Ian Douglas sent me a note and thought we might like to see his answer to the Gunbus 410. No, it's not built to the outsized proportions of that monster but the engine is based on cylinders and heads from a Continental radial engine. This isn't one of those little Rotec radials used by Jesse James or JRL Cycles, these pieces are from a full size aero engine. The 2 cylinders, with a bore of 5.125" and stroke of 4.625" yield 191 cubic inches (3130cc) and mate to a crankcase designed by Ian himself. He designed the patterns, a local foundry made the casting.
Everything was built by Ian in his garden shed. He designed and built the boardtrack style hardtail frame with sufficient size to hold the engine while keeping it proportioned so someone can actually ride it. I like the aero touches like the nose art, applied by local artist, Jennie Persak and if you look closely, you'll even see a pitot tube for the airspeed indicator. How cool is that?
The bike looks pretty neat but it's the engine that catches your eye, I think the heads, especially, look great. Is the bike practical? Not really, though it certainly looks rideable, it's just one of those projects that starts when a builder comes up with an idea and sees it through. Anything with an engine that looks that good gets a thumbs up from me.
Link: WarbirdMotorcycle.com
Kickboxer Subaru WRX Powered Motorcycle Concept
{ 17 comments… add yours below ... }
The importent word here is ‘rideable’. As entertaining as Gunbus and similar monstrosities may be, they are first and foremost sculptures. Only when you can actually ride thing on public roads, in traffic, through towns etc., that they become first and foremost motorcycles.
Good to see one such that made it further than the drawing board.
I live for this stuff, a completely original bike made by a guy in his shed! That motor is beautiful!
A great use of old Beaver pots.
Keep it up Ian. Some of the best companies in the world were started in a shed, you know like Hewlett Packard, Harley-Davidson and Ford just to name a few.
I am curious about the paterns you created for the foundry , did you carve a block of foam or wax for a type of investment casting or make a wood pattern ?
All of the patterns were produced in laminated wood.
The design is several components so that modifications could be easily made. I had sponsorship from an American aircraft engine manufacturer who indicate they have many high profile clients that are interested in getting their hands on this bike.
They may want to use cylinders to match their personal aircraft hence the component design flexibility.
Ian
For a custom bike, as Kim said, it is a great sculpture. As a motorcycle that could be ridden, I have a problem that I see in almost every custom bike build for show. The stubby open exhaust pipes will certainly not endear the rider with the local populace.
Is the idea of building a custom bike with a more complete, muffled exhaust completely unreasonable?
Rats, I guess I am getting too old to enjoy the thunder on Main Street.
That engine is a work of art. Unbelievable!
I have a really cool retired aviation guy who lives down the block, who has been following my tinkering. He is in his 70’s now, but dearly wanted to be on hand for initial start-up.
His solution to sound level was to turn down his hearing aid…. On start-up he quickly turned it back up saying he didn’t want to miss a thing, and it wasn’t that loud anyway.
Ian
In the early days of the aircraft, it wasn’t unusual for an airplane to sport a motorcycle engine for propulsion. It’s great to see the airplane engines take a turn on the bikes!!
Absolutely beautiful!
LUV THAT ENGINE .
It’s good to see that you fit a rear tire that would lose grip before it had a chance to spit you off the bicycle seat…
That thing has to have major torque. Is there much of a flywheel? How does something like this get registered? Do you have to file for a special builder’s registration (once a year right?).
-todd
OMG, the right side of that bike must be L*O*U*D!
Todd
The flywheels started out as S&S stroker racing wheels then I added lots of tungsten/osmium slugs and crescent shaped cheek weights. I built the sprocket shaft and pinion shaft as well as the con rods.
As for registration, they know me down at the office (I have made a few out of the ordinary bikes)
Having been around a fair number of nearly unmuffled aero engines in their original living quarters — airplanes — I’d have to say I believe Ian’s pilot friend with the hearing aid who says this just isn’t that loud. Probably louder than would be street-legal, to be sure, but I bet it’s not near as loud as some of the “custom” Harleys I’ve seen…er, heard. Of course, if you really needed it quieter, you could probably build a custom exhaust system that looked just like what’s on there, but had very small in-line mufflers inside the pipes.
Totally awesome bike, by the way. I really really like it.
cl
Ian – way to go. Tremendous. The level of restraint on designing the rest of the bike did its job by getting out of the way of the mechanicals.
Great-looking engine. Very cool pushrods. The foundry did an excellent job too.
I saw this at the Vancouver Motorcycle show the other weekend. Fantastic bike. Definitely received mixed reactions from people who were taking a look at it, but I loved it.
The Kneeslider does not endorse nor imply agreement with any particular comment just because we let it stand, but, you already knew that.
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