RadioBanter - View Single Post

September 30th 05, 01:13 PM

wrote:
The plans say it gets up to
125 miles per gallon.

I keep kicking around the idea of making a one seater car
out of a small motorcycle drivetrain.

That was the point of the Berkeley. Two seater, three one cylinder
motorcycle engines bolted together. Chain drive.

Can't decide how to go about
it though. I've considered a trike-car, but I think a trike wheel in
the
front would be too unstable. Not sure about a rear steer trike.

Henry Morgan built three wheelers for years. With a V-twin motorcycle
engine out front. Single wheel in the back, steerable wheels in the front.

It was a pretty impressive racer in its day.

Also have kicked around the idea of just adding frame to one
side and making a four wheeler motorcycle, but with only one
side actually driving power.

That's how Henry Ford got started.

I'd like to make a light glass
body that looked like the front of a jet plane, to cut wind
resistance. If you used a 125-250 cc range engine, I bet
you could get pretty a pretty decent mpg. Being I once had a
yamaha 250 that probably did 80-90 mph, I think going street speeds
would be a snap. Dunno how if would fare on the freeway...
Could probably do 55 I bet if stable enough.
MK

Morgan's three wheeler moved pretty well. Terrorized the dirt tracks.

The problem is going to be EPA. New regulations are coming into play
that will require the same complex emissions systems on motorcycles that
are now found on cars, and trucks. The Germans are already doing it
voluntarily, trying to get out in front of the issue. Getting anywhere
near decent performance with a Otto derived engine with full emissions
gear, and more or less common induction is going to limit your fuel
economy to less than 50 mpg. My K-100LT only sees 40 on a good day. Moto
Guzzi only gets 50 with it's V-twin, and that's before the new rules go
into effect.

And safety standards require greater mass for the vehicle for safety,
today. That's why the VW Type One can't be made today in the US. There's
not enough material in it to sustain an impact rating.

If you really want large mileage, you'll have to do two things that
are currently not being done. One is change the induction system to more
closely achieve a pure stoichiometric mixture in the cylinder. The other
is to recover energy lost as heat that's being blown off the engine and
recycle that heat energy. With a stoichiometric mixture, at maximum
yield burn rates, there is no other way to increase endurance but to
recover lost energies and apply them to output.