They say power is everything, but I do not completely believe in it. Yes, power is important and power is something that counts a lot, but you cannot always measure everything with it. The same power that can give you everything can also corrupt you more quickly than you can even realize. But enough with the philosophy for now. It is now time to talk about power in terms of our bikes. We all know and boast of the power our bikes make. Yes, it is a unit to measure how fast our bike can go but then it is not always everything when it comes to deciding if the bike with the most power is always the best bike. But still I am going to talk today as to why I feel that a bike with more power is better according to me and why I would like or prefer a bike with a lot of power in it.First of all one has to know that the value of power of the bike is completely dependent on the torque of the bike. Yes, the torque figure is the one that decides the power of the bike. Whatever the power figure that you see on the spec sheet, it is the calculated power using the formula:
HP = TORQUE x RPM ÷ 5252
But this figure that we get is not the final thing as the actual power transmitted to the wheel after all the mechanical losses and heat losses is quite less. That is the actual power figure one should really consider.But then the question remains as to why I love bikes with more power? The answer to this question is really simple. The engines with more power are quite relaxed at lower speeds. They chug along at good speeds at lower RPMs and that means for a much relaxed ride both for you and the bike. Consider this as a case. You have a bike that does not produce much power and another that does. The bike with less power when you chug along in the city at the speed of say 30-40 kmph, the bike is just fine in its comfort zone, but take the bike on the highway and there is where all the issue creeps in, increase the speed up to 60 and that is still okay, but go on to 80 and there will immediate rise in vibrations and the engine will be all stressed up.
Now take a similar case, for a bike with loads of power in it, riding in the city it will feel like a cakewalk since the bike will be using up less than 20 percent of the bike’s capacity. But go out on the highway and speeds of something like 80-100 will be done by the bike with such ease, you will not even feel the rumble or much of a difference or not even any sign of stress from the bike’s engine. And even after that you know that the bike can do more than that which is always a good thing.Now remember one thing that with so much power your bike can travel way faster than even you could handle maybe, but that always does not mean that you should go fast. It is there just for the occasional spirited day or a track day if you happen to do that. But for the rest of the times you should always stick to your guns and ride sanely. Just remember that having more power only means your bike can cruise at lower RPMs and you can have a comfortable and relaxed ride.
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So make sure to ride safe always and remember what Spiderman’s uncle once said, “With great power comes great responsibility” and here with so much power in hand you become responsible for yourself and also others on the road around you. So stick your head in the game, use proper riding gear and have fun riding. Because having all that power on hand is fun, but it can also be a lot dangerous if not managed properly.
By: Pratik Patole