Archive for 'Science frontiers' Category
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 [...]
Ethanol From Carbon Waste
14 March 2008More good news on the alternative fuels front. I was listening to GM’s Bob Lutz talking to a reporter yesterday and he spoke very highly of the process of making ethanol from most any carbon rich waste. Most of us probably associate ethanol production with corn, you know, moonshine, and more recently, some companies have [...]
Gasoline From Carbon Dioxide - Fourth Generation Fuel
3 March 2008If gasoline prices have you a little frustrated, there is a silver lining. As I said long ago, rising prices bring new technology. I came across this rather amazing article over the weekend about Craig Venter, the fellow who mapped the humane genome, and who is now working on reengineering simple life forms to consume [...]
G-Oil Non Petroleum Green Motor Oil
5 November 2007G-Oil was introduced at the SEMA show last week. G-Oil is a green oil that is completely petroleum free, it’s made from “American grown base oils” which seems to be rendered beef tallow in this case. The American Petroleum Institute should be issuing certification within a month and it’s available for all automotive applications from [...]
Polaris Delivers ATV with Multi Fuel Patriot Engine
28 September 2007What do you call a spark ignition engine that runs on JP8, the military’s standard fuel for jets and most everything else? You call it Patriot. Even better, in a pinch, this engine runs on gasoline, JP5 or regular highway diesel!
Polaris Industries produces ATVs for the military, specialized gasoline powered models for the troops [...]
Motorcycle X Prize Ideas
14 September 2007Is there enough room for advancement in the motorcycle industry that an X Prize like competition would make sense? Envision the ultimate motorcycle, what would it be? Almost anything you can think of is a continuation of something already being done and progress would only be a matter of degree, higher speed, better mileage, lower [...]
EEStor Ultracapacitor Battery Replacement
11 September 2007After my question about the potential for an electric Gold Wing and all of the thoughtful comments it generated, I thought I would touch on this ultracapacitor patent by EEStor that’s getting a lot of attention. EEStor says it has developed “technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries.” A bold statement in the very least.
A capacitor [...]
Do Motorcycles Have a Future?
5 January 2007What is the future for motorcycles and motorcycling? I imagine this question gets tossed around on occasion in the boardrooms and design studios of motorcycle companies around the world, but I wonder how they answer it.
Technology Life Cycles
Technology has a life cycle from invention to maturity and finally supersedence by something else. Motorcycles were [...]
