[theMAG]

Got this in a forward.

[moralfibre]

Wow quite an innovative technology that is! Wonder how he balanced the cranks?

[SohailPistawala]

Great Bike Man, State of the Art... lols , whats that belt all about.. any run videos for this crazy innovation

[Technocrat]

Have seen this before,

@mb: This is not a specially made engine, IMHO this engine is from those old single propellor air planes i.e the yellow one type we see being used by trainers.

but i wonder if it actually moves. one strange thing is its got gears!!! atleast there is a gear lever, but why does something that makes so much of torque need gears ??

anyways the silver bike with engine mounted transversly seems to be a real challenge. wonder how the drive train is arranged.. moreover i wonder what material gears are made of to handle so much of torque!!

Imagine if a Bugatti veyron 16/4 's 1001 bhp engine can break engine dyno's shafts and its own transmission gears.. how wud this survive ???

Check out this flash video on howa radial engine works

http://static.howstuffworks.com/flash/radial-engine.swf

Check this for composition of radial engines

[Sankar]

The bikes are build by Jesse James. There was an article about the grey bike in the march issue of Bike. The engines used are not the WW2 vintage engines but a newer lighter aluminium engine made by Rotec in Australia.

The blue bike is a real piece of art, liked it better than the Silver one because of the way the engine is mounted.

[Technocrat]

The blue bike is a real piece of art

I disagree here, Its more of a challenge to make the engine's power transmit to rear wheel in Silver bike while in Blue bike its relatively much simple

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

I disagree here, Its more of a challenge to make the engine's power transmit to rear wheel in Silver bike while in Blue bike its relatively much simple

I said a piece of 'art' and not a piece of engineering genius.

The blue bike is more aesthetic to look at and also has a charm with that engine mounted that way. The silver bike doesn't look that pleasing to my eyes.

Anyways i don't think it's that difficult to turn that power shaft 90 degrees and use a chain to drive the rear wheels. It has been done before in the Boss Hoss which uses a chain and in which engine is mounted longitudinally and in the BMW K1200 that uses an transversely mounted inline four and then later turns the power shaft 90 degrees and use a shaft drive to turn the rear wheel.

When i say transversely and longitudinally it's the axis of the crankshaft related to the vehicle chassis/frame.

[v1p3r]

Uh oh, Sankar's getting ideas...

[Technocrat]

oh Beautifull agreed

As about hosfting the power to wheel on silver bike, its certainly not easy, remeber this engine is bound to have a huge torque so mating the componants wont be easy.

[vabs78]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

I disagree here, Its more of a challenge to make the engine's power transmit to rear wheel in Silver bike while in Blue bike its relatively much simple

its not that difficult, use a shaft drive with universal joints to drive the transmission and transmission will use chain/belt drive to drive the wheel

[Sankar]

Yes it won't be easy... but in the good ol US of A anything is possible... with people specialising in making one off 'whatever part you need' it's possible but could be a lot expensive.

[vabs78]

exactly sankar,
considering that he entire bike is custom built including the chassis, adding a propeller shaft between engine and tranny isn't much work

[rider60]

sort of looks huge and monstrous can we have the technical specifications and the details of the GB, drive train?

[TomRider]

Sweet! Nice find theMAG!

[netchef]

In typical American fashion, quite mad and over-the-top. Transverse mount of the silver bike engine makes more sense for even cooling of the cylinders...but God help either bike on our Indian roads: one speed breaker and they can kiss the lower cylinders goodbye.