how would you describe the character of a single?

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

How'd you describe the character of a single cylinder bike lump? I suppose to a large extent it depends on the displacement - a 125 won't have those traits that e.g. 650 will. Anyway - in general, how would you explain it?
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[arry]

'Thrummy' on the testes.

[stinkwheel]

Varies immensely depending on bore, stroke and state of tune.

Peak torque low down in the rev range? Relatively flat torque curve (although to be fair, that doesn't always follow either).

Which would make them "Lazy"?

A single could cover anything from a slope-engine panther 650 which would pull itself and sidecar out of set concrete at tickover to a CR250 that'll pull a wheelie and flip over backwards at a touch of throttle.

Vibration? Most of them are pretty vibey.

Low revving? Again , not necessarily.

Most of them are narrow compared to multi-cylinder bikes
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[MarJay]

Usually they have big flywheels to keep them going, so they are usually grunty, thumpy slow revving, but have good low end punch.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[stinkwheel]

You'd probably want to make a distinction between long and short stroke motors (under and over-square?)
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[wr6133]

Torquey low down making them quicker than expected off the mark, bit gutless as you get faster. I'm generalising though my pre-unit 350 feels very different to my unit 535 though I'd struggle to quantify exactly how they feel different in words (other than the obvious power/speed).

[Robby]

Thuddy, but you end up changing gear a lot.

[stinkwheel]

And yet the blue line is the power curve for a standard 500cc Enfield bullet. The green one is for a road tuned 612cc conversion to the same engine. (red is a race tuned motor).

So the tuned motor is actually torquey high up. No point lumping about on it unless you like the noise it makes.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Easy-X]

There's also only one carb (no balancing, easier tuning) less valves to check if 4-stroke, back-to-basics biking! You don't go into tinkering with an in-line 4 with quite the same gusto as a simple single
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[Riejufixing]

[arry]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

I'm trying to think how many singles I've actually ridden - I think it's only three, or five if I include 125s (which I don't). The three are an old i.e. original MT03, then my CRM250, then my KLX250. The MT03 was a strange bike - I felt like I had to nurse the clutch a fair bit under 20mph. Then, once able to apply some proper throttle, there was the satisfying feeling of getting 'power for free' - i.e. increasing speed while revs and engine note don't seem to change much. But it seemed to sign off a bit abruptly. Meanwhile the KLX is just flat and shit everywhere (not actually a bad thing for what I use it for - but outside of green lane type riding, you wouldn't ever really feel particularly inspired by it. to say the least). The CRM had several different sides to it - a decent "tractor factor", happy to plod and pull through mud in second; a viable road brain that seemed to work in and out of town; thirdly, a slightly bonkers frantic 2t side to it that was always a pleasant surprise.

None of the three bikes is really very much alike apart from for that single cylinder.
____________________
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[stinkwheel]

[pepperami]

My Bultaco 250 Pursang was just nuts! and as strong as an Ox , from low down revs, all the way to insane top whack .

A friend lent me a DR 350 for 11 months and that was a proper thumper and a fugger to start!
It was cracking for the back lanes around here.

My little DR 125 was a buzzy little thing.
Ditto my little CG 125 of lovelyness.

One carb, no electronical nonsense and all were easy to work on
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[Keithy]

“Fires every lamppost”

My Dad, many, many years ago.

[Robby]

This thread is exposing the key problem I have had with singles for years.

Do I like them? Yes. Tends to always have one in the garage, keep getting tempted by other ones more than any other engine type.

Can I put it into words? Not really. And if I really try, I just make them sound shit.

[Tdibs]

My Dr650 is some kind of farm machinery. Loud, clattery, and a bunch of fun.
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Previous : 09 Vanvan 125| 02' Sv650s || Current: 1999 Xj600n | 1992 DR650 RSE | 2005 Fazer 1000

[RhynoCZ]

The XBR that I ride, has a 498.00 ccm, short stroke, 4 valve head, single spark plug 33kW/43Nm engine with single 40mm CV carburetor with acceleration pump (the carb is huge!). It does Ton-up worthy 100 mph quite effortlessly, tops out at 106.3mph with the standard gearing. The 4th gear is 1:1 ratio. So, I guess having a shorter final drive gear ratio would push it even further (the CB-1 had definitely higher top speed with shorter final drive gear ratio). Not that I would need higher top speed.

