Last night I went to the local shopping center Thursday night car/bike show.  My wife is out of town and it was a chance to get a grilled cheeseburger for a couple of bucks and see some local friends.

I was talking to a fellow that owned a Buell adventure/tourer bike and we slipped into a discussion about the Buell Blast - which was a single cylinder 500cc bike.  He commented about a friend that had owned one and had put a loud muffler on it......and how weird a single cylinder sounds.....putt, putt, putt.....instead of potato, potato, potato!

I have never thought a single sounded weird.....and then I realized that I have never owned a motorcycle with more than 1 cylinder!  I owned a Kawasaki 125 enduro, a Yamaha 175 enduro converted into a motocross bike, 2 - Suzuki TM125 motocrossers, 3 - Suzuki RL 250 Exacta trials bikes, a Suzuki TS90 converted to ride Hare Scrambles, a Suzuki RE5 rotary engine street bike with a Windjammer fairing, an Ossa 250 GP3 motocross bike, a Sherco 290 Trials bike......and I currently own a Sherco 320 Trials bike and my Suzuki Savage Cafe' bike.  I have ridden bikes with more than 1 cylinder. - but never owned one.

I guess I am just easy to please......Keep it Single Stupid!      

Got my first single in '69 and have had one ever since.

I am not sure how many bikes I have owned over the years - somewhere just over twenty I think. Of those, four have been twins. First a Suzuki GR650 Tempter, then a Honda 200 Twinstar, then my current 250 Ninja and 250 Star. All the rest have been singles. I have ridden bikes with one, two, three, four, and six cylinders, displacing from 50 to 1500 cc. I have never owned anything larger than 650 (ignoring the odd cc, since the S40 is 652). I think I'd like a chance to ride a Suzuki Titan, a 500 cc two-stroke twin, but I doubt it will happen.

Nice array of bikes, Dave, however the Suzuki RE5 rotary isn't a single,
it's a 3-stroke twin...

mpescatori wrote on 06/29/13 at 11:27:23:


It had a single rotor.....with 3 sides.  Only one spark plug and one combusion chamber.

To further my point, see this animated gif from Wikipedia.



Regardless of Felix Wankel's description, Wikipedia also insists on describing the engine as "4 stroke". although the lobe only has three sides.

So, instead of looking at the names of the four cycles of a piston engine (of which there is no trace) look at any one side of the three faced lobe and ask yourself how a triangle rotating within an ellipse can have four  cycles.

I only see three: admission, ignition, exhaust.

It's the sound of a thumper that drew me to them, originally Royal Enfields. But it's the simplistic mechanical nature and reliability that keeps me on one  

I'm a single fan too. Only owned one 4cyl bike, a GS750. It was great and sometimes I wish I hadn't sold it. But otherwise, I don't feel the need for more than 2 cyl. My shed has
Savage
225 Serow (wife's one)
250 DR
600 Pantah
600 Monster (wife's one)
C90 postie bike (anyones)
peewee 50.(kid's one)
Mostly singles. My next scooter will be a new Royal Enfield Continental GT (the indian one) if they get them imported into Australia. I like singles.
Good luck with the rotary debate. I've only had one rotary and it was a minature one made by OS for model airplanes. It wasn't very good and I swapped it for a bunch of vintage control line glow engines. Appropriately, they were all singles