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tb3 writes: "Here is the ultimate superbike, powered by the diesel turbine engine found in helicopters, the Y2K weighs 460 lbs, and does the 1/4 mile in 9.8 seconds at 160 mph. The US military have expressed interest in using the bike in hostage rescue situations. The downside? They only build 5 a year, and one will set you back $150,000."
Just for reference, doing the 1/4 mile in 9.8 seconds is faster than a specially modified 777 horsepower Viper (which took 11.4 seconds). And, to give you an idea about how much horsepower that Viper has, consider that a Honda Accord has 150 horsepower.
Alex Bischoff
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
Yeah, but if you made a tiny turbine for a bike that could only go 100 mph and needed more gears, you'd have a monster high-efficiency vehicle. Turbines can be optimised to run at the single most efficient speed possible :)
I wish that picture would go away. Nothing to do with motorcycle accidents, but that man bit into a blasting cap during a drinking binge on a dare. This dead horse has been beaten since last summer.
Makes me wonder at what point in the drivetrain the 10hp of work is being consumed.
Makes me wonder how long the clutch lasts before it is consumed.
Funny story about that. My Dad and some friends were at an LA biker hangout called The Rock Store when Jay rolled up on his jet-bike. My Dad knows Jay through business so they all went up and checked the thing out. Jay said that it got lots of stares as he drove around the city that day, including one unforunate guy in a shiny new BMW who pulled right up behind him to get a look at the bike. Funny thing was, the exhaust from the jet was so hot that it started melting the front end of the guy's car off! Jay said he tried to motion to the guy but the guy just didn't understand it. Sucks for him :)
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I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
He was born in sept of 47 so he is 53, and funny none of the Maine newspaper/tv station web sites have a thing about this, and King is at God status in Maine.
Damn straight. *MOST* SUVs are built on a car chassis with a car engine. The bloody Lexus SUV is a *CAMRY* with a big shell!
There's nothing off-road competent about almost every SUV. Many of them are 2WD, which immediately eliminates them as off-road vehicles; and of the 4WD ones, most of them are run off tiny car engines, and have inadequate suspension and clearance.
Only silly damn buggers buy SUVs.
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Let's make a deal, LoRyder!
We'll string you up by your ankles, with your head three feet above concrete, then cut the line.
If you survive that without being knocked unconscious, I'll quit wearing my helmet.
Of course, this isn't a realistic test. For reality, you'd need to be dropped from about five feet, with a moving start of about 25mph (the average crash speed).
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Quite correct. Street-legal 250cc two-stroke "GP Replicas", that put out about 70 horsepower and way about 280 pounds, are as fast or faster round a racetrack than 750 cc four-stroke sports bikes, which put out around 170 horsepower but weigh about 400 pounds. The greater corner speed made possible by the lighter-weight bike makes all the difference.
I'd also point out that somebody's already done better than helicopter turbine power.I remember hearing a story about a nutcase who fitted a 1500 horsepower engine from a WWII-vintage Mosquito fighter-bomber into a road-registered motorcycle. I think I'd be wearing nappies if I ever tried to ride a bike like that :)
Go you big red fire engine!
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
The Yamaha Yzf-ri will do 10.15 seconds.
There are faster bikes out there, especially if you go custom/turbocharged etc. So this rocket bike is fast, but not *that* fast. And if you've ever done more than about 140mph on a bike, you know that a top end of 250mph is kinda academic.
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
Jay Leno makes enough, and is a bike fanatic (owns several, goes on charity rides), so it very well may be the same bike. It was frustrating me that I couldn't find details.
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Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Dude, don't you watch Dark Angel? You jump the motorcycle through a window, and shoot the terrorists before you land, then you calmly radio in for the troop transport as you unlock the front gate.
Kevin Fox
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Kevin Fox
How're you supposed to rescue a hostage with that then? I mean, you've got a hysterical hostage either paralysed with fear or screaming their nuts off.... You've just blown away four Iraqi terrorists and their mates are coming steaming down the hallway...
