I disagree. I used to be "into motorcycles". Yes, they generate a LOT of power for their displacement, but they do it at 10000+ RPM's. OPE engines are typically rated at 3600 RPM. RPMs make all the difference. See what the sportbike engines produce at 3600. Also OPE engines are designed to survive much of the abuse and neglect they tend to experience. Yes they have low compression ratios, but they will also survive lots of abuse. I bought a ZTR with a Kohler Confidant engine. I used it for a half season. In the off season, I found that the cylinder cooling fins were almost completely blocked, and it still survived. Most of it's cooling capacity had been disabled, and it still survived. Remove the cooling from a motorcycle engine, and see how long it lasts.
Not to denigrate motorcycle engines. If you want that kind of performance, you best keep up with the maintenance. They often get abused, too, but in a different way. They're remarkable examples of engineering. But OPE engines are good too. Just a different set of design criteria.
I'm not sure which part of my statement you're disagreeing with but it's still quite factual.
Now, my comment that they are low performance little turds has some opinionated flair to it but they are in fact low performance compared to most any of those motorcycle engines were talking about.
Sure, there are lots of other differences but they are certainly low performance compared to them.
You are comparing RPMs in connection to horsepower but then again, this further confirms and supports that they are low performance little turds because they aren't capable of doing 8,500 to 12,000 RPMs and sustaining it like the motorcycle engines are and even if they did I doubt you would see anywhere above 60% of the power the motorcycles produce.
So I'm not sure which part you're taking issue with but tons of what I said is factual.
The one thing that I also always say about these engines that I did not put in my first post is while they are low performance little turds, they are also VERY FORGIVING. Lol
They put up with decades of abuse and neglect and keep on doing their job quite well.
But often seems to be the case that high quality, precision equipment can be more delicate and need more maintenance and care given to it in operation whereas crude old rudimentary basic stuff is tolerant of about everything.
So I really love these small air cooled engines, in fact I like them far more than motorcycle engines and I think they are the right tool for the job which is always important.
I'm simply not impressed by the horsepower but they shouldn't be trying to impress me or anyone for that matter.
The entire horsepower game is a joke because no one needs 20 horsepower to cut their grass with a 42-in rider!
In fact, people were doing it for decades with 12 and 14 horsepower engines and even those were probably slightly inflated with their specs but not nearly to the degree they were later.
I also don't need to be impressed with the latest and greatest and auto chokes and fuel injection etc.
I don't want more things to go wrong or more things for more people to have to learn or get adjusted to.
Let's just stay the course and get all the bugs worked out and by this point in time they should have been able to make a lawnmower engine that's darn near bulletproof that lasts the minimum 20 years but of course that would be counterproductive for them.
I want simplicity, durability and longevity and many of these engines over the decades have given all three.
