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Polarbear said:Pilot here and seen these in another format....Airplanes! BMW built these engines for a lot of airplanes over the early years. These radial engines are very common WW2 era engine and beyond. Of course BMW got its start building Airpalne engines in the late teens, a tad bit before cycles came along. WW1 dried up and the need for such did, too. Therefore the 1923(I Think) BMW cycle was born from the earlier aircraft engines. Its a tad bit funny looking in this bike picture. Cool work, though. HP and torque here is HUGE! Randy13233
screwtop said:Those radials are really cool. At the Smithsonian Air Museam at Dulles Airport, they have a mechanical virtual "cut-away" of one of those radials and show the crank/flywheel rotating and staggered firing order of the cylinders and other moving parts. Wonder what it was like setting the timing on those things?
BTW - I know BMW began as an aircraft powerplant manufacturing company, hence the roundel that represents a spinning propeller. Isn't it true that after WWI there was a some kind of a treaty signed that prohibited them from building airplane motors, so they resorted to building motorcycles? Can any history buffs confirm?
PUDGYPAINTGUY said:Doesn't the radial engine spin (hence the name as I was told), and the centrifugel force feed oil and fuel and cooling etc? Surely this could not be feasible in such a frame right? Or am I missing something (and I frequently am)?
PUDGYPAINTGUY said:Doesn't the radial engine spin (hence the name as I was told), and the centrifugel force feed oil and fuel and cooling etc? Surely this could not be feasible in such a frame right? Or am I missing something (and I frequently am)?
screwtop said:Isn't it true that after WWI there was a some kind of a treaty signed that prohibited them from building airplane motors, so they resorted to building motorcycles? Can any history buffs confirm?
Motard said:You're right about the original radials this is a later version. Engine is stationary, the crank turns as is normal practice. As stated, HP is huge, torque is AWESOME.
I'm sure that it is intended as a drag exhibition bike. This engine is dry sumped and would normally use a 12-15 gal oil tank with an air to oil heat exchanger. Fuel consumption is just as awesome as the torque output. Bike tank would only last about 10 min. These things are worth firing up just to hear the exhaust note, a very smooth low rolling rumble. I've spent many hours wrenching on radials. Ultra reliable in the air, but require hours of routine maintenance.
Motard