I ride a 390 duke but recently had a CBF600 on hire. Nearly double the horse power.
My duke is slower with a pillion but not as bad as I thought, whereas lower down in the rev range on the Honda its insane how sluggish it feels. Is that something to do with torque? Are torquier bikes better for pillions, because of the weight needs more “power” in the wheel?
Yes, especially when that torque is spread over a wider range of RPM’s
Torque is all about how much load an engine can cope with, think cars towing caravans. Not to be confused with bhp which is how fast an engine can accelerate, think 0-60 times here.
Am I misunderstanding what you are saying? Are you saying the Honda was more affected by the pillion? This would surprise me in absolute terms in that the Honda has more torque and bhp to start with and is also a heavier bike so ought to feel less affected by a pillion. In relative terms this makes a bit more sense, the Honda on paper is a quicker bike so you may notice the difference more than on the KTM which has less feel of acceleration to lose?
The other thing that can make a bike feel sluggish with a pillion is the preload adjustment at rear. If you wind this up a bit it could help. I’ve seen people really hustle with a pillion on the back and in all honesty I just can’t do that. I don’t carry a pillion often but when the girlfriend is on the back I really don’t enjoy pushing on in the same way or throwing it about through traffic
Torque definitely makes it easier for me when giving someone a lift. You don’t have to rev the engine as hard to pull away which makes for a smoother ride for everyone.
Jetstream of this parish.
I’ve seen advanced police/intelligence riders two up on a riding course, that was quite impressive
It helps if you’ve got an experienced pillion passenger. You can work together in, er, tandem.
Indeed, and the type of experience is important.
My daughter and my partner are the same height and probably similar weights now but it’s a world of difference which one rides pillion with me. My daughter has been on the back of my pedal-bike since she was a baby and graduated to the back of my motorbike aged seven. She has grown up as a pillion and is completely at ease, I can ride like she is not there. If it wasn’t for her constant babbling in the intercom I could forget she is with me. We never knock lids.
My partner on the other hand is a motorcyclist herself and obviously makes different road judgments to me. I can feel her doubting my decisions. Despite riding as smoothly as I know, we always end up knocking lids. I certainly never forget she is on board.
Two up intelligence plod?
Trying to increase the IQ per bike to reach an acceptable level?
Curtis
Two up intelligence plod?
Trying to increase the IQ per bike to reach an acceptable level?
Bwaaahahaha
God knows what the intelligence/plod do it for but our manager blagged a course just in case he had to run one of us about after an accident where we weren’t injured
NO thats right the Honda seemed slower even in absolute terms! It took so long to “wind up” whereas the little DUke gave me the power instantly.
WIth a pillionon the duke it just affected acceleration, whereas on the Honda it made it feel like it would never get going!
you are comparing a twin with at inline 4 though. so power on the twin will come quicker
BHP isnt how fast an engine can accelerate
BHP is how much resistance an engine can produce measured by trying to brake the engine
HP is how much power an engine can produce,
You can have a high output engine that is totaly sluggish from tickover to its powerband & will rev up alot slower then a mildly tuned engine
thats more to do with varing factors like cam timing, ect
My point was Torque should not be confused with Power.
Brake Horse Power = Horse Power + load. The difference is in the conditions in which they are measured. Horse Power is measured at the road wheel with the engine in situ taking into account the load put on the engine by the transmission, water pump, alternator etc. Brake Horse Power is measured at the flywheel without that load. BHP is a theoretical measurement because the conditions under which it is calculated will never be met once the engine is fitted to a vehicle.
