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Car Engine in a Motorcycle

Discussion in 'Other Motorcycles' started by k-moe, Jan 13, 2021.

  1. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    These three come to mind as the only production motorcycles using automotive engines as the powerplant.

    In chronoligical order by year of introduction.







     
  2. hogfiddles

    hogfiddles XJ-Wizard, Host-Central NY Carb Clinic Moderator Premium Member

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    Boss hoss is the first one I thought of.......there had been one around here a few years ago——-cool thing
     
  3. Yammaat

    Yammaat Active Member

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    [​IMG]

    Van Veen Wankelmotor (Rotary engine) from The Netherlands.
     
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  4. cgutz

    cgutz Well-Known Member

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    I bet that rotary engine makes for a nice, smooth ride.
     
  5. dkavanagh

    dkavanagh Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    I recently watched Jay Leno's review of the Suzuki RE5 and that's what he thought!
     
  6. Yammaat

    Yammaat Active Member

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    Well, it did but the price in those days was around 30000 in local currency so it outpriced itself.
    But the testers were really astonished by the looks and how it ran. Not comparable with anything, not even compaired to some later bikes like the cbx of kawa 1300 or anything else for that matter.

    The last straw was citroen who stopped making these engines....
     
  7. XJ550H

    XJ550H Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    I know someone who has one quite the large beast it is
     
  8. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    The RE-5 is cool, but doesn’t qualify. Suzuki built their own engine specifically for that motorcycle.As did Norton for their rotary.
     
  9. dkavanagh

    dkavanagh Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    I only brought it up in response to the idea the rotary bike being smooth. I know it doesn't follow thread rules. :)
     
  10. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    What rules? LOL
     
  11. hogfiddles

    hogfiddles XJ-Wizard, Host-Central NY Carb Clinic Moderator Premium Member

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    Rules? Oh wait.... you misspelled it.

    You meant DROOLS
     
  12. Franz

    Franz Well-Known Member

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    Alan Millyard once put a Mini engine into a motorcycle frame he said. Did the rotor tips seal properly in the rotary engines? Norton had problems in that area.
     
  13. Steve Otto

    Steve Otto New Member

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    The BMW K-series is a modified Peugeot engine.
     
  14. Kickaha

    Kickaha Active Member Premium Member

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    They used a Peugeot motor to prove the concept in a prototype then they built their own engine
     
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  15. Bigshankhank

    Bigshankhank Active Member

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    Back in the heyday of "chopper lifestyle" bikes (90's-00's) there was a company putting flathead Ford engines in bikes, similar to the BossHoss but not quite as well developed. There was an early one called Honest Charley back in the 70's but there was a newer one I remember seeing at Daytona back in probably '04.
     
  16. Simmy

    Simmy Well-Known Member

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    there is an episode of American Pickers featuring the bikes from a drag racer from the 60's.
    His bikes had the V8 mounted horizontally which makes more sense (ya right).
     
  17. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    The heyday of the chopper lifestyle was the 60's and 70's.
     
  18. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    E.J. Potter.
     
  19. Bigshankhank

    Bigshankhank Active Member

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    The heyday of choppers was the 60's & 70's, the "Lifestyle" was the 90's & 00's once the kids who were scared of legit bikers back in the 60's & 70's had grown up and earned enough wealth to gentrify the image.
     
  20. Bigshankhank

    Bigshankhank Active Member

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    It always amazed me how these two yokels from central Indiana could just happen to stumble upon every random garage in which an EJ Potter or Von Dutch bike had been hidden 40 years prior.
     

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