Where the fsck do you put them? You can't throw them in the passenger seat and piss off over the horizon 'cos there isn't a passenger seat. Even if there was a passenger seat you have to explain to them that they have to hold on REAL DAMN TIGHT because in 9.8 seconds time you're going to be a quarter mile away?
So how does this work then?
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
you would probably be wrong, as IIRC correctly (I used to be in bikes several years ago, and owned a nice Honda) there was a 1000cc honda that was very close to 200Mph.
Considering that this thing has double the horsepower of that bike, 50mph more seems fairly feasible...
-- the cake is a lie
Fastest motorcycle speed (from GuinnessWorldRecords.com)
OK, very nice, but is it street legal?
Didn't think so.
The point is that this bike is street legal.
A $10,000 Suzuki Hayabusa, with a 1300cc (1.3L) engine, will do the quarter mile in about 10 seconds, and it runs off of regular gasoline. Top speed: Electronically limited to 186 mph (300kph). Without the limiter, it goes to 195 mph. HP: 160. A cheap bike compared to the turbine bike...
...can you imagine a BEOWULF CLUSTER of these? That'd be some serious power!
I doubt the ones in tanks or helicopters are whisper-quite
At least compared to piston engined tanks like the M60. It's a steady, high pitched whine compared to some *really* loud chugga-chugga-roar.
From the front, you hear the clanking treads before you hear the turbine on an M1.
The exhaust is also clear, which is sorta an advantage over an M60, but the heat put out by the turbine makes these things look like the sun on a thermal scope.
Eric
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Jay Leno hangs out at a local motorcycle joint I frequent (the Rock Store.) Last October I happened to be there, digital camera in hand, when Jay pulled up on his turbine bike. I snapped about 30 pictures of Jay and his bike, and wrote up what I heard him say about it. It's here:Leno Lands At the Rock Store
Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
A good read and lots more pictures than the parent link.
cheers,
mike
just speculating here.. but maybe they hooked up the turbine to a CVT (continuous variable transmission) which would allow the turbine to keep turning at the same speed, changing the transmission rather than the RPM. It would make sense for a turbine..
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
In the bike, the rider is integrated into the aerodynamic profile. He sits fetal position, like in many drag bikes, so he's not sitting up and sucking wind. The bike has been clocked over 200mph, the speed at which the radar guns chickened out, and the speedometer read about 240.
Yes! That guy!
Ultimate superbike? Hardly.
As someone who rides a great deal, I can tell you that this bike is really good for one thing and one thing only: straight-line speed. Much more important to any motorcycle is its handling and corner speed. Modern two-stroke GP bikes raced by the likes of Valentino Rossi in the World GP series are not designed around the engine, they are designed around the chassis. Making the engine so much more powerful than the capabilities of the chassis, suspension, and tires would literally burn up a racer's tires, which obviously isn't too good for handling.
Simply put, the engine is made the fit the chassis to provide maximum handling and speed through the corners, where it counts. While cool, this bike is basically on the same level as turboed or NOS-ed bikes; I would hate to imagine what would happen if you were to give this beast too much throttle while at full lean...
Lets pull some nice quotes, shall we ...
"geared to go 266 mph"
"noises-scary jet noises-begin to emanate from deep within the bowels of the machine"
"`At idle, it's making 10 horsepower'"
"You have an engine that's meant to lift a 10,000-pound helicopter puching a 460-pound bike"
"4 to 7 mpg"
"You like Chinese food." -Fortune Cookie
Slashdot, in its attempt to define itself in the post-dotcom-crash era, needs a new icon for its recent direction change toward Popular Mechanics genre articles. An icon of a computer motherboard just won't do. I have some ideas, but do not want to offend Slashdot readers residing in the state of Georgia.
There was just a story about these bikes on NPR yesterday. But why have a media blitz for something that 99.9% of Americans can't afford? It's like having commercials for helicopters.
In case those pesky germans decide to kidnap american soldiers, or if the crazy gun freaks hide out on the salt lake flats.
Otherwise, I think the kidnappers in columbia would get a little suspicious if rescuers started building a really straight and flat road over the goat-trail towards the hideout.
