Before we can get an estimate of a 250cc motorcycle’s speed, we first need to quickly cover what cc actually means. A motorcycle’s cc is short for “cubic capacity,” and it refers to the amount of space inside of its engine. A combustion engine pulls fuel from a tank, mixes it with air, compresses it under a piston, then combusts to generate energy. If there’s more space inside the engine, that means there’s more room for the air-fuel mixture. More air-fuel mixture inside the cylinder’s combustion chamber equates to more generated energy.
In a nutshell, the cc rating is an abstraction of an engine’s energy potential rather than how much power it actually generates. The cc ratings are used to measure engine potential in a variety of small vehicles, including motorcycles, scooters, and go-karts. You know how in “Mario Kart,” the higher-difficulty, higher-speed races are called 100, 150, and 200cc? That’s a reflection of go-karts using larger, stronger engines that can output more speed.
