Comments jtd has made

Americans don't take motorcycles seriously

To Americans, motorcycles are toys, something you ride because its a nice day, not a serious transportation alternative. As such, they're all about either image/comfort (cruisers) or uncompromised performance (sportbikes). Let's talk about how they fail to measure up.

"Extremely fuel efficient?" I don't think so ... my 800cc Honda Interceptor is lucky to break 40mpg, which is awful for a modern 500 pound vehicle. But, it'll go 0-60 faster than a Ferrari -- and its pretty darn clean -- beginning in '02, this model met 2008 CARB requirements. All that's typical for a modern sport bike.

Bikes in the 350-500cc range do better and are still manufactured, but not sold in the USA. The few 125-250 models you see typically get around 70mpg, but these are strictly budget-driven designs few want if they can afford better. Surely, if there were a serious market for clean, fuel efficient commuters we'd have fuel injection, catalysts, ABS, and decent suspensions in this end of the market.

And then there are the diesel curiousities one reads about from time to time -- the Hayes diesel, which has only been built in limited quantities for military use, gets about 100mpg. Wanna guess what big time R&D budgets could do with a concept like that? We won't find out until gas costs $8-10/gallon because a bike that's slower to 60mph than an econo-box car won't sell until then.On As personal transportation becomes cheaper, the poor benefit and the climate suffers posted 1 year, 11 months ago 13 Responses