and niether do yami, kawi, or suzuki 4 bangers. That's why you have to bang 'm down a few gears and rev the snot out of them to really go anywhere in a hurry.

a 600cc honda inline 4 makes half the torque (if that) of a harley big twin, but revs twice as high. A harley will EAT a sportbike off the line, but it redlines at 6k, newer 600's redline around 14k or more. by the time the harley is bout ready to shift, the inline 4 is in the upper revs and is GONE.

It all comes down to what you want, and how you want to ride. I prefer high torque, b/c I don't like to have to be sitting at stupid high RPM all the time to have power on tap. Some people like screaming along at 10k+ RPM. To each thier own. I've always prefered twins (NOT harley's, just using that as an example) b/c I like to be able to just yank the throttle and GO at lower rpm. Twins tend to make more low-midrange power, inline 4's are RPM motors, you have to be up in the revs to REALLY get them to go.

HP is a byproduct of torque production (and vise versa)....remember that class. The only way to get higher HP with low torque is thru higher rev's. The japanese have damn near perfected that (ever seen F1 cars?) but they still get beat from time to time.

twins are more fun, and easier to ride fast. not too long ago the AMA superbike class was limited to 750cc 4 bangers, but twins were allowed 1000cc's, and ducati was KILLING everyone. Not only b/c of the displacement advantage but b/c ducati (a long time ago) figured out how to make a twin damn near rev to the point of an inline 4. (desmo valves=no valve float). you know the japanese took notice when honda started racing the RC51, switching from the v4 RC45 to the Vtwin. suzuki tried (and failed) with the TL1000...

yamaha didn't do much, and kawi kept developing a turd called the ZX7.

Not bad typing for a drunk guy...lol

there in lies your history/technical lesson for the day.

for the record, the most fun I've ever had on a sporty type motorcycle was on a Honda. A VTR1000 (superhawk) to be exact. Wouldn't be competitive on the track, but godamn if it wasn't fun riding on the street.

 

Skr00z, what you typed is one of the biggest reasons I left the sportbike world. I've had several different bikes that were all 4 cylinders and none of them touched any of the twins I've ridden.

I used to have this book outlining the evolution of superbikes and remember reading something about the two valve twins that they used to use with the reallllllllly narrow and deep cylinders.

 

by that I think you mean REAL long strokes with small bores? Yeah, that would (generally) be torquey. Oversquare (long stroke, small bore) motors tend to have higher torque at lower RPM, undersquare (short stroke with a big bore) make less torque but can rev alot higher. Kinda like comparing an r6 to a harley. most of the stock-ish harley big twins make in the 80hp range, but more torque than HP, where an r6 might make say 115hp, but with less than half of that torque. Now, if harley would get off thier ass and realize that pushrods suck, and limit rpm, they COULD make good motors, but they're stuck on the "character" of the motors.

I work on american bikes all day, I hate it. I appreciate the dedication, but c'mon, it's been over 100 years time to move on!

btw, I didn't stop riding sportbikes b/c of any 4 cyl vs. 2 cyl thing, I stopped because I have little to no self control on a 150+hp motorcycle. If it could wheelie, I would wheelie it, , on top of the waaay too fast corner exits, and I got myself arrested one too many times, lol. Nowadays I'm happier building bikes than riding them. Guess I'm getting old, lol.

 

I can't even hop on a bike with a crouched position without my hip locking up from the injuries I suffered in wrestling.

 

Sounds like option two would be the biggest reason to me.

 

Yeah, those injuries are why I constantly find myself in a tautological argument on why I don't like sportbikes. If I told myself I liked them I would end up sulking all the time.

 

hahaha Nice!

 

ok ok, I'll look outside of the two 650's. I knew about the yamaha fz's but they look a lil funny to me. So unless I can get a sweet deal one, I'll probably look else where.

 

talk them down, http://norfolk.craigslist.org/mcy/1478966543.html

 

Pink 848 sir.