By Admin
Garrett’s still AWOL this week, so Eric and Pete keep this episode a bit briefer than usual. Our topic is a bit obscure: horizontal-cylinder engines. We start with Guzzi’s Falcone and Nuovo Falcone. Then, we fawn all over the Ducati Supermono, explain how reciprocating counterweights work, and school Ducati on what the Scrambler Sixty2 should have been, and why. All this leads Pete to a sudden epiphany regarding Honda’s worst bike ever. Moving from thumpers to multi-cylinder bikes, we wrap up with BMW K-bikes and the obscure, Aermacchi-based Linto racer.
NOTE: “Falcone” is properly pronounced fal-CO-nay, not fal-COHN, as I say repeatedly. I’ve had it wrong in my head for years, and know it’s wrong, but the right way just doesn’t stick.
(I didn’t slack this week, and we talked about a lot of bikes, so there’s a full 21 images after the jump.)
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False Neutral – Gettin’ Horizontal
Except where noted in the captions, images are standard press kit/website photos used courtesy of the respective manufacturers.
IMAGE SOURCE: bonhams.com
IMAGE SOURCE: realclassic.co.uk
IMAGE SOURCE: daidegasforum.com
IMAGE SOURCE: Wikipedia
IMAGE SOURCE: bike-urious.com
IMAGE SOURCE: flickr.com
IMAGE SOURCE: flickr.com
IMAGE SOURCE: extrememotorsales.com
IMAGE SOURCE: commons.wikimedia.org
IMAGE SOURCE: advrider.com
IMAGE SOURCE: vft.org
Jeff Glucker 
I’m pretty sure an Italian bike enthusiast will understand “Moto Gootsie Felcon”, although he/she might twitch at first.
Being into engineering, not into bikes, your slack will be my edutainment!
Does the Yamaha T-Max work in this discussion at all? Admittedly its a scooter but it was a fairly horizontal parallel twin with a dummy cylinder.
Good point! Scooters didn’t even occur to me. For that matter, the BMW C scooters would fit that category, too.
http://ridermagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/BMW-C-engine.jpg
“Dummy cylinder”? Not sure what you mean there…
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk133/allworld100/sectionofgearbox02c.jpg
Literally a piston and connecting rod attached to the crank shaft in a cylinder that is 180 degrees opposed to the actual cylinders. I am having a difficult time finding a better picture but yeah 3 cylinder motor, effectively, without fuel air and spark going to one of them.
Fascinating, that few totally under my radar. Thanks for educating me!