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Mixing Your Pleasures

By lex, on November 28th, 2008

Ecce: The flying motorcycle.

Now if it only gave backrubs and served Guinness, my happiness would be complete.

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November 28th, 2008 | Tags: | Category: Tech Lust

13 comments to Mixing Your Pleasures

  • GreyGoat
    November 28, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    “Now if it only gave backrubs and served Guinness, my happiness would be complete.”

    They should cram a bed in there…

    http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-10-26/

  • Marianne Matthews
    November 28, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    Lex … it’s a sexy-looking machine, I’ll grant you. But sometimes, multipurpose technological ‘marvels’ don’t do any of their purposes well. The Nash motorboat/automobile, whatever it was called, leaps to mind. I saw one test of the Thing on the shores of Lake Michigan. It drove across the beach, stopped to make its magical transformation, drove forward into the surf, and showly sank magnificently beneath the waves. Reminded one of Icarus and his solar burnout…

    Now I’ll shut up and stop spoiling your fun.

    Marianne

  • Quartermaster
    November 28, 2008 at 8:11 pm

    Nicer than the Terrafugia Transition. TC beat me out, although “lust” might be a better expression of the sentiment in this case.

  • Jim Howard
    November 28, 2008 at 10:00 pm

    Swift Engineering has a good track record of developing prototype vehicles, including race cars and the late lamented Eclipse400.

  • steveH
    November 29, 2008 at 12:10 am

    Um.

    Lateral stability provided how?

    Yaw control?

    Can I wait until they get all the bits installed?

  • MaxDamage
    November 29, 2008 at 12:27 am

    The take-off portion I understand. Enough speed anyting becomes a wing and lift is granted.

    It’s the landing part I’m not seeing.

    A cousin of mind recently earned his 4th world title at leaping into the air on a motorcycle, oddly enough. He informs me that going up isn’t such a chore, it’s the coming down safely that one needs to be concerned about.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3jXa29KMlM&feature=related

    Has the #3 plate, BTW. That’s 200hp to the ground in a 400lbs machine and add in the rider at 150lbs. We’re approaching F-16 performance levels here. On dirt. Uphill.

    May not be 11 G’s, but then an F16 pilot never had a nitromethane-injected Suzuki motor with pistons pointed at his dangly bits between his legs either.

    So, ya know. Ya takes the risks you take.

    – Max

  • MissBirdlegs in AL
    November 29, 2008 at 9:48 am

    Dang, Max! The cycle riders were amazing (and crazy), but those guys hanging on the ropes weren’t slouches, either!

  • Quartermaster
    November 29, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    It may take more courage to hang on the ropes and rescue the riders.

    Never go over the “high side” as we say in the motorcycle safety course. We don’t anticipate people doing foolish things, though. I’ll stay away from the nitromethane stuff. I’d like to keep my engine around for awhile.

  • MaxDamage
    November 29, 2008 at 11:57 pm

    The “goats,” as we’re known, are after the riders. Hang the bikes — that’s what sponsors are for, to supply the spare parts. I can hang onto a rope and tackle a guy with the free hand. The bike? That’s his problem.

    On the really steep hills where you need ropes to hang from, practice comes in handy. The rope needs to move from the top down, to give the goat below the freedom to reach the rider.

    As for the riders, I tend to think they’re all a little crazy. Insofar as extreme sports go hillclimbing is both the oldest and the only one where you’ll find a dirt bike with 200hp. The funny thing is these folks do the same thing on snowmobiles in the winter, and if they’ve money there’s the World of Outlaws circuit for the Truck and Tractor pulls.

    Ever seen six 500+ cubic inch supercharged Chevy big-blocks on methanol pulling ten tons of sled down a dirt path? It’s not for the faint of heart. Or anybody who wants to hear things afterwords.

    Something in the air up here, motorsports tends towards excessive horsepower. Elsewhere in the world, such as in Formula 1, they tend towards rules that limit the machine. While that does make the rider a greater factor, it does discourage innovation and development.

    But then, Lex says “Wow” and he used to hurtle an F/A-18 at a pitching carrier deck for a living. I’m sure most of the riders would consider that to be an extreme sport, the participants obviously off their rocker.

    All in what you grew up with, I guess.

    My place in the video? I wasn’t worth recording.

    – Max

  • MaxDamage
    December 2, 2008 at 12:34 am

    Couldn’t leave you all hanging on that reference to tractor pulls. They range from special-purpose items like the modified class:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fipVZMjxT2Q

    To the old steam engines:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln17jYbVkfQ

    We even have teams of horses working it, but you can look those up yourself.

    Ya know, seems to me about the time the second guy bought a car or a horse, there was probably an itchin’ in him to race the first guy.

    — Max
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