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Old 06-06-2014, 04:21 PM   #287 (permalink)
Michael Moore
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: San Francisco, CA USA
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My comment about power/acceleration was in re to Peter's post about the CT/Lifan engines. 7hp-10hp is sketchy if you are wanting a vehicle that can do 80mph or more. Not that it can't obtain that speed (or even higher) but it would be impractical to spend the time getting there.

The BuddFab 50cc streamliner went 140+ at Bonneville with significantly more than 7hp from a tuned 2T engine (my guess is 15-20hp based on what 50cc GP bikes used to do). But watch the video for an idea of how long it took to get to that top speed



For the street you'd have much lower gearing which would help, but very low hp strikes me as impractical for use with high gearing (and possibly high weight on a streamliner) on the street. Doing a mileage competition on a closed course would be an entirely different matter from mixing it up with the typical low-skill car driver.

The 650 Burger makes much more sense for a heavily modified/streamlined street special as the form factor on the powertrain works better for a low frontal area vehicle. But the Burger seems to be pretty portly and I suspect that a lot of that is in the powertrain and will be difficult to remove.

I had a photoshop sketch of a bare 650 with a Hossack FFE that showed how much lower the nose could be but I haven't found it. Maybe I'll whip one up and post it as an example.

Lightness is a worthy goal as it reduces the amount of power you need before you have further reductions from aeros. But for most of us the weight of the rider is much harder to reduce! A minimum combined weight of 350-400 lbf is probably realistic if you start with a small/light bike, but the 250 Kawa/Hondas are starting out in the 325-350 range without rider.

I don't have any running street bikes at this time (the curse of everything being a project) so I won't be able to go riding with you. Here at the beach it has been at best about 60F and foggy all week long -- very much typical summer weather.

I'd be happy to offer you advice on design and fab, but liability concerns make doing welding on critical structure on other people's projects out of the question.

cheers,
Michael
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