in this video we're going to talk about the difference between power and torque and to
demonstrate the point we've got a harley-davidson heritage classic 114 which is a 114 cubic inches
just over 1.8 liters and the honda cb650r so in basic simple terms torque is how much turning
force an engine can produce and power is how fast the engine can produce that talk in the real world
power is what makes an engine go fast and torque is what makes it feel fast engines that produce
a lot of power for their size usually have not as much torque and that talk that it does have
comes in at higher rpms so if you're going up a steep hill you're most likely gonna have to change
down to get the most out of the engine whereas on a more torquey engine it'll just plow up the hill
now a high torque engine like this on the harley may not rev as quickly as the honda
but when you open the throttle it still gives you a massive shove in the back
now both these bikes produce about the same brake horsepower about 94 horsepower
but it's the torque that really sets them apart and is the main difference which we'll go into now
so the honda produces its peak torque at eight and a half thousand rpm which is 64 newton meters of
torque and all of its power comes in at 12 000 rpm which is really really high revving
now the heritage classic produces 161 newton meters of torque which is 119 foot-pounds but
that maximum torque comes in at only 3000 rpm so compare that to the honda where the maximum torque
is eight and a half thousand rpm you can see that a slow lazy torquey engine produces everything low
down which is why on a cruiser you could be on the motorway at 70 miles an hour and it's just ticking
over so it's effortless riding for long distances and it's a very comfortable ride whereas on the
honda you've got to be revving the nuts off of it all the time to keep it in its power band
the honda will go from north to 60 in about three and a half seconds depending on the rider and the
harley will do naught 60 in about 4.4 seconds now this being a lot more of a higher revving engine
this will be around 12 000 rpm when it's doing 60 whereas the higher it'll probably be doing
4 000 rpm um but that's not a bad thing in either aspect it's just purely the way the engine works
now to help understand we are simplifying things but to help sort of uh make it easy to understand
let's use an analogy imagine that early is dwayne johnson the rock whereas the honda is
christian coleman the fastest sprinter in the world at 60 meters um this is christian coleman
the harley is dwayne johnson now if they both had a sprint race christian coleman would win but
huh who's christian carl he's the fastest man in the world to sit 60 meters 60 meters yeah
who's that what about you saying well he's retired
so um think of it that way say in a race christian coleman is going beat uh dwayne johnson
but if dwayne johnson put christian coleman on his back and walked up a hill he wouldn't
notice he wouldn't feel it particularly whereas if christian coleman put dwayne johnson on his back
and tried to walk up the same hill he'd be this is getting a bit heavy so
um that the talk of dwayne johnson gives you that sort of uh rhinoceros like feeling
whereas the power of christian coleman is more like a cheetah who can blindingly quickly
get out of the stargate and catch a wild animal of whatever wild animals cheaters eat
now with the harley if you had a passenger on the back and lots of luggage um you wouldn't really
notice the difference in weight because of the torque it makes it effortless so if you're going
up a hill you still probably wouldn't need to change down again or overtaking again you just
blast past them without needing to change down now with a more powerful buy like this
it's more about fast acceleration and getting to high speeds and sort of keeping it in that power
band where you get the rapid response whereas with something like this it's a butterfly where it's
more torquey it's more about sitting at low rpms on the motorway and just effortlessly going along
now we kind of got two camps here we got the harley and the honda the sports bike
and the cruiser and um often the the type of rider that rides each bike hates the other type we don't
we like all bikes and we're not like that but um what a lot of people that hate harley's don't
understand is that harley could be more powerful could even be more talky but it's built for long
lasting cruising and you can go vast distances on it and sit at the motorway at very low rpm and um
obviously the more stressed the engine the more service you would need to give it so the design
just to keep going sluggishly almost but i mean it's still very fast if you've never ridden one
you can feel the talk it's massive whereas on a sports bike it's obviously more power and more
buzzy and obviously lots of fun it's about racing it's about going fast it's about accelerating
but you know the two are very different and they're for different purposes so one isn't
better or worse than the other they're just completely different like um i'm different from
uh somebody else um the bike's the same you know there's there's no prejudice here
now to use another analogy um imagine if i went to a sports center and
we went to the racetrack and i was going race a 12 year old girl she would beat me in a sprint race
she'd be faster than i would be but then after that we went to the gym and we had some heavy
weights and i was squatting some weight i would be able to squat more than she could lift off
the rack so i would have more torque because i can lift heavier weights she would have more
power because she can move quicker so if you haven't subscribed already make sure you do
you