In the (very) old days when I started to take an interest in motorcycles and I purchased my first Honda 50 “field” bike for a few quid, you could purchase a new bike with anything from 1 to 6 cylinder engines (excluding 5 as far as I know). Most manufacturers made 2-stroke bikes which were in some cases really fast (Kawasaki and Yamaha in particular) and indeed race bikes in those days were also 2-strokes. An Italian company called Minarelli made 50cc, 2 stroke engines for many of the European bike makers, the company were then purchased by Yamaha in 2002. The 2 six cylinder bikes on the market were the amazing Honda CBX1000 and the Benelli Sei (which was a copy of the Honda 500 Four, with two cylinders added).
Today road 2-stroke bikes have disappeared, forced off the market by ever-tighter legislation on noise and emissions, so we now have only 4-stroke engines available and most are water cooled to further reduce noise. Smaller bikes including scooters tend to be single cylinder, as they must be light and compact as well as good on fuel so any bikes under about 400cc will be powered by a single cylinder engine. From 400cc upwards we start to have some more interesting configurations as riders are looking for more power and performance so larger engines tend to be twin cylinder.
Maybe the best example of a twin cylinder engine is the Yamaha TMax. This super scooter was launched back in 2000 with a 500cc, DOHC engine and is still in production today as a 560. The engine is a parallel twin producing around 48 bhp and despite its low power and fairly high weight this amazing bike can keep up with many much larger engined bikes.
As we move towards larger bikes things become more interesting. Several bikes have three cylinder engines such as the excellent Triumph 765, which is fitted to several of their road models and is now used in the Moto 2 racing series, a true test of power and reliability. Yamaha offer the MT09 which features a 3 cylinder, 900cc unit making about 110 horses. The 3 cylinder engine gives an excellent “feeling” and is much loved by many motorcyclists.
Up another step to the 1000cc capacity and here the sports bikes have mainly 4 cylinder engines. Most are 4 inline such as the Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha BMW and Suzuki bikes but several are now in vee configuration (Aprilia, Ducati).
There are several exceptions to these rules. Harley Davidson for example has based all of their bikes on huge V twin engines mounted longitudinally, Moto Guzzi also offers V twins but across the frame and BMW still sells its traditional horizontally opposed (boxer) twins.
And the only 6 cylinder bike currently sold today is the massive BMW K1600 which (like its forerunners) has the cylinders mounted across the frame and shaft drive. So you pays yer money and you take your choice!!
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