How Do Motorcycle Engines Affect Sound?
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- Опубликовано: 3 ноя 2017
- Focus groups are asked to listen to a variety of engine sounds and choose the ones they like and the ones they dislike.
Motorcycles have every different number of cylinders that you can imagine: singles, twins, triples, fours, and at least a couple of sixes. Single-cylinder engine? Generally speaking, an uninteresting sound, like a lawnmower. British twins fired at 360 degrees-an even firing order-and made a kind of droning sound. Lovers of British twins like that sound.
Possibly a more interesting sound is made when you move those cylinders apart to make a V-twin. Now you have a difference in the firing order so there is a quiet time, then a cylinder fires, a shorter quiet time, and another cylinder fires, which is why V-twins have more like a V-8 sound. Triples usually have their crankpins at 120 degrees, and they produce a wonderful musical sound, which I have enjoyed since the first time I heard a Kawasaki H1 in 1969.
Most inline-fours have a so-called "flat" crankshaft with their crankpins at 180 degrees so the cylinders in the middle are at top dead center when cylinders one and four are at bottom dead center. As a result, the engine fires twice per revolution and the firing interval is always the same. On a high-revving engine, a flat-crank inline-four produces the famous GSX-R screech. MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi liked a 90-degree crankpin angle better than a 180 so that's what Yamaha gave him in 2004. A 90-degree-crankpin inline-four makes a throatier, more V-8-like sound.
BMW's touring six is one of the smoothest engines there is, and it also produces a very smooth sound, like that of a Jaguar inline-six or a Merlin V-12. They all have a quite civilized purr. The Honda Gold Wing is a flat-six, the aim being to have enough cylinders that they can cancel each other's shaking forces, leaving the engine smooth enough for touring.
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Развлечения
I would seriously like to understand the psyche of the 4 persons who disliked this video. Kevin is kevin, we are all fortunate to have him here.
Agreed with everything but the lawnmower pejorative. BRAAAAAAP is beautiful.
this guy is an awesome teacher with a ton of character. love his way of viewing things. I supplemented with a lot of pausing and searching RUclips for reference videos with HD sounds, man I learned a ton about motorcycle exhaust notes in the last 45 minutes! heh
KC needs his own channel! ..and different music.
Agreed... But I like this sound track... Lol
the music makes it. it's hilarious
Triples are the best sounding! Love how my Triumph sounds.
It's a joy to watch these videos. I grew up reading his articles in magazines. Thank you Kevin!
Another great one! It's not just what he says, it's the way he says it. And the way it all gets edited :)
I always notice that 600s sport bikes make louder and deeper sound. Thank you for these great videos.
Awesome vid!
I like the sounds of all types of engines. Kevin taught me why many years ago. A happy sounding engine can be any kind.
This is gold. How are there not more views.
Good information - thank you Kevin
MY bike is the best sounding bike ever. I found that out when I heard a riding buddy with the same bike and exhaust. Frs generation CBR 900RR with a full Two Brothers exhaust. Deep, not obnoxiously loud, not high pitched, not tacky. Much rather have a deep tiger growl than a screaming alley cat sound.
Would have been nice to have an engine sound accompanying each description instead of the grandpa music.
Also...didn’t you hear a T150 Triple before the Kawa Triple??
2 strokes sounds like a chainsaw but 4 stroke single sounds like BRAAAAAAAP which I really like!
Is a shame that only 317 viewers liked this video....
I agree that singles sounds like lawnmowers, but only small singles (50, 125, 250 ccm ). Put a slip on aftermarket on a big single (500-600ccm) and it gets a ton of bass and sounds very nice.
This reminds me I need to read more of his books....
While electric motorcycles make up a minor portion of sales, that situation will inevitably change, and the obvious victim will be loss of the sounds we all luv...😩😩😩.
Older Triumphs had a 360 crank but the new 1200 has a 270.
Would have liked to hear about V4 sound, and maybe a little on how the shape of the exhaust pipe itself (other than the muffler) effects the sound.
