Motorcycles and Fuel Efficiency

The transition from riding horses to riding motorcycles has taken place in about two hundred years. But even before the development of the motorcycle, was the development of an engine that could generate power without a hamster wheel inside.

The first non-animal power engines were steam engines. The first practical steam engine, the Newcomen, invented in 1712, needed 30 pounds of coal per horsepower-hour. If my motorcycle was that inefficient, I would need 2000 lb of coal to get to my mother's house on the 401. The trip usually takes about an hour and a half. But wait a second! If my motorcycle is dragging along 2000 lb of fuel when I start out, I'm actually going to need a bigger engine, and bigger tires etc. Meaning that by the time I'm finished, I will need even more fuel. That's why Newcomen engines were used only at fixed locations - next to coal mines.

James Watt came up with an improvement in 1769 that would required only 500 lb of coal to make my motorcycle trip, a significant improvement, and you would think hey, that's good enough. Sadly no because I forgot to mention that the engine itself was also 2000 pounds. But at least the James Watt engine could be operated economically at fixed locations that were not actually coal mines.

Improvements in precision casting and machining, and more development of engine design got the number down to about 150 pounds of coal by 1850, which was good enough that trains and ships could use steam engines to transport other things than coal.

The internal combustion engine came along, reducing both the engine weight and the amount of fuel needed. Experiments with internal combustion date back to the seventeenth century, using gunpowder as an energy source to drive a pump. But in 1860 the Lenoir engine, looking similar to a steam engine except using expanding burning gas, was built. The 1800's had such a flurry of inventions that it is hard for me to follow any pattern. Eventually the four stroke gasoline engine emerged from a bunch of patents and cross pollination from various countries. And for the last 100 years we have had motorcycles in a more or less recognizeable form.

A number of simultaneous inventions had to take place. For example, the rubber pneumatic tire was invented, and it is so good that nothing comes close even today. We should be impressed at the brilliance, originality, and the boldness of the ideas put forward during the last 250 years at least. I am sure that today we are still working at improving things, but unfortunately we seem to be going the wrong way in improving efficiency, as though it didn't matter any more. Well, yes it still does matter. We need to stop discovering ways of wasting fuel, and concentrate on renewable energy sources. I'd like to see the ingenuity and progress again like we used to have.