 |
Motorcycle Engines And Cylinders
If we want to learn about V8 motorcycles and V8 motorcycle dealers, we had better first learn exactly what a V8 engine is, and what it means to have a V8 powered motorcycle. To do that, let’s look first at the standard motorcycle engine. Most motorcycle engines are four cylinder models. That means there are four gas powered cylinder pumps arrayed around a central drive shaft. The cylinders move up and down under the influence of the controlled gasoline burn of the internal combustion engine, and that movement works to spin the drive shaft, which in turn spins the wheel. The more gasoline burned at once (like when you step on the gas pedal in a car), the faster the drive shaft burns.
There are very few motorcycles powered by engines with greater than four cylinders. Some racing and sport motorcycles are actually designed with five cylinders in order to provide greater wheel torque and to allow greater power for off road racing, while retaining the low weight and light chassis advantages of the standard four cylinder motorcycle design. There are also motorcycle engines with fewer cylinders. Generally speaking, fewer cylinders are easier to maintain and lighter, but run much more roughly and are less powerful. There are some motorcycles that use only one cylinder, known as “thumpers” for the distinctive noise their engines make. Two-cylinder motorcycles, called “twins,” have been used by Harley-Davidson and BMW. Two-cylinder engines often run rougher than engines with more cylinders, though special designs have been created to mitigate those effects. Three cylinder models, called “triples,” are fairly rare. Benelli, Triumph, and Yamaha have all released three cylinder models.
So What, Exactly, Is A V8 Motorcycle?
A V8 powered motorcycle is interesting then, because it has not one, not two, not three, not even four or five, but eight cylinders. A motorcycle V8 engine has an unbelievable amount of torque and power for such a relatively small vehicle (though V8 motorcycles are usually very large compared to other motorcycles). They are also extremely rare, with only a handful of models being produced by professional motorcycle corporations. Today, most V8 motorcycles are designed and built by custom motorcycle companies, such as Boss Hoss motorcycles (http://www.bosshoss.net/Default.asp). There have, however, been a number of large scale production models created for general consumption, though such models rarely got past the low number release or conceptual models.
Ranked as one of the top ten motorbikes of all time by the Discovery channel, the Moto Guzzi Grand Prix 500 cc V8 powered motorcycle was designed for the Moto Guzzi racing team in 1955. Armed with a 500cc eight cylinder engine, this V8 motorcycle could reach speeds of up to 172 miles per hour – in the fifties. However, due to a lack of comparable suspension and chassis technologies, the motorcycle proved too dangerous to continue; since then, fortunately, other aspects of motorcycle design have caught up to the revolutionary V8 engine. An example is an even – if that’s imaginable – larger bike, a full ten cylinder engine, on the Dodge Tomahawk, a bike that looks as if it’s straight out of the future, with a double fore and back wheel and ten powerful cylinders arrayed along the extra long chassis in front of the rider.
Custom Designed V8 Powered Motorcycles
Motorcycle V8 engines are difficult to come by and even more difficult to install and produce. Most large motorcycle companies shy away from the extreme speed and power a V8 motorcycle puts into the hands of its driver—the kind of power that has earned V8 motorcycles the common moniker of “superbikes.” As such, most V8 bikes are custom jobs, often made by relatively small garages that specialize in creating motorcycle V8 engines and the V8 motorcycles that result. Such custom companies cater to a fairly small but dedicated audience that is looking for the kind of power, speed, and performance it’s only possible to get out of a motorcycle with a V8 engine.
One of the biggest examples of such custom V8 motorcycle garages is the one we mentioned earlier – Boss Hoss. Boss Hoss outfits its bikes with powerful General Motors V8 engines and semi automatic transmissions, and sells around three hundred of its custom built vehicles every year. Boss Hoss and other V8 motorcycles are famous for the smoothness of operation their riders experience, a byproduct of the eight cylinder design and special high gear lift engine built to work with the V8 engine. V8 motorcycles are also much longer than most motorcycles, in order to allow for the lengthened engine. At more than half a ton, V8 motorcycles are some of the heaviest motorcycles in existence – about four times the weight of an average bike, but with four times the power.
|
