With all of this talk of stuffing bike engines in cars and car engines in bikes and who knows what else, I recalled a fellow from long ago who gained some notoriety doing drag strip exhibitions, E.J.Potter. What most people remember of him is his Chevy powered bike, the "Widow Maker," doing smoke filled quarter miles. It was pretty neat. He had a small block Chevy sideways in … [Read more...]
Make Magazine finally arrives
Way back here I mentioned the upcoming release of Make Magazine, devoted to those of us who like tools and taking things apart and finding out how stuff works and most importantly, how to build neat new things to solve some problem or just to see if we could. My first issue finally arrived yesterday. It has all kinds of hacks, computer, electronic, mechanical, just a lot of … [Read more...]
Naro car and Aprilia Magnet
Here are two concepts that are absolutely neat. The first is the Naro car, which is a four wheel two seater. The seats are in tandem and the riders are seated higher than a car, eye height is the same as a Honda Blackbird and the width is just enough to enclose the mirrors of the same bike. Because it is high and narrow, it must lean in the turns like a motorcycle. Several … [Read more...]
Future transportation – looks like today
An interesting post over at Marginal Revolution notes that predictions of future transportation always have a lot of "gee whiz" yet when we finally arrive at the time of the predictions, things look a lot like they were. Is it steady progress that makes the changes seem small or are things really not changing much? Motorcycles and cars are faster, more powerful, more fuel … [Read more...]
Hydrogen engines
Yesterday's post about engines led to a comment by Doug Staab who wondered what a hydrogen engine would sound like. Well, it might sound a lot like the engines we already run. Some college students, way back in 1972, converted a Gremlin to run on hydrogen and the engine they used was a transplanted Boss 351 from Ford. The exhaust was water vapor and it actually was cleaner than … [Read more...]
Segway spinners
You know what the Segway is, the two wheeled self balancing scooter, well the consumer electronics show is going on right now and, like any show, the exhibitors keep trying to attract as many visitors to their booth as possible. MTX Audio, the company that sponsors Jake Zemke, put spinners on their Segway. Hmm..., maybe next we get 22 inchers with low profile tires? Thanks to … [Read more...]