The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

I've always thought why are'nt bike mpg's a lot better than cars, they seem to be about the same, if anything cars seem to be better than bikes these days, take for example a fairly big car like the Peugeot 508 it has an mpg of 67 whereas in general any big bike will struggle to get anything near that, ok the Peugeot is a diesel but still, the car is a lot heavier, so why dont bike engines get better mpg's compared to cars ?

uhm... huh?

My PCX150 clears 100mpg every time. There are SOME cars that can get into the 50's for mpg. The claimed mpg from manufacturers is almost always way off under normal driving habits.

The vehicles that do end up in the hybrid / electric category are almost always significantly under-powered, but their efficiency is very high.

I will agree that when considering power ratio / size you could say that cars are more efficient in terms of produced power. I doubt you could hook up a bike's engine to a vehicle of equal weight and get it to do... well, anything really.

But no matter, you've got to understand that vehicles have MUCH more room under the hood for larger, more efficient parts... bikes just don't have this luxury.

Bigger bikes can do better than cars, the NC range from Honda can easily achieve 80mpg.
But the typical plastic missile cbrfzgxsrrzzzz won't because it isn't designed to.

I compare my VT1300 Honda Interstate to my Nissan Versa sedan.
VT-------------------Versa
44-------------------41 avg mpg
2---------------------5 passengers
+5-------------------+8 trip comfort
+20-----------------+6 Fun factor
$.076----------------$.081 MY cost/mi (fuel, oil, tires, etc)
Stop for fuel with auto, maybe goto restroom, then go.
Stop for fuel with bike, meet a new person, have friendly chat, do a couple dance steps and say excuse me because I really gotta pee.

My family sleeps while I drive the car and I fight trying to stay awake.
2 wheels keep me awake, let me enjoy, and meet lots of good friends. Sometimes get wet, but still better than auto.

Also remember that imp mpg are different from us mpg. The gallon is a different size.

Scottish wrote:I've always thought why are'nt bike mpg's a lot better than cars, they seem to be about the same, if anything cars seem to be better than bikes these days, take for example a fairly big car like the Peugeot 508 it has an mpg of 67 whereas in general any big bike will struggle to get anything near that, ok the Peugeot is a diesel but still, the car is a lot heavier, so why dont bike engines get better mpg's compared to cars ?

Mpg vs cars isn't really an issue. It's more the miles you get out of tyres.

Darkside!!!!!!

A lot of bikes have huge engines. They're typically designed for fun too, so they're tuned for more power and therefore more fuel consumption. Take for example the Goldwing. It has more displacement than my car.

Aerodynamics come into play too -- pushing ANYTHING regardless of weight up to speed takes a certain minimum amount of energy. If designers minimized the resistance to wind with aero fairings, they could easily double the gas mileage of most bikes. It's expensive to make big fairings though, and most people prefer more naked looking bikes, so here we are -- with ridiculously powered bikes that have terrible aerodynamics.

Time for a lesson in history. The first Honda car was a car with a modified motorcycle engine. The car was a CVCC, which represented the engine displacement. The shifter was in the middle of the dash area. It was a manual. Since people could not pronounce it, Honda changed the name to Civic. I had a friend who had one of the first ones. It was not popular but the gas mileage was unbelievable. He took that engine apart many times just for the fun of it. We could squeeze 4 people into it but it would bog down with so much weight. Two people could go all over the place and never run out of gas, but the car was so ugly that it was cute. The shifter was in an odd place too. Soooo, putting a bike engine in a car will work, but when that one came out it did not require a catalytic converter, which will cut your mileage down. I also read a story about someone in England who put a Hayabusa engine in a small car and used it to drag race. I bet that was a blast too.