Horsepower

[postoak_imp]

I'm noticing that people have gone horsepower crazy lately. It seems 100 HP is regarded as barely adequate and approaching 200 HP seems desirable. I wonder though are such bikes really fun to ride? How can you use so much power on the street?

I think what is missing in the "fun to ride" picture for me may be caused by too much horsepower. It just isn't necessary to wind an engine up when you have too much horsepower. Or is that all wrong?

[the Ferret]

Some people seek horsepower some don't. I got rid of a 125 HP bike to get my CB and am perfectly happy with the power it has. I never use all of it anyway.

[12cb96vfr_imp]

Some people seek horsepower some don't. I got rid of a 125 HP bike to get my CB and am perfectly happy with the power it has. I never use all of it anyway.

me too, its funny my last bike had 125hp also. But, i didn't get rid of it in the normal sense, i completely destroyed it....but that's a story for another time hahaha.

I'll be honest sometimes i do miss it, every once in awhile i wish the CB had about 20 more ponies. But yes, 90% of the time the CB is perfect.

another thing i've noticed about the CB is the power is so linear and predictable that sometimes you don't realize how fast it pulls until you notice you're whizzing past cars.

[postoak_imp]

1cb96vfr - how did you use all that horsepower? The 1100 accelerates so fast that you can't even use all the gears when you accelerate quickly up to the speed limit.

[12cb96vfr_imp]

race track

[Cormanus]

There's no rational answer to your question, postoak. Humans—mostly men, I fear—have always had a bit of a yen for the biggest and the fastest. We are attracted top the bright, shiny things. Why, if you live in the city, would you buy a Porsche or an Aston Martin or a Ferrari or a Mustang or a Corvette or a CBR1000R or a ... you get the idea.

I think the answer is 'because you can' and because you want to say something like 'look what I can have'. It's also our way of replacing the brightly coloured feathers that Mother Nature denied us.

Before all the owners of these fine machines jump down my throat and tell me I'm maligning them, I accept, I do, that many people who acquire them do so because they have a genuine interest in motor cars or cycles and really enjoy the thrill of owning and using quality machines. It's fair enough. Good on you, but none of us belongs to a homogenous group.

I'm not sure that it is, as Mr Spock would have it, 'logical'. You don't need the horsepower; you don't need the speed; you don't need to support the petrol consumption; blah, blah, blah. But these high performance things are there, so people want them.

Why would you want a CB1100? It's probably bigger and heavier and more powerful that anyone really needs. My answer is that it's beautiful and I could have one so I did. Do I 'need' it? Not really.

[the Ferret]

Maybe a good question would be how much HP does one really need? If you are talking about only meeting the speed limit, solo rider, limited gear with generous amounts of time to attain that limit.. Maybe 25 or 30 hp.. Maybe even less than that considering an 80 mph speed limit like in Utah.

I know I use about 70 of the 110 rwhp on my touring bike, and about 60 of the 85 rwhp available on my CB, often less on both.

When you are in top gear running 55 mph on the CB (which equates to about 2500 rpms) you are using approx 30 hp. Getting on the freeway or passing a car you use a bit more.

[postoak_imp]

To do those things you need torque and you can get torque with less HP using gearing, and rpms, I think. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

[Pete Erickson_imp]

Some times having the most horsepower is not enough as this video shows.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Spor...ORM=VRDGAR

[Cormanus]

Dear old Hildo. I love the way he parks it against the fence and does a burn out. Poor Ricky.