Just reading a book which quoted a letter written by a Brough Superior owner in 1926. He said his motorbike cruised at 70mph with a top speed of 90 or so, it did 50-60 mpg and its tyres lasted between 5000 and 6000 miles.

We don't seem to have made an awful lot of progress in the last 86 years!

I was telling some friends at work about my tmax's mpg and other specs like servicing costs, etc and they failed to understand why would a modern bike/scooter could not score any better than 50 mpg at best when there are cars around which has double the engine size, 4 times seat size, a roof and doors, all the mod cons, and still easily do over 70mpg for less than the tmax's purchase price...

I tried to reason with them saying that all bike manufacturers do is spend their r&d money on sports models but mine still was a weak argument.

Well I don't know there has been a bit of progress though as mentioned not as much as cars.
My Nc700 is averaging 79mpg with a top speed of around 110 I would have thought (may be more). There's a chap on the forum who's had his first set of tyres changed at his 8000mile service. I bet bikes couldn't get away with 8k servicing in those days....though even that should be longer now as a matter of course.

halfabusa wrote:I was telling some friends at work about my tmax's mpg and other specs like servicing costs, etc and they failed to understand why would a modern bike/scooter could not score any better than 50 mpg at best when there are cars around which has double the engine size, 4 times seat size, a roof and doors, all the mod cons, and still easily do over 70mpg for less than the tmax's purchase price...

I tried to reason with them saying that all bike manufacturers do is spend their r&d money on sports models but mine still was a weak argument.

i would like to know make of cars that do over 70mpg my own is supposed to 62mpg,it gets no where nr that figure even when i drive nice and gently
62mpg was wndscrene sticker ,when i bought ,i did ask chap if he could guarantee that he just laughed

They cost £180ish which is about seven grand in today's money.

Just reading a book which quoted a letter written by a Brough Superior owner in 1926. He said his motorbike cruised at 70mph with a top speed of 90 or so, it did 50-60 mpg and its tyres lasted between 5000 and 6000 miles.

We don't seem to have made an awful lot of progress in the last 86 years!

Sounds like a Brough Superior SS100
They were guaranteed to do 100 mph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brough_Superior_SS100

Andy

Oh...we've made progress alright! Like most oldies, the engines were lumbered with very high piston speeds with the long stroke engines they had, which meant they were largely worn out after 30k miles. The Brough you are talking about lasted about 35k miles then generally needed a rebore and new oversize pistons and rings. My own 650 Truimph Trophy needed reboring every 30k miles and new big end shells, plus crank regrind very 55-60k miles. Mpg was not that good and power output apalling by todays standards. They leaked oil, were noisey, and often smoked and didn't really handle as good as people with rose tinted specs remember. The skinny tyres and flexible frames meant I couldn't go half as fast through corners wet or dry as I can on my modern 400 Burgman scooter even. My Burgman only does just over 93mph but it can do 86mpg or more if I try just a little and returns a real world 76-80mpg all the time. It's easy to service and will go 100,000 miles without the need to spanner it to any degree other than normal service and consumables (includes variator in that and prolly a clutch). So progress yes, but can we do better? Yes!

Before I start I know I,m going to get with opposite opinions to mine but here we go.
Why would you want to change the coolant in your system every two years? Make's no sence
had dozens of vehicle's in my life time never done it once. Air filters manuals never mention
which country you live in the last time I saw dust was when the wife got her purse out to by
a round yet our European neighbors have a far dustier climate but have the same service period
for the filter. You know I could go on and on but I won't, In my opinion vehicle's haven't advanced
any more than the horse but they have become more reliable and as such require less maintenance
than your led to believe.
Footnote;- If you know nowt about maintenance keep taking your's in for it's regular service.

chippie wrote:Bef
Why would you want to change the coolant in your system every two years? Make's no sence
had dozens of vehicle's in my life time never done it once.

Just what I said to the wife when she took her car in for a service and they said it needed a coolant flush because of the age, "no it doesn't" I said "they just want money out you", got a funny look from the service receptionist until I told her I did her job many years ago, nothings haven't changed.

Data wrote:Oh...we've made progress alright! Like most oldies, the engines were lumbered with very high piston speeds with the long stroke engines they had, which meant they were largely worn out after 30k miles. The Brough you are talking about lasted about 35k miles then generally needed a rebore and new oversize pistons and rings.

The owner did say that it used a gallon of oil every 4000 miles! So engine technology, especially reliability and longevity has got better immensely.