Page 139 - Motoring World (January 2020)

Engineering, simply put, is thing, indeed, and apart from the their engines and the thumper was
the science of finding innovative solutions it provides, is driven by the born. But as with anything in life,
remedies to technical problems minds implementing it. Therefore, there were limitations and engineers
present all around us. To get heavy although the task might remain realised that going past 500cc on a
things moving, logs our predecessors the same, the approach — and single resulted in motors that hated
used logs. Eons later, someone with the consequent resolutions — will to rev quickly and were severely
a creative mind and who was good depend solely on the person setting prone to vibrations. So, the large
with a saw chopped those circular out to get things done. displacement was broken down by
cross-sectioned logs, and the first When motorcycles were first built, spreading it across a number of
wheels were created. all of them were single-cylinder cylinders. A 500cc twin sported two
Today, thousands of years machines. But almost instantly, 250cc engines latched together by a
later, we’re still rolling on what are motorcyclists wanted to go faster common crank and crankcase. Lo,
essentially logs hacked along their and the quest for more power began. and behold, the age of the multis
cross section, albeit improved upon The simplest way to do this was was born.
a fair bit. Engineering is a wonderful by increasing the cubic capacity of Although a lot of motorcycle

JANUARY 2020 | MOTORING WORLD 139