And how many vehicles at your address..?

[Blah blah]

Asks the man at the insurance

"9" I reply.

Yep, we have another motorbike and this one is red, an iconic shape designed by Tamburini and covered in little elephants so that's all right then.

It's also 16 years old and a bit tatty. Only one headlight works, the indicators are ebay's cheapest and need slinging, the battery is loose and flat, the seats were red but have faded and it was bought unseen through facebook and have no idea if it even works.

So what is it? Virtual hobnob for the first correct guess...

[Flip]

Cagiva Mito?

[Mr Gazza]

Chocolate Hobnob I hope?

Cagiva Elefant.

[Blah blah]

well that didn't last very long...

Mito Evo 2 in fact, 125cc of 2 stroke goodness while we still can

[Albie]

Strange thing I read was a lot of them swap engines to the Yamaha srx 400 single. I have one of them btw

[Albie]

Sorry seems like 660 is cool too

https://youtu.be/BrcvaAzKBLQ

[Darren69]

i think there was one featured in Practical Sportsbikes recently with a 350 YPVS in.

[Blah blah]

The 350 ypvs swap is quite common and would be awesome but as the 125 will produce 30+bhp quite reliably (or as reliably as a tuned 2 stroke can ever be) without needing to change much, we'll be sticking with that.

And the price of 350 motors is quite prohibitive if you can find one

One of the many bikes I wanted when I got my CBT!

[Jez900ie]

A 500 Honda twin fits too - would be fantastic...

[Mr Gazza]

Originally Posted by Blah blah

the 125 will produce 30+bhp quite reliably

Reliably? That's 240bhp per litre!
My Monster would produce 217 bhp at that rate.
100bhp per litre is good.

Hayabusa and V4 Panigale are only in the 150 per litre territory.

[Flip]

I think it’s an odd way of adding it up that I’ve never really understood- even my 1965 Ducati single would make 112 in litre form with those maths

[Blah blah]

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

Reliably? That's 240bhp per litre!

Yep, the derestricted ones from the factory (and factory figures) have 30 or 31bhp depending on where you look.

And then you can start changing stuff, exhausts, carbs, reeds and blocks until it goes pop!

As for reliability, I'm looking at a rebuild every 8-10000 miles but replating the cylinder and a new piston aren't that much more than a set of belts so it's just something else to add onto every other service

[Dirty]

Originally Posted by Flip

I think it’s an odd way of adding it up that I’ve never really understood- even my 1965 Ducati single would make 112 in litre form with those maths

Yep, it's more an indicator of character than of performance.

Comparing BHP per tonne will tell you more re performance

[Mr Gazza]

I think the 100bhp per litre benchmark was a holy grail that was being pursued just pre war in the late 30's.
500 singles were being developed in many Countries for racing and were nudging 50bhp by 1939. I think it was AJS that actually achieved it.
After that things were never the same and it wasn't until long after the war that power figures reached the same level in that class again.

It does seem somewhat nonsensical though, when the mighty Vincent was considered to be so powerful with a heady 55bhp @1000cc.

It also seems very disproportionate with much higher power per litre being achieved with small engines.

I always took it to indicate the efficiency of an engine, but as Dirty commented, it's probably just a guide to character or state of tune, and now just an old fashioned way of looking at it, which is way outmoded and out of date?

Is the Mito meant to look a bit like a 916 by any chance?