TheScooterScoop

Recently we had someone from Manila who wanted to know
“what is the meaning of cc in 125cc in motor?”

Well, here’s the basics. “CC” is short for “Cubic Centimeters” and it is a measure of displacement. Howstuffworks.com puts it like this:

“The combustion chamber is the area where compression and combustion take place. As the piston moves up and down, you can see that the size of the combustion chamber changes. It has some maximum volume as well as a minimum volume. The difference between the maximum and minimum is called the displacement and is measured in liters or CCs (Cubic Centimeters, where 1,000 cubic centimeters equals a liter).

Here are some examples:

* A chainsaw might have a 40 cc engine.
*A moped might have a 49cc engine.
*A scooter might have a 50cc or up to a 650cc engine.
* A motorcycle might have a 500 cc or a 750 cc engine.
* A sports car might have a 5.0 liter (5,000 cc) engine.

Most normal car engines fall somewhere between 1.5 liter (1,500 cc) and 4.0 liters (4,000 cc)

If you have a 4-cylinder engine and each cylinder displaces half a liter, then the entire engine is a “2.0 liter engine.” If each cylinder displaces half a liter and there are six cylinders arranged in a V configuration, you have a “3.0 liter V-6.”

Generally, the displacement tells you something about how much power an engine can produce. A cylinder that displaces half a liter can hold twice as much fuel/air mixture as a cylinder that displaces a quarter of a liter, and therefore you would expect about twice as much power from the larger cylinder (if everything else is equal). So a 2.0 liter engine is roughly half as powerful as a 4.0 liter engine.

You can get more displacement in an engine either by increasing the number of cylinders or by making the combustion chambers of all the cylinders bigger (or both).”

So, roughly translated, CC’s may give you an idea of how much power an engine has. Sit on a 50cc Scooter or Moped and give it a good twist. Feel that? That’s 50ccs and any 50cc vehicle of the same weight (that hasn’t been tweaked) is gonna feel about like that. Go twist a 125cc, a 200cc, a 400cc… Somewhere in there you’re gonna know what you feel comfortable with. If yer gettin’ on the highway, steer clear of anything less than 200cc’s, unless you good under the hood and can squeeze out some extra HP… Ahh… “HP”, We’ll cover that in our next installment. ; )