Originally Posted By: BusyLittleShop
The basic term horsepower was invented by the engineer James Watt...
He measured his 4 legged pony and deemed one horsepower is 33,000
foot-pounds of work in one minute. All thought it is an arbitrary unit
of measure to establish the rate of work of an engine compared to a
horse it has made its way down through the centuries and now appears
on our dyno charts...
Horsing around with 1 hp (which thanks to Watt) equals 33,000 ft·pounds
force per·min... now if you hitched up Watt's hay burning pony up to your
motorcycle and yelled gitty up... you will not move anywhere near
quick as you'd like but you would definitely feel the effect of 33,000
foot pounds of torque in a minute...
6.28 HP...
Enough about ponies... back to fuel burning reciprocating engines...
now if we take 33,000 foot pounds of torque and spin it just 1 rpm this
will gain us 6.28 HP... OK that's better but we're still basically
horsing around and that is what Harley Marketing is doing...
(33,000 X 1 / 5252 = 6.28HP)
LOL, I really like your posts!