The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Motorcycle design – anything is possible

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Remember when the new model year meant something and many of us would wait with anticipation for the new designs to be unveiled in the fall? That was a different world and it seems so long ago. It hasn't been so very long that motorcycle design, actually vehicle design in general, was in a far different world, too. Designers might sketch radical designs putting their visions on … [Read more...]

Flexible Fuel Motorcycles

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Ford Motor Company has been making a lot of announcements recently about how it is pushing development of flexible fuel vehicles and building a flexible fuel infrastructure so those vehicles can fill up, which primarily means with E85, so I started to wonder about motorcycles. What fuel options does a biker have? If you're not familiar with the term "flexible fuel," it means … [Read more...]

More automatic motorcycles – now from China

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Had an interesting comment yesterday on my post about the Honda DN-01 automatic sports cruiser. Tom mentioned a motorcycle built in China, the CFMoto V5. (That's version 5, not a V5 engine, don't get excited) I had never heard of it, so I took a look. If you jump over to their (very slow) site, you'll see a small displacement (244cc) motorcycle with a CVT trannsmission. You'll … [Read more...]

Twincharger engines – maybe motorcycles, too?

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Speaking of engine ideas for the Vmax, here's a recently developed engine from VW, the Twincharger, that holds promise not only for small displacement cars but possibly the motorcycle market as well. The Twincharger, is a 1390cc 4 cylinder engine with both a supercharger and a turbocharger. The supercharger is used for power below 2400rpm well before the turbo gets spooled … [Read more...]

Yamaha Gen-Ryu hybrid motorcycle

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So, a few days ago I say there's no need for hybrid motorcycles and Yamaha turns around and introduces the Gen-Ryu hybrid motorcycle concept to be displayed at the Tokyo show. I guess they weren't listening. It has both a 600cc R6 engine and a high output electric motor, the combination of the two is said to give performance equivalent to a 1000cc motorcycle. It also has the … [Read more...]

Ghostrider fails to qualify for DARPA Grand Challenge

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The finalists have been announced for the DARPA Grand Challenge and The Kneeslider's sentimental favorite, Ghostrider, failed to make the main event. We already noted it was having a hard time. The finalists in alphabetical order are: Axion Racing (Westlake Village, Calif.), Team Cajunbot (Lafayette, La.), Team CalTech (Pasadena, Calif.), CIMAR (Gainesville, Fla.), Team … [Read more...]