V-Twin VS 4 In-Line

           Ah, the good old engine debate. Ask any motorcycle rider what kind of engine they think is best and you will get some surprisingly heated opinions. Our cruiser riding brethren will of course talk up the virtues of v-twins and their torque, while sportbike riders might be somewhat divided between inline fours and v-twins. Single cylinder engines (“thumpers”) are usually reserved for dirt and off-road bikes, but one of the better beginner sportbikes happens to use one – the sharp looking Honda CBR250R. Engine type should not be taken lightly when choosing a first motorcycle and I’ll try to make some sense of the differences here.



V-Twin or Parallel Twin

(The picture of V-Twin engine)

            A v-twin is a two cylinder engine with the cylinders arranged in the shape of a V; you’ve no doubt seen this engine configuration when looking at cruisers. Ducati famously uses a 90-degree twin cylinder engine that looks more like an L, though most people still refer to it as a v-twin. There are smaller sportbikes like the excellent Kawasaki Ninja 250R which use a parallel twin, where the cylinders are configured side-by-side.

          BMW offers an opposed twin sometimes called a “flat” or “boxer” engine in some of its motorcycles, where the cylinders sit flat on their sides and 180 degrees opposite each other (I happen to find it weird and impractical to have the cylinder heads sticking straight out the sides of the engine on a motorcycle, but that’s my opinion).

(Ducati Diavel is one of superbike using V-Twin engine system)

Four Inline

(Four in-line Engine system)

       An inline 4 cylinder engine has all four cylinders sitting next to each other in a nice neat row. Most sport and race bikes use this configuration, though you may see an occasional V-4 such as the one in use by Honda CBR 1000RR, the Aprilia RSV4 and the Yamaha R1.

(The Honda CBR 1000 RR, has better sound than V-twin engine system)