Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The World's Second-Largest Single-Cylinder Motorcycle.

Pict via: Top Speed
Via: inventorspot

"When we think of today's motorcycles, most people will automatically picture a V-Twin on a sunny afternoon. We sometimes forget about the hard hitting single cylinders. However, Franz Langer has come up with something that should bring the spotlight back to single cylinders for at least a while.

Mr. Langer is a German Engineer who has always been most interested in the single-cylinder design, rather than the more common V-Twin. While he was working, he filled his garage with 600cc to 700cc motorcycles. After he retired, he began building his own outrageous rides.
The cream-of-the-crop came when he decided he wanted to build the worlds largest single-cylinder engine on a motorcycle. For a long time that benchmark was 1000cc. It then made a jump to 1500cc. To be able to top that, Franz began with an airplane engine, single-cylinder of course, that displaced 1440cc. The next step was to enlarge the engine and use a larger yet lighter cylinder. The final result was a 2000cc monster.

He then mounted his oversized engine onto an old NSU Konsul. Soon after everything was complete, his name was added to the Guinness Book of World Records for building largest single-cylinder engine on a motorcycle. The only downside to the whole design, it's a kickstart. Anyone who weighs less than 150lbs might need some help."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, it isn't. The largest, that is. This one is a bit bigger, at 3000 cc.

http://www.classic-motorrad.de/winni_2002/3l-bike/3literbike.htm

Dr Hand said...

Here's a bit of info in English:
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2008/06/16/3000cc-single-cylinder-motorcycle/