Archive for 'New Technology' Category
Free Piston Engine as Efficient as Fuel Cells
30 September 2008There’s a lot of heavy duty R&D going on these days to reinvent the engine or replace the engines we’re using altogether. The free piston engine, though invented in the 1920s, is getting more attention because it is less expensive than fuel cells for generating electricity while potentially just as efficient.
The free piston engine has [...]
Titanium and Carbon Fiber Costs Coming Down
12 August 2008Look at your average MotoGP bike and you’ll see lots of titanium and carbon fiber pieces, same goes for high end bikes like the Ducati Desmosedici or any motorcycle needing the strongest and lightest materials. Unfortunately, all of those exotic bits mean high prices, but, we could see more of those materials used in the [...]
Electronic Shift By Wire on Bicycles
1 August 2008Every time I mention brake by wire, throttle by wire or anything by wire, there’s a contingent of voices that just can’t get their heads around the change. Here is another sign of control by wire in a place I wouldn’t have thought about, bicycles. Shimano has introduced their full electronic shift by wire system [...]
Natural Gas Vehicle Refueling at Home with Phill
30 July 2008After the story about adsorbed natural gas conversions for motorcycles, one commenter said, “If one could fill up at home that would be really cool.” Well, with Phill, you can. Made by FuelMaker, Phill is what is termed a Vehicle Refueling Appliance (VRA) and is one of several products made by the company. It hangs [...]
Adsorbed Natural Gas Conversions for Motorcycles
29 July 2008Adsorbed Natural Gas (ANG) is a technology that’s been around for a while but has been getting more attention for the obvious reason that gasoline prices are forcing us to look at alternatives and I wondered recently which technology would eventually win. ANG conversions for motorcycles are interesting because they can be used to convert [...]
TTxGP Clean Emissions Grand Prix Race
30 June 2008June 2009 will mark the first running of the TTxGP Clean Emissions Grand Prix Race at the famous Isle of Mann TT circuit. The whole point of the race is to show clean and green doesn’t have to mean slow. There have been a lot of alternative energy drivetrains proposed and built but the image [...]
Honda Driving Safety Support Systems
28 March 2008Honda is testing what it calls its Driving Safety Support Systems (DSSS). 2 vehicles, a Honda Odyssey, Advanced Safety Vehicle (ASV-4) and a Honda Forza scooter, are equipped with inter-vehicle and road-to-vehicle communications capabilities, plus other scooters will be used for camera detection purposes.
The purpose of the project is to utilize positional information gleaned from [...]
Ricardo 2/4Sight - 2 and 4 Stroke Engine
26 March 2008We’ve seen engines that turn cylinders on and off but how about engines that switch between 2 and 4 stroke operation on the fly? The engineering firm, Ricardo, has developed a prototype of an engine that does exactly that, they call it the 2/4Sight. With careful design of intake and exhaust ports plus a control [...]
