How Big is Too Big?

Some buddies and I have been giving thought to the question: "Generally speaking, if you could only own one motorcycle, what would it be?" We are not talking about manufacturer (that debate been beat to death) but rather about type and size of engine. We have gone ‘round and ‘round, but having ridden on the wide roads of AZ for several years and now with a whole eight months of commuting in an urban center under my belt, I personally keep coming back to ... "It depends."

It depends on what type of riding will be primary for the rider, as well as the location in which s/he is riding. If you are city type with lots of commuting, then a smaller displacement, lighter weight bike is definitely the way to go. As much as I love my VN 1600 Cruiser and as great as it is on that 5,000 mile long ride each summer, it is a ponderous beast in city traffic, especially on hilly terrain. I often practice tight maneuvers at slow speed and am reasonably adept, but flickable this Kawi ain't. So, while I would love a bit more torque out of my KLR 650, it is great in traffic and with the high center I have on more than one occasion jumped a curb and parked next to a building, avoiding the cost of a parking meter.

As a result of these experiences I have come to the conclusion that if one is going to have a single, all-purpose bike, something between 650 and 900 cc's is probably optimal. Light enough for traffic, big enough for longer cruises. After a couple of decades of emphasis on Brit Twins that ran in the 500 to 650 cc range (Marlon Brando rode a Triumph 6T in The Wild One) and with the Harley 74 ci (1200 cc – think Peter Fonda and Easy Rider) considered an absolute bad-boy monster, the introduction of a 750 cc bike was considered HUGE to the average rider. Remember that classic long distance trips such as Robert Pirsig’s famous Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Honda Superhawk CB77 – 305 cc’s) and Ted Simon’s Jupiter’s Travels (Triumph Tiger 100 – 500 cc’s) were made on pretty small displacement bikes.

This of course is in opposition to the American standard of “bigger is better” but how big is big enough or, dare one even whisper it, too big? A modern liter sport bike can generate over 70 HP and run a quarter mile in 12 seconds, right out of the box. A BMW R1200 RT can produce 109 HP with 88 ft. lbs. of torque! Either of those, along with a list of others as long as my arm, will get you where you want to go with speed and style, or kill you in a New York minute. But a 2200 or 2300 cc bike? At what point does a motorcycle turn into a Frankenbike?

But maybe excess is the lesson for the day. Experts agree that the current economic recession is due in large part to a bigger and more is better gluttony, at both the individual and corporate levels. How many square feet in a house are enough? How much money is too much? How much credit is dangerous? Just how much can you squeeze workers before they pop?

Gluttony and greed are not limited to food or money but have to do with insatiable appetites. Winston Churchill pointed out that we shape our buildings and then they shape us; Sherry Turkle argued that in the 21st Century we shape our technology but then our technology shapes us. Is that also true with motorcycles? Is there a point at which we lose control and allow our appetites to own us? And if our appetites own us, who is consuming whom?