Project Futurebike Design Contest
Project futurebike design contest
The past can be an excellent teacher. And the history of motorcycling is no exception. Today's motorcycles are highly developed vehicles, but in reality, there is very little in the way of innovation that someone didn’t try way back when. In short, most of the truly original ideas have been tried. But maybe you've got the next great breakthrough.
If we discount some steam-powered motorcycles (the first was a French machine in 1869), credit for the first gasoline-powered bike must go to Gottleib Daimler who built his in 1885. In spite of its outrigger wheels and wood frame, it is remarkably conventional in layout compared to modern standards, esS-22
pecially when we consider that Daimler hadn't the foggiest idea of where to put the engine. Engine placement is something you should think about for your design.
His engine was a half-horsepower four-stroke single mounted vertically under the seat, and it turned what was then a blistering 800 rpm. Some skeptics have said that Daimler's machine couldn't be ridden. However, the contention is that in November 1885, Daimler's son, Paul, drove the machine from Cannstatt to Unterturkheim and back. Distance: three kilometers. But then, the Wright Brothers didn't have too big a beginning either.
The pipes probably weren't yet cooled
on Daimler's motorcycle before some wise guy said, "I could design a better machine than that"! And they tried any combination that seemed workable. One of the more significant was a tricycle —significant because of its deDion-Bouton engine. Count Albert deDion and George Bouton were a bright pair, and their engine was one of the first capable of sustained high speeds. In those days, "sustained high speed" was 1500 rpm. The engine was a four-stroke of 250cc, and in 1898, it was the hot setup in a threewheeler. Three wheelers —for this contest, aren't allowable,sorry.
Eventually the engineers and tinkerers interested in motorcycles worked out solutions to two major obstacles —ignition and carburetion — thus providing a measure of re-
liability which elevated motorcycles from the status of novelties to practical transportation. Engine sizes were increased and cylinders added. We saw the V-twin very early from JAP in England and Harley-Davidson in America. There was a four-cylinder in 1904— the Belgian F.N. And the electric starter was available on a 1914 Indian. The pioneers were quite adept at trying any sort of idea.
Naturally, the ideas depicted here are in no way intended to show a rational history of motorcycling. Rather, they provide a miscellaneous look —part serious, part funny — at how inventors fulfilled their dreams of the way a two-wheeled conveyance should look and work. Some of their weird ideas were just that —weird. But others were practical techniques that formed solid foundations for later designers,still, at one time, they were no more than ideas.
So much for today's machines, but what of the future? No one can know where motorcycling is going. Your design may point the way. It is certain that motorcycle engineering is progressing. There are new powerplants which someday may fit into the pic-
ture,electric, rotary, possibly a return to steam via an ultra-sophisticated engine are all ideas with potential. Is there something new in suspensions? Perhaps new application of plastics will make bikes lighter and stronger than before. The only limit is the imagination and ingenuity of man.
In fact, maybe the next great idea is sitting out there in the head of one of you readers. So, tell us. How would you design your Tomorrow’s Motorcycle? Would you pick and choose from the proven methods of the past or have you some genuine innovation which deserves a trial? We'd really like to know, and on the following page is your chance to fell us by entering a contest in which you can design the motorcycle of your dreams—Project Future Bike.