Come on, the bike weighs 460 pounds.
With rider, that's a 600 pound explosive projectile. Moving at 250mph, how is this not useful in any military situation?
How is the military going to use this for hostage rescue? Are they going to start up some elite force like Megaforce?
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
This is a bike for CowboyNeal.
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I like to watch.
The spec sheet says it has a one-speed transmission. With a turbine? Do you have to burn rubber every time you start? Or is it like driving the old Porsches, where first was hard to reach and not synchromesh, on the grounds that you don't use it much.
The Suzuki Habusa performs almost as well for about $12k.
. ht m
http://www.hyp4r.com/hayabusa/specs_performance
Umm... considering that even "production" super cars like the McLaren F1 don't even go that fast, I find it hard to believe that a bike, with the additional drag induced by the rider, would be able to top out at 250mph. But, I could be wrong....
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
...if I stuck a lit stick of dynamite up my butt and called myself the space shuttle. I'd probably get hurt less too, as opposed to flying off this monster at the estimated 250mph...
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Even as you read this, your pants are strangling your loins! Aaa!
Great with this I may be able to get to the store before it closes to get more beer for once.I also may be able to get back before someone starts hitting on my GF.
And becuase it must be said "And what if we built a beowolf cluster of these?!?"
Papa Legba come and open the gate
Anybody remember that cheesy mid-eighties serie ? :-)
"A door is what a dog is perpetually the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
In the 70's (i think it was), turbine powered tractor trailors were experimented with but deemed unsafe on account of a little problem of pedestrians stepping out into streets in front of them because the things were silent.
The scary thing is that this bike really isn't that impressive. Other than the fact that it runs using a helicopter engine and that it's basically a jet below your nuts, the performance isn't that good.
Now, coming from my point of view, and experience, people do not realize how fast motorcycles really are. You can go down to the local Suzuki dealership, hand them 11,000 and get a bike that will do 190-195 out of the box. And by the way, it will do under 10 second 1/4 miles.
There are people that have bikes that do close to 225-230 top end. My bike, with my fat butt on it, has been radared at 215. I spent a lot less than 250k! I have about 30k invested in mine.
Now to the true topic at hand. What and the hell does this have to do with Slashdot? There are some serious idiots here that are making up crap stating that this bike could be used to pick up hostages. Hmm, let's see, it only has a room for one person on the bike, so is this a trade? Give you the motorcycle operator and replace them with the hostage? Also, has anyone figured out how long of a road you need to do 200+mph on a road for a minute? In that minute you cover around 3.5 miles. Anyone know of a road straight enough or pothole free enough to maintain that speed?
Topics like this make me wonder if the intellect of the Slashdot editors and readers is really anything greater than grammer school children.
Dave
So over half of all motorcyclists in helmets die each year? You better learn to read before posting this crap.
What the document said was that, of all fatalities, 54% were helmeted. It also says that 67% of riders use helmets and that over 300 more lives would have been saved if all motorcyclists wore helmets.
The NHTSA assumes that those riders in states without mandatory helmet laws were helmetless, in an effort to better their position of "helmets save lives."
More B.S. There is nothing in the report that is based on assumptions. They used "reported" helmet use for the fatality figures, not "assumed" helmet use.
I've been riding 21 years. When I was 19, I crashed at 60mph, going over the handlebars and hitting head-first -- and my helmet saved my life. If I had hit the pavement with my bare head, I would be dead now. If you want to be an organ-doner, go for it, but don't distort statistics to try to make others believe that helmets don't save lives.
Then read on...
What the document said was that, of all fatalities, 54% were helmeted. It also says that 67% of riders use helmets and that over 300 more lives would have been saved if all motorcyclists wore helmets.
And how do you think they arrived at the number "54%"?
They used police accident reports, coroners' reports, and hospital reports. That's why they used the term "reported helmet use rates".
But in all honesty, you can't state that the helmet saved your life. You can believe that it did, but unless you are willing to set up that whole scenario and take another trip over the bars, this time without the helmet, then we won't know.
