Sportbike Wallpapers: Kawasaki Ninja India

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Kawasaki Ninja India

In my previous posts here and elsewhere I note that highway-safe motorcycle fuel economy hovers around 35-50mpg no matter what the bike is. Yeah, it's crazy, but true. It's a situation that has always seemed lame to me. 250cc to 1200cc --- all tend to get the same fuel economy---hardly any better than a car---with basically none of the utility! Even the scooter versions of these bikes get that same kind of mileage!

On a per person basis this makes a solo moto half as thrifty as a minivan with 4 people in it. And if you want to haul anything, well, today's motos don't apply, not for the modest ones anyway. Trailers are only available for the big "retired people" cruisers, oddly.

I've also long noted that in moto media there is basically ZERO MENTION of fuel economy. Or that it's given short shrift---"Dude, it gets good mileage, too!" with few or low numbers mentioned. The moto world is all about "performance." What baloney. That is, if a new moto is now more "efficient" or "aero" the media will report that the bike will "now top out at 220mph rather than last year's 200mph" and won't even mention its fuel economy. Meaningful? NO! Hardly any rider uses even half the performance of most modern motos. Same goes for cars. All that power is wasted. Yep! Sure, one can goose it a little here and there to feel a little pep but normal users don't use hardly any performance potential in modern motos and cars, at least not very often. They could all use MUCH SMALLER engines and not notice a difference in any meaningful way. A basic car or moto package can easily deliver all the performance any user could want. But, whatever, small doesn't seem to equal much better fuel economy in my review of the scene...