Tuesday, June 16, 2015

What is faster: Cars vs Bikes

For eons car drivers and bike riders have been at war with each other over which is the fastest, the car or the motorbike. All one has to do is that a look at youtube and you'll see a plethora of car vs bike videos and then look at the comments section to see tons of arguments raging. There's been magazine shootouts between cars and bikes and even top gear dabbled a couple of times with bikes.




There are many technical arguments either way for which is the better machine. But if you go straight to the top of both sports like F1 and MotoGP it's pretty clear that the F1 car completely creams the bike in every way except straight line acceleration.

Lets examine a circuit like Jerez, Spain for example and the fastest race lap times there as follows
Formula 1 = 1:23"135 Heinz Harald Fretzen 1997
MotoGP = 1.39"565 Jorge Lorenzo 2013
WSBK = 1.41.691 Tom Sykes 2013

It's pretty clear the F1 car wins hands down by a whopping 16 seconds. Not really a contest here.

Here's a short video from Top Gear Australia's lap of Eastern Creek with F1 car(piloted by Mark Webber of F1) vs V8 Supercar(piloted by V8 supercar champ Jamie Whincup) vs Honda fireblade street bike (Piloted by Casey Stoner). The F1 cleans up but Casey does an impressive job of not getting killed by the  car drivers with a ton of steel bearing down on him. Note: that a Street bike Honda fireblade is nothing like a MotoGP machine it's only down about 100 hp and about 50kg heavier. Just goes to show an $16K street bike is as good as a $500,000 V8 supercar and I've seen the extended version of this from Top Gear and Casey waved the car by with his foot out on the final lap, so the F1 and V8 went through, he could have held out the V8 easily, but it was a car show after all.





One of the biggest bonus's for the cars is that they have so much more rubber on the road than the bike they can out corner and out brake motorcycles. They can brake later and turn and corner faster. Cars have what about 30-40 odd inches of rubber on the road if not more.

The arguments on the bikes side is that they are lighter and have a higher power to weight ratio making them out accelerate just about anything. They have high levels of cornering performance that is only surpassed in the car world when you start to spend shit loads of dollars. The bikes are limited by only having a small contact patch on the road with only about 1 inch of rubber in contact with terra firma.

With only an inch of rubber on the ground at any one time any sort of slip or slide can put you down the road faster than you can say "another beer please"

Most bikes in the real world are fairly standard with maybe a pipe here and a power commander module there which is good enough to outclass most road going cars. Although I have seen a few hot cars that have over 1000bhp and they really wipe the floor with a standard bike. If you look at the costs involved I'd say the bike wipes the floor price wise with the car. Here's a vid of a 1056HP car vs a 182HP R1. This is a seriously fast car, but I still can't help but feel that dollar for dollar, pound for pound that the bike would be much more fun.




Then there are some bike lovers out there that the power of a Hayabusa is just not enough and they feel the need to tinker with it, just so it will go a little faster. Like how fast? How about 500HP and 350kmh. Yes that's fast especially when you see the chase bike doing 300kmh and getting left for dead.



That Clarkson wanker is a known bike hater unlike Captain Slow who has several bikes and loves them. Well Jeremy Clarkson I'm proud to wear "rubber trousers" on my motor bicycle, you fucking git oh and by the way the BMW S1000RR has one of the fastest lap times around your shabby little airport goat track.

My preference is and always has been for bikes. Sure cars are fast, sometimes even faster, but in my experience in the real world, my bike is fast enough to blow most cars into the weeds and also heaps of fun in the twisties and at the same time cheaper to operate than any high performance car.

The final word

Personally I don't really care for who's fastest, maybe 10 years ago I could have but not now. I'm happy enough doing an occasional track day to settle my need for speed. Lastly but not least there is nothing and I mean nothing in the car world that can match the feeling of being cranked over at 170 kmh only inches from the ground with your knee on the deck, scraping the tarmac. Simply exhilarating, the adrenaline rush is unbelievable. Phillip Island and Sydney Motorsports Park have bits of my knee sliders on the tarmac to prove it. Dream on car lovers until you've had your knee on the deck at high speed you have no idea, its the equivalent of sex on wheels..........



12 comments:

  1. I am not much of a speed freak so I don't care either way on which is faster.

    But I do think motorcycles make the road much more enjoyable (weather permitting)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Speed isn't for everyone, and from what I've see not everyone should speed. It can be fun but fraught with danger. Thats it's appeal. Agreed on the fact bikes are way much more fun.

      Delete
  2. Cool blog man. Totally agree with you. I happen to like Clarkson except when he bags bikes - if he gave a top sportsbike a go he'd be blown away.

    Absolutely bang on about the experience of riding - it's why we do it! I'd still love a lambo but it ain't gonna happen unless they come down to bike prices...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers mate, this blog was brought to you by the power of Alcohol and stupidity, probably in equal doses. Dang straight about the riding. Its the best....

      Delete
  3. Last paragraph hurt my brain.

    Ever been in a drift car throwing a 200+ km/h entry into a corner?

    Do that and tell me there's NOTHING in the car world that can match the feeling of a bike.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your brain probably hurt because it can't comprehend the statement which still holds true.

      Next time your drifting into that bend at 200km/h try sitting on the roof and then you might be getting close......

      Delete
    2. Hahah car hater spotted. You're saying bikes are fun, well then tell me, is it fun when some $50K track car smokes you out by 10 seconds on a track?

      Delete
    3. Never happened bud, 50K eh I could buy 5 bikes for that money...

      Delete
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    ReplyDelete
  5. Choosing bikes over cars have many reasons. Mobility and portability is the thing that makes the difference between both of them. Thanks for sharing such a nice article about this topic.

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