32 Horsepower

During the course of research into scooters and motorcycles, I made an optimized discovery. In the old days, about 50 years ago, motorcycles with 250 cc engines were considered economy, and 500 cc was powerful. Anything bigger than 500cc was "compensating for something", usually a certain lack of filler in the trousers. Nowadays 1300cc is considered adequate, and you can buy a 2.3 liter engine for a bike, which is definitely compensating for something. Really Big Harleys are an obvious p3N15 extension device, and most women sigh in disgust at the unsubtle whining and noise of men who have failed in the most important way.

1300 ccs, the size of an original VW bug engine.

While it is true that race bikes ridden by fearless experts can make use of really powerful 50, 75, and 100 HP motorcycles, what you actually need for non-freeway riding is 32 horsepower. You can easily get this from a 400cc engine, air cooled. This is what I learned.

 

I later learned you can detune a 650 down to this, or pressurize a 250cc to get that output using the more expensive gasoline. Or you can just buy any 500cc, such as the current Honda CBR-500, which won awards for fun and economy, having just the right balance of weight, power, and fuel economy for general use. Unfortunately, the bike doesn't have a vintage model, like the 1300cc which looks like Honda's 1970's UJM and thinks to go up against Harley Davidson, which has a huge customer base that's fanatically loyal. A pity, since that look remains in style and would hold value better than plastic fairings and that really ugly tailpipe. I do hope the person who decided to do that was told to commit seppuku. It has cost the company a lot of sales. Ugh. You would think, with the internet being everywhere, someone at Honda would have noticed the popularity of classic tailpipes, and noticed the prices those were getting at sale. It is a serious DUH! moment, right there. Sigh.

At this point, even re-releasing the CB350 and CB360 and CL360 would sell. They are classics. Not very powerful, but with 25 HP they are good enough and would be everywhere if they were the same price as the new Ugly CBR-250. Honda, once again failing to understand their market. The CB360 has low chrome pipes, appropriate engine size, appropriate upright UJM sitting position and pegs situated to allow the rider to stand for rough roads (which we have), something you cannot do with a forward foot-peg cruiser, and their worst failing. Harleys are too low to work on bumpy roads, and can't lean over without grinding them off. As the pegs are cast, rather than cut, and made in China, the steel and heat treating tends to allow them to break off sometimes. This makes for interesting ride stories, though few Harley riders post stories in places I read. ADV is all about the dirt roads and exploration, even if most of the places they explore are Nevada and the Pan American Highway down to Chile and back. Africa is too violent, Asia too ugly. Europe has its own problems and too many borders. Really, America is the best place for motorcycle exploration, both Americas (North and South).

The thing about a modest amount of power on a motorcycle is climbing a mountainside at freeway speed on superslab interstate isn't as much fun as puttering along at 40 mph and looking at the view with a big smile. In the Sierras, there are some longer sections where you have to go faster than 50 or literally be run over. So you need a bike than can sprint those till you get onto the slower secondary roads again. What with rain-grooving cut into most of Interstate 80, a bike might not have very good sideways grip through the fast and steep parts of the freeway. I would find slipping sideways off a road to be quite terrifying right before that sudden and very final stop into a tree or rock face. It sucks that Highway 40 was largely sacrificed for I-80, and frontage road has not replaced it to allow a road for bicycles, scooters, and slower moving traffic to use instead. There are many sections where 40 remains in use, offset from 80. However there are critical sections where it is gone, paved over and replaced with the screaming big rigs nailing their engine brakes and maniacs returning from Reno casinos broke and angry, weaving through traffic and heading for a date with a CHP and a couple points off their license. In this, a motorcyclist must survive sprints of speed. Thankfully, using alt roads like Highway 20 gets you away from the worst of it, and 20 is curvy and smoother than 80, though its got some serious hills to climb and descend. Good brakes are a good idea, and better be able to maintain 55 mph up those climbs. Upside is there's lots of places to stop and look at the view, which is fantastic. Scenic By-ways are great like that.

