Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I don't ride either a sport bike or cruiser, (I ride a GN400 Suzuki) but I see them on the road. Sport bikes pass me when I'm driving my truck on the interstate all the time. The cruisers hold a steady speed and I pass them. But I've been seeing lot of sport bikes lately that don't look as big as the cruisers I see. Are the sport bikes running smaller displacement engines but set up differently than the cruisers, so they have more punch? Or is it the same engine, same transmission, different fairing, and different frame look?

They really share zero common parts. They are also much smaller dimension wise and MUCH lighter.

Sport bike motors are usually smaller displacement (1000cc is considered large) but spun much harder and set up to make big horsepower rather then noise and low end torque. Your average late model 600cc sport bike will turn upwards of 16,000 rpm.

You should stop by the local dealership and take a look at some of the different models. Seeing them up close will reveal a lot.

most sportbikes are faster and make more power per engine size than cruisers, cause they have higher redlines and can be wrung out. when a cruiser is hitting its max RPM, a sportbike is just barely starting to think about spinning fast. cruisers are usually much larger and heavier because they want to be smoother and steel and heft help that to be reality, sportbikes feel most of the bumps in the road, if not all.
those 600cc sportbike engines are running around 16000rpm's, and about 105hp at that time, you have to get over 2 or 3 times the engine size to find power like that, however the cruisers make their power earlier on in the powerband, but that just means that you dont rev it, doesnt mean they go faster sooner, remember, they are pulling 1.5 times the weight, with usually 1/2 or less power.... sportbikes are rulled by performance, raw speed and handling. cruisers are not ruled by these things

It an be summed up by the terms themselves.

Crusier is meant to go at a consistant speed and be somewhat smooth.

Sport is meant to be all about speed and control of it with everything else second.