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Why Single Cylinder two Stroke Petrol Engine used In two Wheeler

Single cylinder engine.

It has only one cylinder. A single cylinder engines are generally used in light motor vehicles such as mopeds, motor cycles and scooters. Maximum size of the cylinder is restricted to 250-300CC. Although a single cylinder engine seems to be the most popular choice due to few parts to manufacture and maintain, the disadvantages are more than advantages. Since, it requires heavy construction for more power due to higher unbalanced forces. Also the weight increases at a greater rate in comparison to the power providing lower power to weight ratio. A single cylinder engine may be two stroke or four stroke cycle engine. Some of the vehicles which consist of single cylinder engine with their CC are given below.

Vehicle cc
Rajdoot => 175
Vespa => 150
TVSXL => 50
Bajaj M80 => 80
TVS Max 100R => 100
Bajaj pulsar => 150 and 180
Yamaha RX 100 => 100

Reasons of using single cylinder two stroke petrol engines on two wheelers :

The following are the reasons for using single cylinder two stroke petrol engines on two wheelers.
(i) Two stroke cycle engines are compact in size than the four stroke cycle engines for the same power capacity.
(ii) Since two wheelers such as mopeds, scooters, bikes etc. are light duty vehicles used for carrying one or two passengers only, the power developed by single cylinder is sufficient to carry the load.
(iii) Since the single cylinder two stroke petrol engines are lighter engines, the vehicle using these engines are also lighter in weight. Therefore, for the same tractive force, a two wheeler gives higher acceleration.
(iv) A petrol engine runs at a lower compression ratio than a diesel engine. Therefore, the weight to power ratio of a petrol engine is less than a diesel engine.
(v) Single cylinder two stroke engines are air-cooled engines and they do not require water, radiator and circulating pump. Therefore, weight to power ratio of such engine is less.