 

So why doesn't the motorcycle industry make a 400cc engine? (They sort of do but they charge 650cc prices rather than 250cc prices. This needs to be fixed.) They make excuses about sleeving down a 650cc, making it heavier and harder to cool, and only valuable in Canada, where there is a special tax and insurance rate break for that displacement limit. Yet, it is powerful enough to get you to 100 mph on the straight.

 

500cc motors are limited but available. Harley Davidson is starting to build a 500cc V-twin for starter bikes. Originally, they announced this bike for India, which caused confusion as to whether this bike would be an import from famously inferior Indian manufacturing, thanks to decades of 350cc Enfield Motorcycle stories. The bike whose parts have to be fitted, new, because the parts are made on worn, unmaintained, machining equipment bought wholesale from England decades ago. Why aren't these equipment properly maintained so the parts are cut the right size? Because the Indian people are just that indifferent to quality. And we want to do business with that country? Why? It baffles me. We are better off dealing with more local nations, like in Central and South America. Brazil builds YZ-125 2-stroke motorcycles since before their currency collapse in 1978. Everybody in Central and South America bought them so they are everywhere. They are the right bike for exploring and repair, provided you can do the key 2-stroke repairs, like replacing reed valves and rings and soaking off the burnt on oil residue.

 

My thought is this: why not scale down a 650cc block to 400cc, use the appropriate sized pistons and rings etc, and then tweak THAT size for power via compression, stroke, and RPM for your intended purpose? Considering asphalt roads are going to be history, like sub-Dollar/gallon gasoline, we need vehicles well suited to the repeated bumps and lower speeds of concrete slab pavement. A 400cc is fast enough. Those bigger 650cc motors are not useless, btw. Not at all. They're going to be great in kit cars, powering modern Fiat 500 equivalents. Maybe we can call them Chrysler 650's? After all, Fiat bought Chrysler when they were sold from Mercedes for drastically underperforming in all markets. We don't have a Big 3 anymore. We have a big 2. Ford and GM, and both are having so many recalls for safety I am glad I don't own their stocks. At least, I hope I don't.

 

32 HP is how much old English and Italian 1960's convertibles ran. They were deadly slow, but roads were crap and their economy was 60 mpg. No exotic materials. They weren't very safe in a crash, but 60 mpg.

 

Considering the new Elio Motors is essentially the English Triumph Triple motor that got water cooled and made into the Geo Metro and Suzuki Swift engines, and the whole car goes for $6800 new, that's actually a reasonable price for the utility, with 84 mpg. And a roof. And a door lock. And ABS brakes. I doubt it has Air Conditioning, but I can live with that in exchange for that roof and wiper for rainy day driving. And they are cheap, so you aren't a snob if you own one. Not like say, a Tesla S at $65K. Or even a Smart Car, which is $18K out the door. The Elio is less than half that.

 

I kinda hope that Confederate Cycles continues their post-Katrina rebuilding and recovers their 375-Triple patent and starts making that for $5-6K. That engine has a lot of potential for a bike or an ultralight car. I also hope that Cleveland Cycle Werks continues their development of their own engine and would consider upgrading to 400cc on their existing setup. That is the one-size-fits-all for bike engines. Even in a single, if it is counterbalanced, it would allow owners to just ride and not yearn for more power. We understand Tim the Toolman Taylor was making a point about snobbery in his famous redneck punchline: "More Power!" It was his equivalent of "Hold my beer" or "Hey Bubba! Watch this!" Those two phrases have lead to more emergency room visits in America than any others. And yes, Rednecks really do say that. Its like the Injury/Death Flag warning. "We should split up to search this creepy old house. I'm sure nothing will happen."

So yeah, I'm interested in this ideal bike engine size, and I'm interested in the Elio motors trike. I think it has long term value, provided it can be repaired easily enough. And I really do think, that in modern America with CNC and all those out of work automotive engineers forcibly retired from Detroit's plants, somebody should be working on this. Because it is sensible and needs to happen.