Now, compared to an in-line four and twin cylinder four stroke engines (I've never riden a triple cylinder), every throttle input on the ''big single'' is rather dramatic and aggressive with very strong engine braking. I don't really use the brakes that much, when cruising around. The rear wheel will lock up if you are careless, though. You just don't spin the engine up to gain the torque. It's always there, very low down, mind you these engines don't rev that high up.

I also enjoy the sound the engine makes. Acceleration, high revs, closing the throttle at high speed, or just listening to it at idle... love it, especially when I kick start it. Not as lovely as a long stroke engine would sound, but still nice and it is more user friendly. When you are in let's say 4th gear doing 30mph and open the throttle, the engine doesn't care and with a V8 like rumble acclerates the bike forwards, with no hesitation what so ever. By the way, car alarms love the engine rumble. The engine is great in city traffic, crap on the highway (vibrations). My ZX7R was the other way around, horrible in city, amazing at high speed (legal) riding.

Also, listen to this: https://youtu.be/rhQUWTk7kDU?t=18

TL; DR: Big singles are all the drama without the triple digits speed. I enjoy mine very much. The fuel economy of the XBR is also very nice, compared to my previous bike (ZX7R). I wouldn't travel far on the XBR though, after awhile the vibrations get tiring. But, my bike might be missing some bits. I still find missing stuff all the time. It's 1987 bike after who knows how many owners, so it's not ideal, but I'm working on it.

TL; DR II: Just get one (again), if you won't like it, sell it and buy something else. Although, if I had to commute or cover long distances in one sitting, I'd buy a four cylinder instead, the ''big single'' is a great short blast around bike.

#singlesaregreatinsmalldoses

EDIT: I bet modern single cylinders are way smoother and higher revving than the 30+ years old ones.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Shaft]

I bought my XL600 thinking it would make a great allrounder, maybe even good for a bit of touring, on the basis you could probably load it up the eyeballs and it wouldn't notice the weight.

It turned out to be not as torquey as I was expecting, so you had to rev it to get anywhere, which was fine because it revved up pretty sharpish, except it's comfortable operating range was quite small - below a certain point it didn't do much, then you got to where it was producing, but quite quickly it all turned into a boat load of vibration.

I would like to say it was a peculiarity of that bike, but most of the 4T singles I've ridden have been the same - great at point and squirt (that XL was one of the best bikes I've ever owned for carving through traffic, which is saying something for an ex London courier) a bit asthmatic at average cruising speeds and no bloody good at all for maxing out.

If I had unlimited funds and space, I would probably buy one again, but it had such limited abilities, I don't consider it a very practical real world choice.
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Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035

[blurredman]

Damn annoying if you have sparking/misfire issues..
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CBT: 12/06/10, Theory: 22/09/10, Module 1: 09/11/10, Module 2: 19/01/11
Past: 1991 Honda CG125BR-J, 1992 (1980) Honda XL125S, 1996 Kawasaki GPZ500S, 1979 MZ TS150.
Current: 1973 MZ ES250/2 - 18k, 1979 Suzuki TS185ER - 10k, 1981 Honda CX500B - 91k, 1987 MZ ETZ250 (295cc) - 40k, 1989 MZ ETZ251 - 51k.

[Riejufixing]

[arry]

[Riejufixing]

[stinkwheel]

Indian bullets are lower bhp than the British ones were. Lower compression engines and non-interference heads to cope with shite fuel and general fuckwittery when it comes to maintainance and use by squaddies in the Indian Army.

One of the most entertaining singles out there was the SZR660. A a 5-valve 660cc, twinport, liquid-cooled single with a dry sump 50-ish bhp all in a razor-sharp TZR250 rolling chassis. They kept the motor smooth buy using a clever twin-carb setup, a slide carb does all the slow running up to about 1/4 throttle openign then above that a huge CV carb with no idle circuit is picked up and gives it full-bore-roar.

All makes for a bike which is smooth off the throttle under all circumstances and goes round corners like it's on rails. Only does about 110mph flat-out but I've seen one of my mates -who is a highly competant motorcycle racer- handed his arse in a sling by one over about 100 miles of Scottish twisties, said mate was on a ZX9R.

The main problem with them is they did them in "disco" colours. Didn't sell well, which is a shame because they are a whole load of fun.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[wr6133]