Motorcycles consume less fuel than cars. You may think this is obvious, because they are smaller, weigh less and have smaller engines. But do they really? We are going to find out.
It isn’t as simple as it sounds. Often we hear people complaining – or boasting – about a car that uses less fuel than a motorcycle. Well, if you compare the official type approval test figures of a Diesel car with the real-life figures of a big motorcycle, especially when that is used by a rider who likes to go fast, you shouldn’t be surprised then when the bike ‘beats’ the car. However, when you compare you should do that with things that are comparable: apples with apples and oranges with oranges, not apples with oranges. And comparing apples with oranges is just what is being done all the time with motorcycles and cars. Even when you compare type approval test figures of cars with those of motorcycles you compare two different things, because there are big differences between the test cycles for cars and motorcycles. And even with the same test cycle there would be differences because of the different build, nature and use of the vehicles. Does this mean we cannot compare? No! Thanks to the German website www.spritmonitor.de we can.
