTION, over-inflation usually reduces the traction available for safe cornering.

Well, at 6' and 220 lbs. over-inflating the tires has done little to improve the top end for me. They're overinflated now at that 39mph top end. Bringing them back down (which I may do anyway, as we start getting a little more rainy weather in the afternoons) won't lose me more than maybe 1mph, if that. Just not significant for me.

Lenny - try chopping off a leg that should bring the weight down. (Sorry, couldn't resist the totally pointless comment).

My XM-3500 topped out at about 42mph as well (I'm a runt compared to the honorable Mr. Zimmerman - I'm 5'6" and 150lbs). I suspect (and as gary pointed out) that the biggest effect is probably the battery pack. The stock charger has a very conservative cut-off point and less volts = less speed. So, if I were doing speed tests for marketing effect I'd be sure to charge my pack with a balancer and to it's full capacity. I'd then test the top speed in the very first mile off the charger.

I achieved 45-46MPH with mine but did the following;

1) Overinflated tires.
2) Built a homemade BMS and got a good full charge and did not use the bike until I had this on it (did not want to stress any cells due to over/under charging).
3) Realigned the brake pads and squared up the rear disk pad so it was flat and not rubbing excessively.
4) Cleaned up wiring and connections (also at breaker) to get better conductivity and less loss.
4) I am of a small build and weight (5'6" and 165lbs).
5) Did this test on a fairly decent road surface.

I have since added a cell, upped the top end charge, and cleaned up the wiring even more and have reached 48-49MPH. I do plan to add a another cell eventually whenever the weather gets good enough for riding (I live in the wonderful "colder than usual" NW).

I cleaned and tightened all battery straps, moved the breaker to shorten wire lengths, soldered all crimped connections, tinned and added copper end caps on the wire ends that clamp into the breaker (better connection). The brake finessing really helped but it was not trivial.

But, thinking about everything I have done, it really is not a "stock" 3500LI and I never rode it straight out to know what its top end was originally. :-)

Just came back from China after visiting the manufacturer of the 3500Li´s.
Brought with me one of the new 4kW motors, will be interesting to see what difference it will make to the 3500li.
None of the 2 stock ones we have here goes above 42MPH....

I keep reading these posts and wondering why everyone keeps using GPS as their standard. The articles I have read seem to imply that the best accuracy one can expect on GPS speed calculations would be on the order of +/- 5 MPH at speeds of less than 100 mph. Installing a cheap bicycle speedometer and calibrating it correctly can get accuracies nearing 1%. Why not pick the more accurate method? I'm not criticizing, I'm just wondering what it is that I don't know. Thanks for any help.
Dick B.

How easy is it to adjust a bicycle speedometer for the small wheel diameter? Which speedometers can adjust for the small wheel diameter?

Another suggestion is to install the Cycle Analyst dashboard unit. It has a ton of usefulness for an electric bicycle or scooter. It shows pack voltage, current draw, speed, etc. Plus it will show watt-hours/mile. The latest version does datalogging and you can chart it for display on a web site.

I keep reading these posts and wondering why everyone keeps using GPS as their standard. The articles I have read seem to imply that the best accuracy one can expect on GPS speed calculations would be on the order of +/- 5 MPH at speeds of less than 100 mph.

I'm not sure where you've read this, but I'm pretty sure I've seen the opposite.

While a GPS may have an inherent inaccuracy in plotting your location, that location error is pretty much constant over short invervals. In other words, if the error places you 15' to the North in one moment, it'll continue to place you 15' to the North one second later, even if you have moved 100' to the East during that second. So it's going to be extremely accurate at determining your change in relative position, even if it's got errors figuring out your absolute position. And the very nature of GPS requires a very accurate clock, able to measure the arrival time of multiple signals in sub-millisecond accuracy. Since speed is just change in position over time, the GPS is therefore extremely accurate in measuring speed.

The only thing to remember is that it's probably checking your change in position over a one second interval, and might even be averaging multiple seconds. So it's best at showing a constant speed, not as good at showing a speed that is varying rapidly.

My personal experience is that the difference between a GPS and a given speedometer is a constant, so that my GPS always reads 70 when my motorcycle reads 77, every single time (and I just spent a few hours on the road, watching both for much of the trip). If the GPS had something like a 5mph inaccuracy built in, I'd wouldn't expect the relationship to be nearly so constant, hour after hour, day after day, month after month.

Richard, I believe it's more for convenience on the GPS. If you already have one, especially a very good one. It's easier to attach that than rig a bicycle speedometer.(I guess)But that's a good idea, and attach it in the console. But do they go to high enough speeds. Maybe we can calibrate the stock ones. Anyone know?

Cycle Analyst..

On my Honda VFR750 RC36 I used an Sigma Sport BC1200 cycle computer this thing you can measure one revelation of a wheel in cm and then enter this in. The cycle computer is accurate till 250 Km/h.

Mine is the old one (link : BC1200)but the still sell them new on Ebay.de (link: BC1200) I do not now if this one works!