One thing that both motorcycles and automobiles share is a penchant for a variety of different engine layouts. For both types of machines you can find inline engines, V-units, and horizontally-opposed. With the death of the Wankel in production guise that pretty much covers all the forms available today. That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been some brave souls who have attempted other layouts in the past, and that seems to one area where motorcycles might just have the edge on the car.
Can you think of any engine configuration for a production motorcycle that hasn’t ever been tried? I guess we’ll first off have to make a compendium of all those that have.
Image: AuTo CaR
Hooniverse Asks: Has Every Possible Motorcycle Engine Configuration Already Been Tried?
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19 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: Has Every Possible Motorcycle Engine Configuration Already Been Tried?”
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And I’m pretty sure that all of them have been tried in British bikes. Square Four, the thing above, Wankel, various U and H configurations. Brings back memories of my trip to the Motorcycle museum in Birmingham, UK.
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To my knowledge, no one has ever built a motorcycle with a rotary radial engine, à la the Adams-Farwell. There is good reason for this.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y0XbqHUAI-0/maxresdefault.jpg-
You mean a rotary radial where the 5 blocks and pistons all rotate around the “crank”?
I give you, The Megola.
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I stand corrected. Now that I’ve seen this, I’m almost certain that I’ve seen it before, but how could I have forgotten such a glorious machine?
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Putting the engine in the front wheel seems an odd choice, as if nothing else on this is.
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I was going to say steam, but then I googled just to be sure.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ij8Mq8VvClY/hqdefault.jpg -
Diesel 2-stroke?
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Perhaps not in decadent west, comrade.
http://www.zr.ru/content/articles/17666-dneprodizel/
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/362e471beca3f926623afef713caeec03307e96b1f4e6d32d464867348167183.jpg
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After reading about the DKW Ladepumpe, three-piston single combustion chamber supercharged two-stroke I figured everything had been run up the flagpole at some point.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ef145387eba49090d40f8f9f580eefd2d6b22941113a4b6c64876b97faeff76.jpg -
I can’t think of a case-reed inducted, four-cylinder, horizontally opposed, water-cooled two-stroke.
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Well then, you have just decided your next project bike.
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Well, I’ve already spitballed an air-cooled version based on Yamaha PW80, which would yield a 316cc four-cylinder putting out about 14-16 HP. If you built one based on the 2002-04 Honda CR250 motor, you’d have a 1000cc, watercooled monster. I’d design it to bolt into a BMW R65 transmission and chassis.
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This one has rotary valves, but otherwise it’s what you’re looking for:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7ar718Oqx5c/UWN-UkhTtJI/AAAAAAAABaI/DHVKXvFKxb0/s640/Konig+Racing+Motorbike.jpg
http://www.odd-bike.com/2013/04/konig-500-gp-outboard-powered-underdog.html
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I would have thought the idea of a steam boiler between your legs would have been a terrible idea, but I underestimated motorcyclists willingness to ignore obvious risk. http://ic2.pbase.com/o3/36/309636/1/125030419.jrDK7Hjm._U3V0225copy2.jpg
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“I said I wanted to order the bike in anthracite…”
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Uh. It’s motorcycling. The whole sport self-selects for “willingness to ignore obvious risk.”
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It’s why we love it, after all.
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For one that *has* been tried, but deserves a mention- the Anzani 3-cylinder. An ancestor of the radial, originally built for motorcycles, that also powered the first aircraft across the channel.
Here it is in a bike ridden by Mr. Anzani himself.
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg220/ozhopper/STUFF%202010/anzani3.gif
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