Pulsejet Powered Bicycle

Feeling depressed because you can't afford a turbine motorcycle? Don't despair, you can have a pulsejet bicycle instead. It may not be quite as impressive but if you tell folks you have a jet bike without giving them too many details, they'll think you're a real rocketman.

Robert Maddox builds pulsejet engines. Pulsejets, for those of you not up on your aviation history, were the power used by the infamous German V1 buzzbombs in WWII. The buzzbomb got its name from the buzzing sound of the pulsejet engine and the engines Bob builds, true to form, sound exactly like you would expect.

He's selling the engines and the photo here shows one attached to a bicycle, though he's attached them to go karts and all sorts of other things. This version puts out 50 to 60 pounds of thrust, enough for 75 mph or so on the bike but he builds bigger ones, too, up to 1000 pounds of thrust, for your larger projects.

He has some videos and it's very cool how they glow red when running, you might want some heat protection on your pant legs but there's a pretty high cool factor here. Experiment at your own risk.

Roehr 1250sc – 180 HP Supercharged V-Twin

The Roehr 1250sc pre production prototype has been completed and plans are to begin production late this year. The bike is powered by a 180 hp supercharged Harley Davidson Revolution engine. This should be one extremely interesting motorcycle. I like the looks and I really like the blown Revolution engine. Final price has not been set.

Let's see, a 180 hp supercharged American made V-Twin sportbike. Yep, I like it!

Press release:

06 May 2008, Gurnee, IL. USA. Roehr Motorcycles LLC is pleased to announce the completion of the pre-production Roehr 1250sc. The company is now working towards production commencing this Fall.

The 1250sc is powered by a specially developed 180hp, supercharged version of the Harley-Davidson* Revolution* engine, making the Roehr 1250sc the fastest and most powerful sport bike built in America.

European flair and American muscle are combined with the highest quality cycle components from world class companies such as Ohlins, Marchesini, Brembo, Akropovic and Pirelli. These components combined with the unique Roehr Bi-Metal composite beam frame contribute to the machines outstanding handling manners, offering quick precise steering response with confidence inspiring stability and rider feedback.

The Roehr 1250sc is proudly hand crafted in the USA and will be available in limited numbers. Final pricing to be announced when determined. Roehr Motorcycles is now accepting orders to reserve this exclusive machine as well as offering dealership opportunities.

Buell Conversion Kit From Fusion Motorcycles

Remember "The Machine" from Fusion Motorcycles? Well, Will Thibeault has been hard at work on something a lot of you may find interesting, he's designed a conversion kit that will transform your donor Buell into a custom with killer looks.

Will's kit uses a billet T6 aluminum bolt together frame with a built in oil tank, a 60 inch wheelbase and 33 degrees of rake. The Buell Thunderstorm motor, Buell forks, Buell six piston caliper and Buell rear caliper, all come from the donor bike.

The bike shown in these photos is for a customer with a lot of custom touches, a hard carbon fiber seat (customer request, Will prefers padded), Piaa head lights..same as he used on The Machine, Will's own stainless pipes and Fusion Motorcycles billet 18" wheels, 240 on the rear and 130 up front. Rear turn signals are LED.

According to Will:

The future bikes will have front and rear carbon fenders, and will be totally road legal. The Frame kits will include: frame, seat, rear shock, swing arm, oil tank, and gas tank for $4,500. For less than $10,000 a person can build their own w/ the purchase of a donor Buell. We will build the complete bike "road legal" for $19,500 and there are always the options of whatever you could think of i.e. carbon wheel, S&S motors, front ends and Ti frames

There are quite a few guys building choppers and all sorts of bikes from Buell parts and pieces but, in my opinion, this kit has just the right look. There seems to be a Confederate Hellcat influence, which is a good thing since I like the Hellcat, but overall, for the money, I don't see how you could go wrong here. Anyone with a Buell who is thinking about getting another bike, might want to consider this kit first, you get a completely different look and you already own half of the necessary parts. I like this, a lot. I have to think a lot of guys are going to start looking for a good used Buell and making a bit of work room in their garage. Nice work, Will!

UPDATE: Will Thibeault has added a few comments below about his kit

UPDATE 2: Will just let me know that the kit will not be ready until sometime in 2009. He is redesigning some parts and he is going to thoroughly test everything before offering the kits for sale.

Honda 50 Powered Vintage Bicycle Project

Here's an interesting project that takes little money, isn't too hard to do and actually has a practical side, it's a Huffy bicycle found at a flea market, a couple of vintage looking pieces found on eBay, a new Honda 50cc engine and a few other modifications to make it look like an early grey Harley Davidson.

According to the builder it gets about 120 mpg and cruises at a comfortable 25 to 30 mph with a top speed approaching 40 mph.

Looks like a cool project to get the kids involved in a little "hands on" activity or something to get your own hands into the building process. Neat.

TSS RS500 2 Cylinder 2 Stroke

While most everyone else has moved on to the land of 4 strokes, there's a group of intrepid engineers and builders in Australia devoted to the idea of building a 500cc 2 cylinder 2 stroke motorcycle, starting with the Aprilia RS250 chassis and installing their own highly engineered 2 stroke powerplant.

