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Use the calculator below to get a rough estimated range for the Horsepower produced by your motorcycle engine based on the engine’s CCs.
Simply enter the CC’s into the input field below to get an estimated high and low range for the HP.
CC to HP Calc
In general, a modern motorcycle will produce about 1 HP for every 4-20cc.
The range seems kind of wide, but bear in mind that:
- Race bikes and dirt bikes reside at the bottom of the range.
- Factory sport bikes and dual sports sit in the middle at about 10-12 CC/HP.
- Factory Harley’s (including my 1972 Shovelhead) and cruisers can go as high as 19 CC/HP – but they, of course, have the CCs to make it happen.
Please keep in mind that “power” is more than just “horsepower,” but this tend to be people’s go-to metric for power measurements.
About Motorcycle CC to HP Conversions
I see questions regarding how to convert motorcycle engine CCs to HP a lot in motorcycle forums and communities. It’s kind of a strange request for a few reasons.
First, motorcycle specs are all over the internet. Simply pick your favorite search engine and plug in: “Year Make Model Specs.” Unless you are rocking some super obscure ride, you will probably find a few websites that you can cross reference against each other.
I have to assume that the people asking for an online motorcycle CC to HP calculator have already tried Google to no avail.
Then, of course, you could also just take your motorcycle down to the local tuning shop and throw your bike on a dyno. You aren’t going to get a better or more accurate motorcycle CC to HP conversion than that.
However, again, I have to assume that maybe there isn’t a local shop with a dyno available or you simply want a back-of-the-envelope style conversion calculation without spending any money.
Well, that is completely fair, and I have to admit that the question really got me thinking about a ballpark calculation. Keep in mind that ballpark is exactly what you are going to get – a range of CC per HP.
Motorcycles come in such a wide variety of shapes, sizes, designs, and uses that the conversion factor can vary kind of widely.
However, there is still a confined range, and that is what you can find above.
My personal sight on this matter is that it is… no matter…
But please, don’t get me wrong, I think your post is very useful, since lots of people ask me the same thing and I have to repeat that the cc (and the ci) are not a good approach to understand how much power an engine can have…..
I remember the 50cc category, formerly the World Road Race Championship (actualy Moto 1, Moto2 and MotoGP), where, in the early of 1980’s, some brands reach arround 20 HP…… (it means arround 400/liter !!!!!)
That’s my point: I think these doubts are better explained by the specific power (by liter) approach …. & period.
Thank you for the oportunity to talk about my (our) passion.
Nelson thanks for the comment. I absolutely agree with you. What I tried to do in my post is over-simplify something that gets asked a lot. Truth of the matter, is that power is a lot more complex than just CCs. Anyways, you are very welcome when it comes to the opportunity to speak about your passion. I am glad you found the site and if you ever wish to do a guest post here at HappyWrench, please let me know.
In my experience, alot of my friends who come asking to have big bore kits installed, cylinder heads replaced etc. would also tend to ask how much speed/torque/acceleration would they gain and such. Most of them have smaller displacement bikes and try to do this sort of “I get a 300 value out of this small upgrade rather then just getting a 300” type comparison so most probably these question are from people of the same mind. Although as you’ve pointed out CC isn’t very useful nor is HP because unfortunately Mr. Weight, Ms. Gear Ratio and little master Friction also roam these lands.
Hey. Would you like to do a guest post elaborating on those points? I think it would be a great article. Let me know. Feel free to reach out directly via the contact page.
Chris @ HappyWrench
Can you take a 12hp Briggs and Stratton motor and run it on a motorcycle frame and get more power than a 400cc engine?