Here's some others to check out:
http://www.bikemenu.com for other custom made monstrosities... and then there's the Chrysler Tomahawk - a cycle built around the Viper V10 engine.
This will be a limited production run.
http://www.tinlin.net/jim/email/tomahawk.html
also, www.bosshoss.com is the makers of a v8 cycle, I believe it's a corvette engine they use
Another bike worth looking at is a limited production (limited by available of critical part) Jet Bike which uses a helicopter jet engine for power. Jay Leno owns one of these.
I like a good bike as much, perhaps more than, the next man. But that is a bit too pointless for my taste. Granted, you have the equivalent of a bazillion horses pulling that thing, but you can only use a very few of them (relive to the total amount, of course) at a time...
If you want to get my attention, show me a bike that goes 0-80 in 4 seconds (without flipping over...), and is quieter than toothpaste spreading over a brush...
Like they said, the man is no engineer. I would expect that if you actually tried to go any distance on it you would burn pistons in the rear cylinders. Not only lack of cooling air, but also lean mixture from the lousy fuel distribution resulting from having each 8 cylinders fed by a carb at the front.
I've benchraced a few silly projects thru the years. The latest was a W-9 using V-6 parts. Main purpose, like the thoughts of using an Audi 5 cylinder engine, would be how it would sound. Least practical vehicle I would ever actually build is a V-6 Chevette.
"If you want to get my attention, show me a bike that goes 0-80 in 4 seconds (without flipping over...), and is quieter than toothpaste spreading over a brush..."
Got one, Andrew. Well, it's a little louder than toothpaste ;-)
bikes that fast distort your perceptions -- it's like entering a parallel universe, it's so surreal.
the ZX was completely innocuous at low rpms and low throttle openings; it had no nasty vices beyond that point, either. it just ran smoothly, flawlessly, and utterly reliably, right off the showroom floor.
ok, it's big and pretty heavy, and you don't get to change direction very quickly at 140mph+... but you also don't want to be twitching or worried about crosswinds at that speed, either.
for a hair under $10k, I had a bike which, when waiting at a traffic light, any stock manufactured vehicle that came up alongside [barring another ZX, which I don't recall ever happened] I could glance sidelong and know without fear of contradiction the Perfect Axiom:
Ah, it has **wheels**;
therefore...
it's **slower**.
no, it didn't flip over. wheelies were a user-selectable and predictable option from about 4K rpm up in 1st or 2nd, depending purely on throttle position. the stock pipes truly whispered at mild rpms.
at gung-ho, relativistic-effects acceleration, I guess it probably was a tad louder than toothpaste -- but one hardly noticed, preoccupied as one tended to be with the combination of literal hurricane-strength wind noise and drag screaming past the relatively tranquil bubble created by the fairing; the "tunnel vision" effect of extreme speed; and above all, anticipating the next [always] imminent point-of-no-return braking marker.
Correction...That's an engine with wheels.
And you only get to ride it once. Just once.
Here's some others to check out:
http://www.bikemenu.com for other custom made monstrosities... and then there's the Chrysler Tomahawk - a cycle built around the Viper V10 engine.
This will be a limited production run.
http://www.tinlin.net/jim/email/tomahawk.html
also, www.bosshoss.com is the makers of a v8 cycle, I believe it's a corvette engine they use
Another bike worth looking at is a limited production (limited by available of critical part) Jet Bike which uses a helicopter jet engine for power. Jay Leno owns one of these.
I like a good bike as much, perhaps more than, the next man. But that is a bit too pointless for my taste. Granted, you have the equivalent of a bazillion horses pulling that thing, but you can only use a very few of them (relive to the total amount, of course) at a time...
If you want to get my attention, show me a bike that goes 0-80 in 4 seconds (without flipping over...), and is quieter than toothpaste spreading over a brush...
Like they said, the man is no engineer. I would expect that if you actually tried to go any distance on it you would burn pistons in the rear cylinders. Not only lack of cooling air, but also lean mixture from the lousy fuel distribution resulting from having each 8 cylinders fed by a carb at the front.
I've benchraced a few silly projects thru the years. The latest was a W-9 using V-6 parts. Main purpose, like the thoughts of using an Audi 5 cylinder engine, would be how it would sound. Least practical vehicle I would ever actually build is a V-6 Chevette.
"If you want to get my attention, show me a bike that goes 0-80 in 4 seconds (without flipping over...), and is quieter than toothpaste spreading over a brush..."
Got one, Andrew. Well, it's a little louder than toothpaste ;-)
http://www.russell-falla.com/Adrian/BikePage1.shtml
shep,
thanks for the link!
oh my gods, I loved my ZX-11.
bikes that fast distort your perceptions -- it's like entering a parallel universe, it's so surreal.
the ZX was completely innocuous at low rpms and low throttle openings; it had no nasty vices beyond that point, either. it just ran smoothly, flawlessly, and utterly reliably, right off the showroom floor.
ok, it's big and pretty heavy, and you don't get to change direction very quickly at 140mph+... but you also don't want to be twitching or worried about crosswinds at that speed, either.
for a hair under $10k, I had a bike which, when waiting at a traffic light, any stock manufactured vehicle that came up alongside [barring another ZX, which I don't recall ever happened] I could glance sidelong and know without fear of contradiction the Perfect Axiom:
Ah, it has **wheels**;
therefore...
it's **slower**.
no, it didn't flip over. wheelies were a user-selectable and predictable option from about 4K rpm up in 1st or 2nd, depending purely on throttle position. the stock pipes truly whispered at mild rpms.
at gung-ho, relativistic-effects acceleration, I guess it probably was a tad louder than toothpaste -- but one hardly noticed, preoccupied as one tended to be with the combination of literal hurricane-strength wind noise and drag screaming past the relatively tranquil bubble created by the fairing; the "tunnel vision" effect of extreme speed; and above all, anticipating the next [always] imminent point-of-no-return braking marker.
Adrian Russell-Falla