Eccentric?
I have a folder at home containing plans for a steam-turbine/electric powered motorbike.

My reasoning is this: steam turbines are very efficient but do not spool up and down quickly, so coupling one with an electric transmission (as found in diesel-electric locomotives, for instance) would be a far more efficient way of getting power to the wheels. The whole shebang should be far lighter than a petrol engine and conventional gearbox.

I've been researching and designing it for over a year now. Every single bit is planned out in intricate detail, from the turbine itself to the boiler, frame, electronically-governed suspension, and braking system.

One day, when I have a garage, I will buy a lathe and get round to building it.

It will probably make it a mile and then blow up, but I can dream.


I also have plans to build a diesel bike one day, but that's more of a reality as several others have also done it.

Also, when I was a child, I would pretend that the toggles on my duffle coat were mobile phones. I was odd.
(Half of Stephen Fry's right buttock pissed on your dog on, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 12:56, 6 replies)

(wince)
There's no shortage of gas turbine bikes, but a steam turbine/electric ?

It's a dream, and it's a good dream. But I don't think it's going to be either lighter or more efficient.

You've got two power systems, fuel , high pressure gas and short term power storage to take care of. Plus voltage regulation (not small or light when dealing with many amps) and mechanical power transfer to take care of.

I think you may end up with a honda goldwing sized bike with all the panniers stuffed full of plumbing.

(smile)
And of course, I know everything, me...
( DukeEuphoria Comes highly reccomended, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 13:18, closed)

Steam powered turbine?
wouldn't that be ridiculously inefficient at such a small scale? You'd also need a way of storing the superheated steam to run the thing- under a great deal of compression- or a boiler.

Also, a steam turbine would spool up and down fairly quickly if you restricted the steam going through it at source / exhaust.

You could look into acetylene or Ammonia fuelled Stirling engines.

As a sidenote, I've often thought of creating the best engine ever for some of my favourite bands. It'd use limestone & from coal to create Acetylene. Then run the engine from that. So you'd have a vehicle that ran on ROCK itself.
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 13:26, closed)

Steam FTW
Perhaps this isn't such a strange idea...

Over the years, I've come across a very interesting urban folk-tale. It surfaces from time to time and then vanishes again, but I will recount the basics here for your delictation and delight..

Back in the 1950's when the last steam trains were being replaced by diesel/electric models, a fairly sizeable number of steam train engines mysteriously vanished from the breakers yard manifests. Now, they probably just made a massic cock-up of the paperwork, but every so often someone pops up to state that what *really* happened was that the government had carefully stored the missing trains away in an underground railway station (supposedly somewhere called 'Box Tunnel').

The thinking, and the idea, is relatively clear. At the time, the western powers were concerned about the idea of a nuclear war, and if such a thing occured then steam trains could keep the basic transport infrastructure running!

Plausible, perhaps, perhaps not, but I do like to imagine that someone, somewhere, is maintaining a pristine collection of original steam engines...
(EffinDoubt is breaking glass on, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 13:42, closed)

hear that?
It's the sound of dozens of trainspotters groaning in self-loathing as they realise that they want there to be a nuclear war.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 14:34, closed)

This was on R4
apparently there was a plan to do this, as steam trains would not be affected by an EMP pulse. The soviet union had hundreds of stem trains for this perpouse . The plan was scrapped at the last minute due to costs, the numerical discrepancy that caused trains to vanish was a typo.

The Idea that the steam trains were kept suffers a blow when it is realized that all the water towers and coal stores along the British rail network were taken down at the same time the steam engines were scrapped.
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 15:28, closed)

trains
The Strategic Steam Reserve was the proper name for this plan. Google turns up a load of interesting/wacko theories.
(dave likes cheese, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 21:40, closed)