Kevin Cameron, I remember reading in a car magazine, years ago, that engines with cylinders divisible by 3 should have conical, megaphone shaped exhaust, while cylinder configurations divisible by four, should have consistent diameter exhaust, so it's interesting to me that you pointed out that Mike Hailwood's motorcycle had long-taper megaphones!
I never learned, however, if this was for better engine performance, better engine sound, or if it was just B.S.
Thanks for the reply!
Amazing, after all those years! I'd like your comments after each 2018 Moto GP races. Even about 2017 season. Please Cycle World.
P.S : Thanks Lord, Internet was invented!! In 1981 wait was long to buy Cycle World, Cycle Guide, Motorcyclist, etc.. here in Brazil. This when the magazines came. It's the past now.
Crankpin angles and multi-cylinder angular relationships are not mutually exclusive, necessarily.
i know this video is old but would lengthening or shortening the length of a down pipe/extractor/header on one side make a negative effect on performance?
No mention of horizontally opposed twins?
A short example of the sounds would have been nice
ruclips.net/channel/UC5W4P8cYkNV6pFqZVkjuXLg
...Usually the added 'music' ruins videos here, but in this case....it's acceptable.....
is that possible to turn single cylinder bike sound to 4 cylinder bike sound?
Awesome discussion, I really enjoyed it! Sound regulations really piss me off. The government needs to get its fat, overreaching fingers out of our business, and let us buy motorcycles with whatever sounds we desire.
haha you'd be free to choose your sound living on uninhabited island :D otherwise some people may dislike what you like... or even piss you off with their sounds :D
So why doesn't a 360 deg parallel twin with separate exhausts just sound like a single running at 2X thr rpm, and for that matter, why don't all even-firing engines sound more or less the same?
I have a question on why racers always blip the throttle when then start their motorcycles up. Surely it's not because they like the way it sounds?
You forgot the V4 (Tuono and new Duc)
V configured engines sound better than inline engines.
Inline engines power output is smoother.
Do V configured engines have a torque advantage over inline designed engines?
As an engine design - no. As they are typically 'tuned' - yes. Twins can't rev as high so are typically tuned - head flow capacity, cam timing, etc - to give their peak torque at a lower rpm. Hence the often talked about torque advantage.
If there is no torque advantage, as you say, then why do some MotoGP engine designers choose a V configuration over an inline configuration? Why does Yamaha use a crossplane crankshaft in their R1 inline engine?
~~~Wikipedia~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A 'big bang engine' is an engine designed so that most of the power strokes occur simultaneously or in close succession.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Most V4 engines will inherently have this.
Yamaha tries to mimic the big bang firing order with the crossplane crankshaft.
They take all the size and weight advantages of an inline engine and put a crossplane crank to take advantage of the big bang.
Power strokes occur in close succession.
Torque advantage but slightly unbalanced.
that's about the firing order and effect it has on tyres in extreme use. it's not about potential peak torque output or where that peak occur in the rpm range
the uneven firing impulse gives a handling advantage because since the power is not smoothly delivered the tire actually momentarily regains traction during the off moment where no power is delivered then loses it when the power impulse hits. Pretty counter intuitive but it is actually much better to have this uneven firing impulse + it sounds so much cooler!
You'd have to be a complete knob to change your stock exhaust, on a road bike, these days. They're beautifully designed. And, as you stated, it's the camshaft that is the over-riding factor in exhaust (engine) sound. I wish you had of expounded on the Goldwing motor, though. I love to brag about my Valkyrie :)
The weird sound track is very distracting. Why not actually let us hear the various configuration sounds? It's a lot easier to put some inane musac in the back ground.
Informative video. Turn the background music off though. Sounds like you’re on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland.
very off putting / irritating tune /instrument
I wonder why Harley couldn't patent their sound? Probably because it's not enough of an innovative step. At the end of the day, a sound would be tough to defend.
Great videos but if I was forced to listen to that music in my helmet while riding, I would look for a high cliff to jump off of so I could crash at the bottom and be put out of my misery.
That 'music' is so irritating and completely UNNECESSARY !
Had quit halfway through. Music annoying!