Why can't bikes be like lawn mowers

[Steffan]

Broke out the old Briggs and Stratton this afternoon for bit of the old greenery mutilation and it occured to me that this old thing (7-9 yrs) gets taken out without any prep fueled up started up and run flat out for a couple of hours every week for four month. It then gets stuck back in the shed for the rest of year and the cycle continues. In all that time it needed a new sparkplug, diaphram for the carb and an oil change. Now in my experience bikes seem to need a great deal more attention than that and my question is why. Why can't someone build a bike that needs an annual oil change and petrol and just gets on with it? Flat out of course!

Steffan

[Richard]

Surely Royal Enfields are like that.  Reliable, simple, sturdy machinery that run untroubled for years.  If they do break something so simple would be easy to fix as well.

Sorry, now where did I put that coat ?

Richard

[Bruce]

Your right my Big4 is not quick but very reliable and easy to repair in fact spares are easier for me to get hold of now than when I first bought in 1972.

[guest27]

Mowers dont exactly run flat out though do they - steady rpm and if you fiddle with the regulator springs you can make them run much faster, dont really have that much of a load on them either - spinning a cutter round.  Not sure what HP a typical garden mower makes, but it is next to bugger all, not a lot of torque, not sure I would want to ride a bike with a mower motor in it.

R

[bullet350]

 i was thinking quite a similar thought this morning. i was using a wacker plate thats never seen any maintenance ever, yet always starts first time.

 its got a 98cc honda engine, a side-valve single! thats a full 13cc bigger than the c90 i rode to work on!

 is the wacker plate eligable for thumper club membership?

 bulllet350

[guest27]

If you ride it!

R

[mini-thumper]

Dear Mr Honda
Why not build a ride-on whacker plate? It would certainly make my current six miles to work very entertaining, and my dentist wealthier due to all my teeth being shaken out. If you should go ahead with this project, and I see from the attached you are already thinking along these lines, don't forget to send me a cut of the profits.

Yours in anticipation

Boyd 'I likes a good bounce me, and a sausage' Brooks


 

[Mark]

Dear Mr Honda
Why not build a ride-on whacker plate? It would certainly make my current six miles to work very entertaining, and my dentist wealthier due to all my teeth being shaken out. If you should go ahead with this project, and I see from the attached you are already thinking along these lines, don't forget to send me a cut of the profits.

Yours in anticipation

Boyd 'I likes a good bounce me, and a sausage' Brooks


 

You wouldn't get your wife off it.

[Steffan]

Mowers dont exactly run flat out though do they - steady rpm and if you fiddle with the regulator springs you can make them run much faster, dont really have that much of a load on them either - spinning a cutter round.  Not sure what HP a typical garden mower makes, but it is next to bugger all, not a lot of torque, not sure I would want to ride a bike with a mower motor in it.

R

Mine does.
You ain't seen my lawn.
Couldn't say - though I think you've missed the point. My point was why can't we have bikes that can be similarly abused and yet start reliably and run and run

Steffan

[guest40]

Yeah Steff, they called them Urals!

[squirrelciv]

Sorry Steffan, it's called 'improvement'.
You see, you start off with a simple single cylinder motor, side valve, low compression and normally aspirated that produces low HP but high(ish) torque whilst sipping fuel. Then you 'improve' it by adding more cylinders, twin OH cams, high compression and fuel injection and everything managed by a computer. Now you have a much noisier machine capable of silly speeds that sadly guzzles fuel and is a bitch to start/run/maintain.

See, it's 'improvement'.

[xbruby]

Then you 'improve' it by adding more cylinders, twin OH cams, high compression and fuel injection and everything managed by a computer. Now you have a much noisier machine capable of silly speeds that sadly guzzles fuel and is a bitch to start/run/maintain.

See, it's 'improvement'.

Yes, but you can't cut your lawn with one of those! Well I suppose you could try but you probably won't have a great deal of lawn left afterwards. 

As for the B&S engine I have to say, rather smugly of course, that mine has never let me down but then again at the end of every mowing season I service it fully and clean it down, I also treat it to super unleaded with a splash of Redex and STP fuel detergent - goes like a bomb (not literally!) 

Andy

[johnr]

why cant bikes be like lawn mowers? i thought that as the majority of modern bikes are kept in the garage till a sunny sunday afternoon and are then taken out for a couple of hours, and they arent used in the rain, that they on the whole already are!!

[guest7]

why cant bikes be like lawn mowers? i thought that as the majority of modern bikes are kept in the garage till a sunny sunday afternoon and are then taken out for a couple of hours, and they arent used in the rain, that they on the whole already are!!

ROTFLMAO! 

MAsterful. Bloody good point, well made.
GC

[Andy M]

They could be.

Industrial engines like these run for thousands or hours with nothing but fuel. Car and Truck engines use a lot of the same technology and get close. You can have performance and long service and reliability, it's all about materials and the size of some components.

The only thing stopping the bike makers is the market. Would you buy a new bike because it has 15000 mile service intervals and does 90 mpg? Would you still buy it if it was £1000 more than the competition? Would you buy it if it was 10 mph slower than the competition? The car market broke the cost/performance barrier because the likes of Proton came in and offered long hassle free warranties and free servicing. Their cars improved to the point where people in other dealers and selling to the fleets knew they had to take the hit because if both cars are the same you start looking at the less glamorous features like the hassle of getting the oil done. They passed the info up the line and the manufacturers responded.

There is no impetus in the bike market for anything except styling and performance. It's better if your 3 year old CZX999RS is an unreliable POJ because then Mrs. Weekendrider will understand when you spend £9000 less trade in on a new CZX1001RRS. Even BMW have got their heads round it now, having people saying a 1991 R80GS is the ultimate long range tool isn't good for business when Harley can bore out the motor by 10mm and sell truck loads.

The best one was the Bonneville service interval. My first service book said 4000 mile oil changes. A few weeks after Harley launched a new 883 I got a little package from Hinkley with my new 6000 mile book. No engineering changes required  

Andy