Can anybody tell me what the average horsepower ratings for motorcycles are? All I can find stats on is the displacement size of the engines which isn’t what I’m looking for.
Depends what motorcycles you’re looking at. The horsepower of a 125cc moped is very different (by about a factor of 10) from that of a 1000cc sportsbike.
If you tell me what bike you’re interested in, I can probably tell you or find out for you.
Some things to note:
- Sometimes manufacturers don’t give out horsepower figures because they are sensitive about criticism for selling extremely highpowered bikes to inexperienced people
- In Australia at least, engine power is usually expressed in kilowatts
- The same bike may be tuned and setup differently in different countries to get around local emission regulations
- The variation between power levels of different bikes is probably far greater than for cars so an average figure for all bikes (if that’s what you’re looking for) is probably nonsensical
Not really interesting in a particular bike, per se, just a rough estimate of the kind of horsepower 750 CC to 1000 CC engines would have. I know that they can’t have a lot of horsepower in comparison to a car (don’t need it). I’m just kind of looking for a ballpark figure.
Sorry, got called away for a while.
Here’s a quick guide. NB: Specs and names may differ in your country
The Honda SuperBlackbird CBR1000XX produces:
Maximum Power: 112kW/9,500min
Maximum Torque: 119Nm/7,250min
The Honda CBR900RR Fireblade produces:
Maximum Power: 152PS/11,000rpm (111.8kW/11,000min-1)
Maximum Torque: 10.5kg-m/ 9,000rpm (103Nm/9,000min-1)
As a comparison the Honda Accord (Honda’s 3litre V6 family car in Australia) produces
Maximum Power 147 @ 5500
Maximum torque 265 @ 4700
Mind you, these are two extremely fast bikes. If you’re looking for figures on less sporting models I can provide too.
Also realize that manufacturers claims are usually 15% or so higher than the bike will put out on a dynometer, as you lose some power through the drivetrain.
Suzuki GSXR1000 will dyno around 145 stock(approx. 162 or so claimed at the crank)
Yamaha R1 will dyno around 138 stock(152 claimed)
I just bought a 99R1 with a full high mount exhaust, carbed, and jetted, with dyno sheets at 149.1 HP.
R1’s dry weight is claimed at 380lbs…not sure what the GSXR1000 is, I believe it is slightly higher.
I just saw a “shootout” on Speedvision between a new GSXR1000 and a new Corvette C06(both stock)
Motorcycle was turning laps on an average 8 seconds faster than the Vette could on a racetrack…beat the Vette in the 1/4 mile by over 3 seconds(low 10s vs 13s)…when they did the 0-100 and back to 0 test, the bike could accelerate to 100, then come to a full stop before the Corvette could get to 100.
Several countries in Europe have tiered liscensing, i.e. you are restricted by HP regarding your motorcycle…so some motorcycles over there have been restricted to a lower HP number(which is easy to reverse, just take off the restricting kit).
Sport Touring Chart
Cruiser Part 1
Found at Here
There is also a list in the back of motorcyclist magazine
Tuckerfan
If you are collecting numbers for a project then fine, looking at various charts and comparisons is ok but…
If you want to know how the engine makes its power that is completely differant.
Some bikes with high horsepower ratings do this by being very peaky, they do not produce much torque until you hit a certain rpm.
These are generally smaller capacity sports bikes up to 600cc.
Above this and you usually get a reasonable spread of power, which means that you can ride at higher gears and just twist the throttle to gain speed quickly, rather than have to change down one or two gears to get the rpm high and then take off at high speed.
High revving machines are genreally an exciting ride, filled with adrenalin, which is ok if you are in the mood for it, but a real pain if you want a relaxing easy ride.
What you need then is a bike that produces a lot of torque at low rpm. and often such bikes do not produce a massive amount of power in total.
The classic example of this would be the Harley, which in stock form kicks out around 65bhp, but you can stick it in top gear at 30mph and just cruise along you don’t have to rev them above 4000rpm(it get uncomfortable to do so due to vibration anyway)
It might help if you were to state what you need the information for if you are looking to help someone buy a machine or something like that.
I’ll tell ya why I’m curious. I have this crazy idea about building a steam powered motorcycle and I want to make the performance of the thing comparable to that of a gas powered bike. (After all, how cool is it if the thing runs on steam but can’t get out of its own way?) The ball park HP figures will tell me if its possible and what kinds of things I’ve got to do to get it to work, if I can.
Bah…my scanner is broke or I would scan my dyno sheets and you could see HP vs. Torque, you could see the power curve for yourself.
I’ll describe as well as I can:
This is from an older run, max HP=141.3, max Torque(ft-lbs)=76.0
at RPM:
4k:70HP, 47Ft-Lbs
5k:98HP, 53Ft-lbs
6K:104HP, 58Ft-lbs
7K:135HP,65Ft-lbs
8K:130Hp, 68Ft-lbs
9K:141Hp, 74Ft-lbs
10K:132Hp, 76Ft-lbs.
rev limited to 10,500 RPMS.
I wouldn’t think you need liter bike performance…if your bike was around 400-500 pounds, 50-60HP should be enough to make it a capable commuter…if you are thinking of a touring bike, your weight and HP demands go up.