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Buell Motorcycle Forum » Quick Board Archives » Archive through February 20, 2005 » A nice essay on torque. « Previous Next »

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Johnnylunchbox
Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 02:45 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Very informative and a good read.

http://vettenet.org/torquehp.html
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Reepicheep


Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 04:10 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

He is closer then most, but still (IMHO) gets it wrong.

Torque, by itself, is a COMPLETELY useless measurement. It measures nothing (I could be making 500 ft lbs of torque, but only at .0001 RPM, and go NOWHERE).

Torque times peak RPM (which is exactly what peak horsepower is, which is what is normally quoted) is a BARELY useful measurement. It measures exactly what your bike actually does at exactly the moment you can no longer do it anymore (you have to shift).

What people really want is the Horsepower versus RPM curve for the full range of the engine.

Deciding if a given curve is "good" or not depends on your application.

If you are racing, you don't care that much about low RPM power, you just row the gearbox to stay at peak power (which will always be far higher then low end power, regardless of how "torquey" your engine is).

If you are tooling around on the street, you don't really care about peak RPM so much, you never run the bike there, you want decent power down low so you can tool around town with decent throttle response without sounding like you are on a dremel tool, or constantly rowing the gearbox.

If you want a sport oriented streetbike, you want good high rpm horsepower, but without butchering the bottom end power to the degree the bike is a pain in the to ride and always needs to be shifted before you can make it do anything useful.

His math was good though.

(Message edited by reepicheep on February 17, 2005)
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Jlnance


Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 08:16 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

A good article.
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Evaddave


Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:26 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Reep,
I'm picking nits here, but what you said:

quote:

Torque times peak RPM (which is exactly what peak horsepower is, which is what is normally quoted)



is not always the case. It's quite possible for the peak horsepower to be reached before peak RPM. (I did a search for "dyno chart" and found examples of both peak HP @ peak RPM, and peak HP before peak RPM.)

In the end, it's only numbers, anyway.

Ride what makes you smile.
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Reepicheep


Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 08:53 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Good point! s/exactly/generally/ (hope you speak Unix ; ) )

Also, I should amend the "(you have to shift)" with "(you either have to shift or are about to go down in power)".
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Jlnance


Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 11:07 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

echo "doesn't everyone?" | sed -e 's/^d/D/' -e 's/ e/ E/'
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Reepicheep


Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 11:26 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

/usr/bin/yes

(no kidding, it is there, I have used it, in a very dark moment in midst of some pretty important data, fsck, and a rapidly failing HP-UX scsi drive...)

YES(1) FSF YES(1)

NAME
yes - output a string repeatedly until killed

SYNOPSIS
yes [STRING]...
yes OPTION

DESCRIPTION
Repeatedly output a line with all specified STRING(s), or ‘y’.

--help display this help and exit

--version
output version information and exit
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Rick_a


Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 12:25 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)


quote:

If you are racing, you don't care that much about low RPM power, you just row the gearbox to stay at peak power (which will always be far higher then low end power, regardless of how "torquey" your engine is)




That's not always true. Maybe for small displacement two strokes. Most race engine builders are looking for broad, rideable power characteristics...from club racers to Moto GP.

In Drag racing it may be more the case, but even there a bike requiring high RPM launches can create problems with wheelspin.
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Evaddave


Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 07:15 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

yeah, I speak Unix, but it's late on a Friday, and I can't think of anything sufficiently geeky to write back. I knew about /usr/bin/yes, but have been sufficiently fortunate to--so far--never need it.
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Bigdaddy


Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 08:11 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Which MAN pages did Ken Thompson write? Let's talk UNIX.

$ PATH=pretending! /usr/ucb/which sense
no sense in pretending

who | grep -i blonde | date; cd ~; unzip; touch;strip;finger;mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
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Reepicheep


Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 10:16 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

You can tune a file system, but you can't tuna fish.
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Jlnance
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2005 - 12:13 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Greg - I'm gonna remember that one

BTW, I put a deposit on an M2 on Thursday
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Bigdaddy
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2005 - 06:48 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Jim, That was a targeted response -- I knew you'd get it. It goes back a few years, scary how many, and the guy that did the original is a UNIX almost-legend named Boo Boo.

Congrats on the M2 and I can guarantee lots of smiles in your future. I got plenty of spare 'stuff' too.

BTW, I'm back to normal, well, until I do another 40 hours before Monday AM and then I'll be all hosed up again. Later.

G2
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Jlnance
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2005 - 07:16 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

I never heard of Boo Boo, but it turns out that Google has.

Just don't post when you get hosed up :-)

Hey, it's just me in the house now. You have a standing invitation to come over, grill steaks, and discuss the finer points of motorcyles, kernel design, and encryption algorithms whenever you get a chance.
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Bigdaddy
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2005 - 08:02 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

I've never Googled Boo Boo, but that's not surprising. He's one of them guys that if you ever get stuck on a project with him you constantly feel like you're the village idiot -- fricking genius.

Ping me off line with your Google results of Boo Boo -- I'll tell you if you got the right one :-)

You've, not surprisingly, hit upon three of my favorite subjects: ribeye steaks, motorcycles, and encryption. I can't get motivated about kernel design these days.

I look forward to the steak grilling and if you really want to be placed in the zombie zone (some folks are never the same) we can discuss enc-algos.

G2

(Message edited by bigdaddy on February 19, 2005)
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