A collection & comparison of the "Power to Weight ratios" of the "Made in India" motorcycles.. in 2011
In a very simplistic understanding, more engine "power" usually means "more speed".. but in real life scenarios the weight of the vehicle also has to be taken into consideration.
To compare our "made in India bikes" by their "Power to Weight" ratios, I have compiled a list. This list would give an idea as to which bike would feel "Zipper" on the road when compared to other bikes.
The Honda CBR250R walks away with the (made in India) bike with the highest power to weight ratio.
But the list also throws in many surprises.. like how the Passion is one of the lowest when it comes to power to weight ratio.
Also how both the Pulsar 135LS and the Discover 150 has a better power to weight ratio than the Pulsar 150..
..how the Hero Honda Achiever and the CBZ Xtreme has near identical power to weight ratios..!!
For those who do not have an idea how the "Power to Weight Ratio" numbers are calculated, I will post about it in my next post along with a comprehensive explanation about the "Power to Weight Ratio" concept.
The explanation behind the calculation of the "Power to Weight" ratio has been posted in this post along with the updated [2012] list..
P.S: I have taken care to calculate the max. power of each model in "Ps". Kindly point out if you come across any blooper from my side in the above calculations and also in the max. power / kerb weight figures.
You can also point out if I have missed any current model from the above list.
Related Posts
- What is the difference between Power and Torque?
- How to physically visualize "Torque"
- What is ABS (Antilocking Braking System)? In Simple English
- What really is engine knocking?
Disclaimer:
This is to remind that the Views or Opinions in the blog are entirely mine unless explicitly stated. The Views and Opinions published in this blog should in no way be related to any other person or organization associated -- directly or indirectly -- with me.
17 Comments:
I was just about to publish the same article :) Nice comparo chart bro!!
@Satadal.. Don't you think another list of such type should be made which also adds an average Indian rider's weight(say 68 kg) is added to the weight of the bike? Because, as per your list, a Glamour PGM Fi will 'mathematically' feel 'less zippier' than a CD Dawn.. (Same is the case of a Thunderbird and a P135 :) ) but during actual riding(due to added rider weight), you will get results contradicting to above maths. Because this is where actual higher horsepower will come to the rescue of the heavier bikes.(Assuming almost equal gear ratios in all bikes i.e. which clearly is not the case)
P.S.: I weigh nowhere close to the aforementioned 'Average Indian Rider Weight'. :) The above figure is only for calculation sake.
Power to weight ratio is Ps per ton right? So the formula would be Max Power(in PS) * 1000/Kerb Weight (in Kgs)... yea i get it.. but what i don't get is how power and torque are distributed through the rev range. are different settings available for doing so? does sprocketing help?
Explains why P135LS is so well received, it has higher power weight ratio when compared with 150cc competition, apart from RTR160, which results in class-demolishing performance.
@Anant, yes, the above calculation is just to give an idea about the bike/motorcycle's power to weight ratio..
Power and Torque are interrelated and gearing/sprocketing also makes a lot of difference to how the power/torque is distributed to the wheels.
@Sajal & Veerendra, thanks guys
where is yamaha R15
@Anant:
Adding in the weight of a rider won't change anything, because the same weight would be added to all bikes. The final number is just a ratio, so the bikes won't change position on the list. The other thing is that there is no such thing as an "average" rider. I weigh around 96kg, and my bro-in-law weighs just over 50kg. I'm not going to get much performance out of any of these bikes (which is why I'm buying a Bandit 1250), whereas my bro-in-law could have fun on just about any of them. Adding in a rider's weight would just confuse things for me, since I would have to remove that amount anyway to figure out the bike's specifications, which I can then add my own weight to, to decide whether the bike will do what I want it to. Most motorcycle magazines will ignore riders, and just list the weight of the bike as dry weight and weight with full tank of gas and all other fluids (no accessories like luggage).
Buddy, you missed the suzuki slingshot in the list. Also, hunk and xtreme power is 14.2 bhp, not 14.4. Also, per honda website, Dazzler is 14 bhp and unicorn is 13 bhp.
Most of the time we wont have full tank petrol. But for kerb weight, full tank petrol is considered. If ratio is calculated with kerb weight, it is a bit unfair for bikes like pulsar and gs150r, which have bigger capacity fuel tank.
Assuming each bike has 5 liters fuel and 1 liter petrol weighs 800 grams, what would be the power-to-weight ratio?
@above,
For uniformity, the power figures of all bikes have been rated in "Ps", therefore "14.2 bhp" when converted into "Ps" appears as "14.4 Ps".
Again for the same of uniformity, one has to take into consideration the "Kerb Weight", it will be chaotic if one calculates the Power to Weight Ratio for varying amonunts of fuel.
Yes, the Slingshot was missed. Thanks for pointing that out, will update it soon.
Yes, understood, you have mentioned power in PS. I thought it was bhp. And that comparison is really good work by you.
Using kerb weight for calculation, bikes with bigger fuel tank (like pulsar and gs150r) are put at a disadvantage.
If we consider just 5 liter petrol in each bike, it would mean fuel weight of 4 kg, and plus oil weight of 1 kg, so total 5 kg can be added to dry weight of each bike and ratios calculated uniformly, without disadvantage to any bike.
Why not include scooters Access, Activa, Wego, Rodeo too ??
@above,
Getting the Dry weight for each bike and then addding weight for 5 Litre of fuel would need some effort. Also not every bike maker provides the Dry weight of its models.
One has to standardize / rationalize somewhere.
Why not include scooters..?? Well, I am not a scooter guy and so far have not made any post about any scooter.
Hello, dont you think it would be good to add the torque/weight ratio also.
I have never seen a torque to weight ratio, is it irrelevant?
If so, can you please explain why?
Interesting idea..
it makes sense to make such a chart but then I have always heard and come across "Power to Weight" discussions, therefore the above list
Guys please note. Here only Bhp is considered. Torque is not considered. This is a good chart, but it is only half story.
Example, here Stunner 125cc is rated above SZ-R 150cc. Both have same BHP. But SZ-R has more torque, but it is not mentioned here.
Power/BHP indicates how fast the bike acclerates. More bhp @ higher rpm indicates the bike can sustain higher speeds.
Torque/Nm indicates how easily the bike can pull loads. Bike with more torque will pull more easily with pillion weight. Also, more torque @ lower rpm means lesser gear changes.
Also, please add KTM duke and slingshot in the list.
add ninja 250r to the list or at least comment its power
very curious to know ?
Time To Renew the chart.!!!! PULSAR 200NS and Duke 200 Gonna eat CBR 250
Power-to-weight ratio doesn't really seem to indicate the acceleration or how faster is the bike unless the weight difference is really big.
Though R15 is lighter than CBR 150 (by 2 kgs) the power-to-weight ratio of latter is more. But R15 has good low end torque & so is quicker than CBR & if it can maintain the same upto say 8000-8500 rpm, it could smoke cbr. you could get a lot of work done if the engine is able to rev into the 5 digit range, that's where the CBR (Honda engines) stands apart.
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