Skip to main content

Throttle Jockey: Single-cylinder motorbikes simplify a complex world

Royal_Enfield_Bullet_500_Classic 2Back at the dawn of the age of internal combustion engines in the late 1800s, early gearheads worked to better understand and refine the infernal machines they created in barns, tiny shops and increasingly, in factories. They were cantankerous things; loud, hot, smelly, unreliable, unpredictable and, for the times, complicated.

At the time, many folks just shook their heads and saddled up Old Paint as usual to get where they were going: the mercantile, church, barber or the farrier waiting with some new horseshoes. Why would anyone want to mess with such a demon device as the “gasoline engine” when horses were pretty much dead-on reliable?

Recommended Videos

The reasons, of course, were already there: relative high output power in a small package, scalability, long-term performance, and a lot less poop. Once reliable, the gas engine relegated horses and trains to also-ran status, something the horses are probably thankful for to this day.

With rare exception, those early engines were one-cylinder machines, also known as singles, thumpers, and so on. Once engineers got a handle on making singles reliable and powerful, competition, curiosity, early aircraft needs and racing quickly pushed designers to develop multiple cylinder engines – a clear case of more is definitely better. Soon, the single-cylinder engine itself was relegated to also-ran status as V-Twins, P-twins, radials, triples, fours, V-fours, straight sixes, V6s, straight-8s, V8s, V10s and V12s grabbed all the glory.

Despite the incredible advances in engine technology since those oil-soaked years so long ago, the lowly single-cylinder engine perseveres to this day, often in a form not that far removed from the barking, banging contraptions of old. Engineers have added counterbalancers to smooth them out, and modern tech like fuel injection and other tricks have suppressed the typical hand-numbing vibration inherent in a device that is sending a big hunk of metal up and down several dozen times per second.

Why does the single soldier on? It has numerous advantages over other engines, especially when modern technology is liberally applied. Singles are small and light, yet provide stout horsepower and lots of torque. My friend rides a KTM dual sport and while his engine is 150cc smaller than the one in my Suzuki DR650SE, his is tuned to produce over 60 horsepower – a giant amount of power for an engine you can literally fit in a backpack. In his case, digital fuel injection and liquid cooling provide the power boost over older air-cooled and carbureted thumpers.

ZookRock
Image used with permission by copyright holder

But one-lungers have other positives as well. With just one piston to deal with, they tend to be simpler to construct and repair while being highly reliable – the KISS rule in operation.

And then there’s the sound. While V-Twins rumble, triples snarl and fours buzz, singles have their own aural signature that’s hard to miss: the metronomic pulse of the rise and fall of that one lonely slug as it battles physics while making power. Some boom, some thuk, some scream to the heavens like the old Honda single-cylinder racebikes of the 1960s. Of course there’s singles racing today as well, appropriately named the Sound of Singles.

You can still buy single-cyclinder street bikes outside of the dirtbike and dual-sport realms, but the selection is, shall we say, limited. KTM, who seem to specialize in extracting the maximum amount of fun from singles, offer their Duke hooligan machines, while Suzuki still sells a basic cruiser that hasn’t changed much in 30-odd years. If you dig the classic look, Royal Enfield out of India makes a whole line of gorgeous single cylinder machines, and they’ve recently brought them into the modern era with a thorough engine redesign, fuel injection, brakes that actually work and other touches while retaining their classic form factor. Good stuff.

Royal_Enfield_Bullet_Classic_500
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This past week, it was time again to gather with friends again in a small Oregon town for a few days without computers, cell phones (well, sort of) and other digital distractions. There was hiking to do, and some riding as well.

I saddled up my personal Old Paint, which in this day and age is my well-worn but completely reliable Suzuki DR650SE dual sport, which is powered by an air-and oil-cooled 650cc single cylinder engine that likely makes 40 horsepower on a good day. That’s a far cry from my four-cylinder Honda Blackbird, which rocks about 150hp on any day and could rocket my carcass to my destination, about 300 miles distant, in about half the time the Suzuki can get me there. Except riding the Blackbird in the dirt is a very, very bad idea, and speeding tickets remain expensive.

Loaded with gear and riding essentials, the old Zook really is a mechanical pack animal, its one-chamber heart thuk-thuk-thuking down the road with no great urgency. At idle, the bike vibrates like a paint shaker, but above a trot, the DR is smooth and comfortable. A slight thrum in the bars reminds you it’s a single, but I can and do ride it all day in comfort.

Smooth, simple and plenty fast, I have to admit the lowly DR, with an engine that traces its roots back to the dawn of the gas-powered era, has become my favorite bike to ride.

Photos by Bill Roberson and Wikipedia Commons.

Bill Roberson
Former Former Digital Trends Contributor, The Manual
Please reach out to The Manual editorial staff with any questions or comments about Bill’s work.
Don’t ruin your cigars: here’s how to properly season a new humidor
Seasoning secrets every cigar lover could use
faceless man presenting a cigar humidor with cigars inside with gloved hands

If you're a newcomer to the world of cigars or just bought a brand-new humidor, you'll need to season it. And no, I'm not saying to add salt and pepper to it. If you've never heard of it, you might ask, "What is seasoning for a humidor?"

Don't think you need to flavor the box or anything — seasoning is really about getting the wood inside your humidor so as not to rob your cigars of precious moisture. Easy to understand, and getting it done is relatively straightforward as well. The trick is figuring out the "why," and we'll get into that in a bit. But let's first discuss seasoning a humidor.

Read more
The NBA’s ultimate celebration tool: The victory cigar
A look at the players and coaches who smoke to celebrate
Jordan smoking a cigar image on a bag

Sports are synonymous with celebration. After winning the biggest trophy of their lives, athletes want to indulge in the payoff that comes with seeing their dreams realized. Teams go into the locker room, where a waterfall of champagne hits them in the eyes, and swimming goggles seem to be a requirement, lest you walk around on the best night of your life half blind. While drinking is often the activity of choice after winning a championship, the NBA has an alternative symbol of greatness that other sports don't use nearly enough: the victory cigar.

Basketball is a team game, but it's also an individual canvas for solo superstardom. After winning an NBA championship, the coaches and players who sit atop the throne have long smoked a cigar in the locker room, during the parade, or even on the bench before the clock has hit zero. There's nothing quite like a good stogie to signify the ultimate win over the rest of the league, but how did the victory cigar get so ingrained in NBA championship celebrations? We want to take a walk down memory lane and look at some of the historical moments and people who made the cigar what it is within the NBA today.
Red Auerbach's victory cigar on the bench
Red Auerbach: The Story Behind the Victory Cigar + His Disdain of NBA Officials - Red on Roundball

Read more
The best medical shows of all time to binge now
From ER to The Pitt, these are the best medical shows ever made
Noah Wyle in the Pitt

Throughout TV's long history, the medical drama has occupied a somewhat unique place in the landscape. Medical shows are often some of the most reliable on TV precisely because there's so much drama built in to working in a hospital.

Personally, I've found the medical drama to be deeply comforting for years, even if I have no desire to be a doctor myself. Understanding the stress of people in the healthcare profession is fascinating in and of itself.

Read more