Engine Roar Lore: How Should A Motorcycle Sound?

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We at BEGINNER BIKES thought it might be useful to describe the various motorcycle engines, their sounds and personalities, and ask you if you had a favorite. But have you ever tried to describe a sound? Descriptive language tends to be visual in nature; describing aural phenomena is a challenge indeed. We asked Brett Blacketer of Action MotorSports in Lafayette, Indiana, one of America's unsung motorcycling heroes, to help us out. Typically, he came through for us in brilliant fashion. Here's what he wrote:

Single-cylinder four-stroke engine:

Like hearing and riding a warthog; real quick and grunty, just not a lot of top-end. Just might startle you with a wheelie.

Twin-cylinder four-stroke engine:

Like a moose; not the prettiest thing at a walking pace, but graceful when at full song. Tuck in and smile as the gait is your lullaby, bwump bwump bwump bwump. Like all good dreams, things are moving much faster than you think.

Two-stroke engine:

Like a cheetah; lots of speed and precision, just not a lot of power. Twist it and think ahead, because momentum is king.

Three-cylinder four-stroke engine:

Misunderstood and hard to capture animals. Great hunters, but in the middle of the food chain.

In-line four-cylinder engine:

The howl and wail of a racing greyhound. Pure power and rippling muscles. Point it and twist the giggle stick, try to make that heart beat a few more revs because too much is never enough.

I also asked Brett to describe one of my favorite engines, Honda's V-Four, with its four cylinders set in a "V" formation rather than in a straight-line. This engine's cams are driven by gears rather than chains, and is found in the VFR and Magna series (excluding the Magna 250, a twin-cylinder bike not available in the U.S.):

Honda gear-driven-cam V-four engine:

Like a rhino: grunty, smooth, shockingly quick to rev, unstoppable at any speed. Not the fastest, but the most willing to traverse any conditions in a confident and powerfully sophisticated manner.

In the context of BEGINNER BIKES, most of the cruisers we review have V-twin engines, and all of the dual-sport bikes we review have single-cylinder engines. The standards and sportbikes mostly feature twin-cylinder engines, but they vary in terms of sound and power. Brett's description of in-line fours fits the Kawasaki Ninja 250's parallel-twin engine perfectly, as it revs to an astral 14,000 rpm. Riding it, you can't believe you can keep twisting the throttle, but you can and do "because too much is never enough." No other twin we review behaves this way or has such a shriek when revved to its redline.

Federico Minoli, CEO of Ducati, brags that his nine-year-old son, Daniel, can identify motorcycles by sound. "Daniel says a Harley goes potato-potato-potato," Minoli says. "A 600cc Japanese sportbike goes whee-whee-whee. A Ducati goes vroom-vroom-vroom."

Harley-Davidsons and Ducatis have arguably the most distinctive sounds now going, and in fact Harley-Davidson tried for years to copyright the sound of its big twin. Just as the MGM lion is a copyrighted sound, they argued, so is the Harley roar worthy of legal protection. The lawsuit failed, but it doesn't matter: a Harley's roar is like none other; which is why aftermarket companies work day and night to offer exhaust pipes which approximate the sound of the Milwaukee machine. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Harley has been blushing for decades. More recently, Honda and Suzuki have introduced large-displacement sporting twins to compete head to head with Ducati. Their efforts have resulted in truly wonderful motorcycles; especially Honda's VTR1000 Super Hawk--that have found their own constituency. Nevertheless, they lack Ducati's distinctive sound and exclusivity and have failed to encroach on Ducati's market share.

So, what's your favorite motorcycle sound? How important is sound to you as you consider which bike to purchase? Let us know what you think.

Sound off here!