Steam-powered bike sets new record!!!

[DannoXYZ]

https://www.rideapart.com/news/67465...ld-record/amp/

[Triple Jim]

Oh, that kind of steam engine... a steam rocket.

[Bob KellyIII]

When I was a teenager I met a man that was into everything to do with steam engines, he has several derelict steam tractors around and he was building a steam gocart..... he had the boiler almost completed and the engine already done.... he had previously ran the gocart on an oxygen bottle on the 1/4 mile race track in Anderson.... he said it wheelied and was hard to control as the wheels would brake loose if he gave it too much throttle.... he only made 80 MPH his first run.... but that was because he did a donut at about 60mph !
only one run because of the bottle.... so he was making the boiler !
it was a double acting steam engine and was about the diameter of a 50cent piece.... about 1.5" diameter... he said the steam engine is the most powerful engine ever invented and I believe him because it only depends on the input pressure and that can be almost any pressure you desire.
A steam motorcycle would be a cool project ! not only could you burn wood
kerosene or coal but you could do it all day re stoking the fire would only take a few minutes every hour and the water would need replenished about every 2 hrs.... the power to move all the weight as it would be a heavy bike would not be a problem as the engines themselves are very powerful and you could use real good gearing to keep the RPM's low....
although steam turbines are also great they have a tendency to use more steam than is practical for most uses....
I've given it alot of thought sense I now have a Lathe.... but I don't think I'll ever get to it.
..... I would be more inclined to run the XR650L on straight gasoline vapor.
HAHAHAHAH.
Bob.

[DannoXYZ]

Steam engines can have new lease on life with modern electronics controls! The Doble way back in '20s got 1000-lb*ft torque from steam!!! Modern nuclear subs use steam, they can go for decades between refueling.

[Bob KellyIII]

I honnestly expect trains to go the way the nuclear submarines went....
but instead of turbines they will use double acting steam engines as the old ones did...they were very effecient and if you heat your water to the point of steam with nuclear stuff you have an endless supply of steam as long as you haul your water as well.... it wouldn't take a big set up either you could have a small nuclear heater that builds pressure in a auxillery tank and run the main engines off the tank there is down time in many trains so that wouldn't be that big a deal for most of them some trains go non stop for months at a time but their simi rare.....
knowing how they think and love to change things they will more than likely go with steam turbines in trains...I hope not but they probably will.....it's hard to argue with the horse power numbers a turbine can produce !
the conventional piston engine is far from done even though we are running out of gasoline.... it can be ran on HHO or hydrogen or alcohol..... and when there is a demand for the corn all the farmers will produce corn for the alcohol ! it will wind up being well over $7.00 a gallon by that time but
as wages go up so do the prices of everything
..... I remember working for $1.65 an hour as a kid.....my how times change!
now even McDonalds is paying $17.00 an hr. when I was in school it was $3.50hr and no benefits at all.
.... new technology will bring in big changes ! but if they just put into action the technology we already have that alone would be great.
but big money leads the way and if it's not profitable we'll never see it !
.....
Bob.....