New motorcycles come out, new horsepower claims are made, but how can you be sure everything is on the up and up? In the auto world, Toyota and Honda have had to readjust their horsepower numbers after running their engines through the stricter SAE standards, the Toyota Camry, for instance, fell from 210hp to 190, a pretty sizable drop. Domestic cars from GM, Ford and Chrysler, though, actually stayed the same or went up. Interesting.
This comes on the heels of the recent Yamaha R6 rpm issue. Yamaha, when the R6 was first being introduced, claimed a redline of 17,500rpm, however, when the bikes actually got into customer’s hands and went on the dyno, they redlined at 16,200. Yamaha had several explanations for it but the end result was that Yamaha has agreed to repurchase the R6 from customers who feel they were deceived and they have also removed all mention of the 17,500rpm redline from their website and advertising. Yamaha admits the 17,500 number was incorrect. They have also removed all reference to horsepower numbers which were also clearly there before, I even wrote about that.
The numbers may not make a difference in the real world under most any conditions except all out competition but it raises the issue of credibility. Did they intentionally do this to gain some competitive advantage or just do what they’ve always done.
This year the ZX-14 is coming out but how much horsepower does it make? It’s the “most powerful motorcycle Kawasaki has ever made.” How powerful is that? What’s the number? Motorcycle companies sometimes clearly state the engine horsepower but sometimes it’s all vague and hazy. When you get into this sort of advertising where you clearly aim to make a statement based on a number, tell us what it is.
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Prester John says
And how about the numbers that DO make a difference in the real world? Is it too much to ask for accurate speedometers, odometers and fuel gages?
Tom
todd says
Horsepower doesn’t tell me anything any way. We need a better number to go by. Maybe take the peak torque multiplied by the RPM spread where torque is at least 30% of peak, divided by weight, times the coeficient of drag, divided by the number of gears, times the average percentage ratio change between gears (x 100), divided by the overall gear reduction in top… Until all these factors are considered I don’t think any number will tell us if one bike is faster/quicker than the other. Until then, look at HP ratings as what they are; marketing fluff.
-todd
Fred says
From my experience, you cant even expect two dynojets to give you the same reading. The correction software is the issue in my opinion. Magazine tests from the west coast show the 450 mx 4 strokes at around 50 horsepower or so but my friends dyno would show less than 40 corrected so either they are testing uncorrected or there are other correction programs being used. Harley used to claim a 5% increase in hp and torque every year. If this were true they would have been making 200 horsepower a long time ago. Botom line is that you cant trust an oems horsepower figures. They are about as accurate as their dry weight numbers.
Dodgy says
Got to agree on the irrelevance of the relative figures (thanks Todd). The trouble with bikes is that Hp don’t count for nuthin’. In the sixtys NSU built a streamliner with a 125cc engine that did about 125Mph (200K’s), and 50Hp manx Norton’s with dustbin fairings were doing 250K’s way back. Drag is the big limiter, not power.
And even with ‘normal’ bikes, does it really matter except in a straight line?
The rider is the key, I’ve been spanked by an RG250 on a GSXR750, and (since I learned to ride) have spanked a ZX9R on an SV650S (while I had a pillion), and I’m sure Rossi would have spanked me on a Vespa…
But numbers sell…
And maybe race results don’t anymore?
Even though the Ducatis are kicking butt in WSB (considering their on-paper limitations, people are buying Japanese Litrebikes like they aren’t going to make them anymore…