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Round Engine Bike

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aeronca65t

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
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One of my college kids sent this to me this week.

If you like planes and bikes (as I do), you will probably find this at least interesting.
(but part of me says it would have been smarter to put this engine in an airplane....oh well).

radial-engine-bike.jpg
 
I'll bet that's a "hummer" to ride...firing all way around that circle!
 
Mergola did it better, but still, it didn't work all that well! All that spinning mass would lead to "interesting" handling effects! At least Harley had the good sense to cut these engines into slices, but the wiley Italians did that better too and got a 90deg twin with a bit of balance.

Cheers!
Dave G.
 
I didn't have a clue what a "Mergola" was, so I googled it.

Turns out that a "Megola" is an old German bike with a radial five in the front wheel (with no clutch...direct drive). Interesting!

The red bike below is a Megola

Also, below that, another "radial chopper"

Megola-1922-25-1.jpg



radialmotorcycle.jpg
 
Yeah but how does it fire? One cyl at a time? If not it could be set to offset itself? Maybe im only making sense to myself. I am tired.
 
With NOS to less!!
 
Trying to evaluiate the radial chopper as a long distance cruiser misses the point. It is a matter of kinetic art and unmitigated cool. On those points, it scores well.
 
lawguy said:
Trying to evaluiate the radial chopper as a long distance cruiser misses the point. It is a matter of kinetic art and unmitigated cool. On those points, it scores well.
Click to expand...

I would agree that as a work of art, it is nothing short of amazing, but I always felt that the point of building a motorcycle would be to make it at least rideable. I don't know about a long-distance cruiser, I think that you would be in mortal danger just riding it to the local gas station! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
I wonder if you could even ride it on anything but the smoothest pavement. Looks to me like it would hit the lowest rockers if you hit a bump or small hole. Still, impressive engineering.
 
malice said:
Yeah but how does it fire? One cyl at a time?
Click to expand...

Yes. The crank has only one throw. You are really taxing my poor old brain, but if I recall correctly, the firing order for a seven cylinder radial is 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 2 - 4 - 6.
 
Sheds, now let's confuse 'em with how everything rotates without getting tangled up! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
Jeff
 
Here's one that may be a little too large for a bike. All 4360 cubic inches of it!
Jeff
 

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Mark, that looks like an old R1820. Ya gotta love the sound of those inertia starters. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif
Jeff
 
Bugeye58 said:
Sheds, now let's confuse 'em with how everything rotates without getting tangled up! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
Jeff
Click to expand...

I wonder if you can still get the Visible Radial model. We had one at the school. It was like the Visible V-8 or Visible Man.

We also has a Kinner 5 cylinder radial cut-away that rotated at 2 RPM by an electric motor. It's in the Hagerstown Aviation Museum now. Hypnotic.

The Udvar-Hazy Facility has an R-985 (I think) that rotates and opens up when you push a button. Cool.
 
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