Grand Prix Engineer Wayne "Wobbly" Wright who has a 30 year career building GP engines and pipes went to work on the engine and the finished piece puts out 112 horsepower and 60 foot pounds of torque. Mounted in a bike weighing 286 pounds total and having the power delivery you would expect from a 2 stroke gives you a bike that one might call entertaining.

The idea here is to bring 2 stroke technology up to the best that can be built right now and place it in a modern frame and suspension package, a combination you can't buy in your neighborhood showroom.

The company the group formed is called the Two Stroke Shop, and besides many other parts for the 2 stroke fanatic, they offer not only complete RS 500 motorcycles but also the engines alone or kits to adapt your own RS250 to accept their engine.

There are no prices on the site, expensive I'm sure, but what they offer seems somewhat unique. It's an extremely interesting setup and just the thing to surprise the heck out of your average GSX-R pilot. I like it.

D1200R – BMW Based Concept Motorcycle

Every now and then, one of the many emails we receive from designers and builders stands out from the crowd, and this project, the BMW D1200R by Pablo Gonzalez de Chaves and Carlos Beltran, is one of the best to come along in quite some time.

Pablo started with the idea of improving and transforming the BMW R1200R into a new motorcycle, with a new front suspension, a new chassis, essentially a whole new design. His design work is first rate and if he stopped at that point, it would be considered well done, but he didn't stop there, the project continued with the creation of hard parts and assembly into the actual motorcycle he envisioned on the computer screen. There's nothing like testing your skills by making the actual pieces fit together and perform in the real world.

The year long project began with a BMW R1200R fitted with sensors and taken to the track where a great deal of performance data was gathered. Then the motorcycle was disassembled, extensive measurements were taken, entered into the computer and the redesign began.

The design started with pencil sketches, progressed to Photoshop and finally took shape in CAD and 3D modeling software. The design data was then used for the machining necessary to create the parts. Assembly surprises were limited due to the careful design work and after the motorcycle was complete, it was taken back to the track where the initial data was gathered and performance was compared with favorable results. Some areas for improvement were noted and some revisions will be incorporated as work continues.

The chassis for the D1200R is made from milled aluminum and sharp eyed readers may notice the front brake is from a Buell XB12. Lights are LEDs. The front suspension, similar to designs by Foale and Parker, was purposely left exposed for aesthetic reasons and I have to agree, it looks good that way, showing off the extensive redesign. Pablo's website visually documents the whole process to give you an idea of the work involved.

Pablo has considerable training in the field of motorcycle design, holds a MSc in Motorsport Engineering and has work experience with Lamborghini, among others. He has 2 earlier designs on his site, one a 600cc inline 4 cylinder streetfighter and the other an electric scooter. It looks like the he's putting his skills to good use. Excellent work!

UPDATE: Pablo wanted to add that Carlos Beltran also played a very large part in the mechanical design portion of this project and I have added his name above. Nice work, Carlos! (I should have noted his name earlier but I was relying on translations of the pages and it was a little confusing.)

Oldsmobile Quad 4 Motorcycle Project

Chris Fairbrother has an idea for an all new sportbike, something very fast and easy to maintain, that doesn't have to rev high to produce major power; hence large displacement (2300cc).

Oldsmobile, with assistance from Jim Feuling, developed an engine in 1988, the 2.3 liter, iron-block, four-valve DOHC aluminum-head Quad 4, putting out about 180 horsepower and tunable for much more. It was a popular race engine in the early 1990s and AJ Foyt had one up to 266 mph. Chris thought, hmm ... sounds like a Quad 4 might do it.

Actually, Chris has plans to build his own engine, too, but the Quad 4 seems like a nice proof of concept before going off in that direction. He took a Quad 4, replaced the fuel injection and reversed the engine so the four 50mm flat slide carbs face forward (ram air). With raised compression, worked heads and race cams it will produce approximately 300hp. The bike itself is very small. Wheelbase 57.5", seat height 30", fork rake 26 degrees, weight approximately 360lbs, lean angle 55 degrees.

One of the biggest problems with the prototype was to build a frame that was very light and very strong. I opted for a backbone type frame, and used both the engine and gearbox as stressed members. The torque produced by the Quad 4 is substantial and I wanted to come up with a steering head capable of taking the forces, plus a stirrup unit that would hold the rear swingarm tight and prevent shearing. A mechanical engineer friend of mine modeled my frame on a computer and determined that, if anything, it was overbuilt.

What you see in these photos is the prototype, wooden forms show the shape of the tank and fairings which will be fiberglass and aluminum.

I knew from day one that I would have to design my own engine (which I have done) to use for production purposes, the Quad 4 application was simply a way of testing. My engine is an in-line four, four valve per cylinder, oval port, twin overhead cam, 1900cc with 30 degree valve banks, straight induction (between the cam banks) with studs anchored in the cylinder head passing through the block and oil pan, (ie. nuts torqued from below). This changes the usual approach somewhat, but adds rigidity to the whole motor. Assembling and disassembling is also simpler.

Looks like we have a modern Munch Mammut in sportbike form, though the engine size is hardly out of bounds in today's ever growing motorcycle engine displacement race. I like Chris' idea. He's currently lining up financing to complete the project and take it to the next level but he's already done quite a lot. I'll be interested in following this as it progresses. Very cool project.