The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Ducati Apollo V4

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The Berliner brothers, who owned Berliner Motor Corporation and used to import Ducati into the U.S., among several other brands, in 1959 asked Ducati to build a motorcycle to compete with Harley Davidson for the police motorcycle business. After some discussion, Ducati finally agreed to the idea and a few years later produced the V4 powered Apollo. The engine displaced 1256cc … [Read more...]

NSU 2000cc Single Cylinder Motorcycle

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Franz Langer held the record for the largest displacement single cylinder motorcycle engine, with a 1000cc thumper built in 1998. Not long afterwards, Werner Dienstkrad built a 1440cc steampunk motorcycle designed after a comic strip creation, which we mentioned on The Kneeslider in this article last year. Franz wanted the record back so he built the NSU Bison 2000, a 2000cc … [Read more...]

Drake Harley Davidson Water Cooled V-Twin Engine

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Around 1937, Dale Drake, who was later to become instrumental in developments to the Offenhauser racing engine, began working on a 2 cylinder engine for midget racers. He began with an air cooled opposed twin but eventually took a Harley Davidson Knucklehead engine and installed water cooled cylinders. The result was an 89 cubic inch V-twin that was 10 percent smaller than the … [Read more...]

Honda 125cc Inline 4 Cylinder Monkey Bike

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The little Honda Monkey bikes, the 50cc Z series mini bikes, are pretty popular in some countries. Some fans of the little guy really engineer very nifty modifications, like this 125cc inline 4 cylinder engine for instance. It's so small it looks like a model but it's a real engine and sounds great! Not a lot of detail on their website but very, very cool. Thanks for the … [Read more...]

Looking Inside the Combustion Chamber

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BMW wanted to make a video showing the inside of an engine cylinder during one revolution, including the actual ignition and combustion. 3 engines, a bit of sawing and drilling plus some high speed cameras and this is what you get. No special effects other than a very high frame rate to slow everything down. I like it. Video below: … [Read more...]

Ricardo 2/4Sight – 2 and 4 Stroke Engine

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We'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 system that manages the direct fuel injection timing, the … [Read more...]