I don't need to repeat the accident to know that the helmet saved my life. I have enough engineering know-how to look at the damage to that helmet and know that it prevented a fatal injury. It's like saying "you don't know that the parachute saved your life unless you make the same jump without one."
If you are still unconvinced about the benefits of helmets, consider the following:
1. In 1997, Texas and Arkansas repealed their mandatory helmet laws. Helmet use dropped from 97% to 66% and 52% respectively after the repeal. Fatalities went up by 31% in Texas and 21% in Arkansas.
2. Data from Louisiana, the first state to repeal and then readopt a full helmet law, showed a 30 percent reduction in fatalities (40 fewer deaths) during 1982, the first year after helmet law reenactment. The reduction occurred even though motorcycle registrations increased 6 percent during the year. The helmet use rate increased from roughly 50 percent to 96 percent.
3. Since 1989, six states (Oregon, Nebraska, Texas, Washington, California, and Maryland) have enacted helmet use laws that govern all motorcycle occupants. In Oregon, there was a 33 percent reduction in motorcycle fatalities the year after its helmet law was re-enacted; Nebraska experienced a 32 percent reduction in the first year of its law; Texas experienced a 23 percent reduction; Washington experienced a 15 percent reduction; California experienced a 37 percent reduction; and Maryland experienced a 20 percent reduction.
Note that I am not advocating helmet laws, but the statistics make it abundantly clear that helmet use significantly reduces motorcycle accident fatailities. Let's not encourage someone to make the wrong decision.
Fastest motorcycle speed (from GuinnessWorldRecords.com)
Who: Dave Campos
When: 14-Jul-1990
Where: Bonneville Salt Flats, United States
What: 322.15 mph
Dave Campos (USA), riding a 7-m. (23-ft.) long streamliner called Easyriders, powered by two 1,500 cc. engines, set an AMA and FIM absolute speed record of 518.45 km./h. (322.15 m.p.h.) at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA, on July 14, 1990.
Carpe Cerevisi - Seize the Beer
A few years ago, Ben Rosen (yes, that Ben Rosen) started Rosen Motors, which was once at www.rosenmotors.com but that now looks like that URL doesn't belong to him anymore.
He had nifty ideas for gas-turbine-generator/electric-motor hybrid automobiles with high-RPM flywheel regenerators in the trunk, but, you can guess, it didn't pan out as a feasible place for Ben to bet his future. So he downsized the dream and now makes his way selling some of the most efficient fossil-fuel-burning electrical generators the world has ever known, under the name Capstone Turbine.
Google spits out a few gobbets, too:
Speculation, speculation, speculation, and capitulation.
--Blair
A hog with a copter engine in it?
We'll call it a chopper.
Too busy staying alive... ~ R.A.
That said, anyone who has put 30K into a bike damn well better have some speed. I would think that it would have more to do with quicker 0-100 times than top end though.
Thank you for reading this comment.
Like so many other companies...
Thank you for reading this comment.
Yes, they did. I checked the replay at the NPR site because so many people had been questioning this I thought I might need my hearing tested. They didn't say anything about how they would use it, though.
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www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
I can't really see how this would help in hostage rescue situations? It seems like it wouldn't really help much. You race in, grab the hostage and race out? Not really.. either way.. I didn't see anything about the military on the site.
Speaking of idiots on motorcycles, why the heck do they insist on having their headlights pointed high enough to blind just about anybody? Blinding me with your headlight isn't the way to keep me from hitting you. But I digress...
Note I said "blinded." The instance that comes to mind happened late at night on a very empty and very dark road. When all you see is a very bright light in your face that makes you squint, it's kinda hard to tell if I'm going to pass by it or hit it.
"What really gets me is the truck / sport utility drivers who put in extra special high & bright beams..."
Some have an excuse: They go off-road. What amazes me is that, even sitting in the cab of a Dodge Ram 1500, I still find motorcycle headlights pointed at my face...
Didn't the guys from that lame movie megaforce ride these? Where are the little wing things that they can go fly with.
And then it occured to me that they must have hidden the rockets or risk a suit from the ACME company and the coyote.