Innovation

Just recently I have purchased a new engine for maybe another bike project that I will do in the future or maybe later on for the bike I am building now.
I have done a lot of investigating into other options for an engine that would perform better than what I already have.
I came across an engine again used in the remote controlled plane industry whereby they got an engine from a Stihl leaf blower and converted it to work in their planes.
Recently I purchased a second hand leaf blower off ebay and thanks to Lorin and Walter Lindsay they took it apart for me and then sent it to a friend of ours that is coming to Kolkata shortly so I am very excited to get my hands on this engine and do some testing.
The engine uses a new concept called 4 mix. This means it is halfway between a 4 stroke and a 2 stroke. 
This engine is two thirds of the size of my current engine and two thirds of its weight so that in itself is a benefit but then it has three times the horse power.
Although I have never heard of anyone trying to use it for what I am going to use it for I am confident that it has potential.
Its going to be fun fiddling around trying to get it to perform how I want it to.
Here is a photo of one of these engines mounted as a RC plane engine

This is what it looked like before Lorin and Walter took it apart 

Progress

Well it has been ages since I posted anything on this blog as my bike project sort of went on hold. At the end of 2011 I was just too busy to be able to do anything to the bike and then a trip to NZ meant I couldn't work on the bike but managed to pick up some really good parts for the project.
The last few weeks I have been able to find a bit of time to get back into it and with a new welder at work, a special AC/DC tig welder it has helped to motivate me to get this finished.

As you can see the Honda engine is mounted in a weird position for any engine, yes it is vertical, espeically strange for a 4 stroke engine to be sitting up on its nose, but then this is a very special engine which is used in radio controlled planes and they do acrobatics with them so it can be run in any position.


As you can see the main strut of the bike is also the gas tank, holds 2 litres which should be good for 120km range.
I have just ordered some parts for the pedals, sprockets etc so hopefully they will be on their way soon.


Keep you posted on progress