You’re thinking about getting a bike. Perhaps you’ve never ridden before. But what to get? So many gorgeous motorcycles and you want to start on the perfect one!
When considering which motorcycle to get, size is an important issue (and its not just a guy thing ). Physical size of the bike and engine size – this time we’re just going to talk about engine size. Two common measurements are made of an engine’s “power”: horsepower and torque.
What is the Difference Between Horsepower and Torque?
Without getting into the specifics, torque is the “grunt” or how hard the engine pulls, horsepower is more the total pull power available. Lots of torque allows you to “launch” hard while excess horsepower gives you higher terminal speeds. So how much do you need, or want?
For comparison, we look at some popular motorcycles (and even a car!). Lets start with two similar displacement bikes – the Honda Shadow 600 and Honda CBR600F4i. They have the same size engine (~600cc) but drastically different performance. The Shadow engine puts out 30.7 hp and 32.5 lb/ft of torque. The F4i makes 98.4 hp and 45.8 lb/ft.
Incidentally, the F4i is also a lighter bike at 372 lbs with the Shadow weighing in at 438. Divide the weight* by the horsepower or torque to get a feeling for the performance capabilities of the bike.
What do these numbers mean? Lower numbers = Greater performance. Clearly the F4i has a tremendous advantage in weight/hp and a large advantage in weight/torque – the F4i has the clear performance advantage.
Now lets compare those numbers to something that everyone can relate to – car performance. A long standing, popular “performance” car has been the Ford Mustang.
The Shadow can be expected to have performance more on par with a base model Mustang. Even for a “small” cruiser, the Shadow delivers impressive performance approaching that of a sportscar! The F4i is a huge step beyond the performance capabilities of even the Mustang GT and can only be matched by high-end exotics or dedicated race-only vehicles.
When choosing a motorcycle, engine size is an important issue, but it goes beyond just size. “Squares” understand how much power the engine makes can vary radically, even within similar displacement models. There are many factors that are important to consider when ultimately choosing what motorcycle to purchase. Happy Hunting!
