page_title: Straight engine
section_title: Motorcycle use
hierarchical_section_title: Straight engine / Motorcycle use
caption_attribution_description: English: Manifold side of Indian Four engine
context_page_description: The straight or inline engine is an internal combustion engine with all cylinders aligned in one row and having no offset. Usually found in four, six and eight cylinder configurations, they have been used in automobiles, locomotives and aircraft, although the term in-line has a broader meaning when applied to aircraft engines, see Inline engine.
  A straight engine is considerably easier to build than an otherwise equivalent horizontally opposed or V engine, because both the cylinder bank and crankshaft can be milled from a single metal casting, and it requires fewer cylinder heads and camshafts. In-line engines are also smaller in overall physical dimensions than designs such as the radial, and can be mounted in any direction. Straight configurations are simpler than their V-shaped counterparts. Although six-cylinder engines are inherently balanced, the four-cylinder models are inherently off balance and rough, unlike 90-degree V fours and horizontally opposed 'boxer' four cylinders.
context_section_description: In motorcycling, the term "in-line" is sometimes used narrowly, for a straight engine mounted in line with the frame. A two-cylinder straight engine mounted across the frame is sometimes called a parallel twin. Other times, motorcycling experts treat the terms parallel, straight, and inline as equivalent, and use them interchangeably.
caption: Straight-4 engine installed in line with the frame of an Indian Four motorcycle
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