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- Madness on two wheels
- Radial engine in a motorcycle frame
- First test drive with full pants
- Frank’s next plans
- Technical specifications
Gargolov
Driving report Ohle radial engine bike
Madness on two wheels
An airplane engine on two wheels. A tinkerer with a thousand crazy ideas. Nine cylinders without a silencer. And an editor who is fed up again – a crazy story.
The man has nerves. Two years ago he called and said: “Do you want to ride a bike with a V12 engine?” We did.
E.A week later I was standing in front of his plant: it weighs 780 kilos, wheelbase from Hamburg to Hanover, turning almost impossible.
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Driving report Ohle radial engine bike
Madness on two wheels
Frank’s plan: a motorcycle with an airplane engine
"Conditionally mobile." What the heck does that mean? Especially when Frank says so? I feel bad. Photographer Rossen Gargolov and I follow the builder into a production hall. Frank pulls a tarpaulin aside. Clear the stage for the Red Baron. "Rolls a little hard", growls Frank, kicks up the side stand and pushes his work into the spring sunshine.
There it is now. Shimmers and shocks. Workers drop tools. Birds fall silent while singing. The photographer can no longer shut his mouth. Frank smiles. When asked how many hours of work there are, he asks back: "Hours? Write me 20 months. Dat comes there." While calmly putting on his helmet, he explains his project, in which everything, but really everything, seems somehow crazy.
It starts with the origin of the drive. Because: "You can’t buy a radial engine on every corner." Frank found what he was looking for in Australia. The Melbourne-based company Rotec manufactures radial engines with seven and nine cylinders. "When I called there, of course, they asked me what type of aircraft I need the engine for. When I said motorcycle, it hung up on the other end. I thought I was kidding."
After several phone calls and after Frank had transferred around 18,000 euros in advance to the fifth continent, a nine-cylinder was assembled for him on the other side of the globe. "After four months the postman rang and said: ‘Package arrived. It’s a little big. Have to help carry. ‘" The nine-cylinder weighs 130 kilograms with a diameter of 90 centimeters. Frank slips the open face helmet over his head, pricks the clasp and says: "When I ever opened the box, I almost got hit."
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Radial engine in a motorcycle frame
Gargolov
"Oh God! Has the engine just stopped??" "Nope! When you start it like to blow through half a liter of oil. Absolutely normal!"
Because an aircraft engine is configured for aircraft. There is a propeller in the front, the carburetor in the back. “An output shaft for a gearbox or something is not planned.” This fact became one of the bigger challenges of the project. Frank dismantled the entire engine and lengthened the crankshaft, which, by the way, only needs one crank pin on which a connecting rod sits, to which eight additional auxiliary connecting rods are attached via joints (more information at www.rotecradialengines.com).
But lengthening the crankshaft brought other problems: the drive shaft came out where the 40 mm carburetor, which supplies all nine cylinders, is usually located. “I just welded a box around it and flanged the carburetor at an angle,” says Frank succinctly. Until the first breath of the nine-cylinder engine, the man from Wuppertal did not know whether the mixture would find its way around the output shaft into the cylinder heads. Or not.
"So, now aside", grins Frank. Flip two switches, look around and start. Suddenly you can’t see anything anymore. From Frank. From the environment. From the motorcycle. A huge blue cloud of mist hovers over the ground and a goosebumps hiss over the square. The nine-cylinder has awakened. The fog is slowly disappearing. "Oh, I guess I forgot to drain the oil", Frank grumbles and explains the whole thing: The cylinder heads are supplied with lubricating oil via a ring line, which naturally sags when it is idle.
If valves in one of the three cylinders below are opened by chance, oil can get into the combustion chamber. Therefore, before every start, excess oil should be drained off via a tap in the oil line. "It depends great on the gas", says Frank, while the nine-cylinder hisses terribly at every gas command. "The best thing to do now is to squeeze into your leather and see if you can take off."
First test drive with full pants
Swabian leather combination. Extra thick cowhide. Good for slips up to 250 km / h, said the seller. Perhaps I can tell him afterwards whether fragments of pistons are getting through, I think, and get into the saddle. At the front, the nine pistons roar down through a stainless steel arch into the open. Homemade. Like almost everything about the Red Baron. "Make sure the primary drive doesn’t mess you up", Frank grins and points to his construction: The power from the crankshaft is transferred to a shaft via an angular gear and passed on to the gear via an extra wide toothed belt. Everything is open.
The saddle is only 630 millimeters high and is spring-mounted, and the handlebars sit comfortably in the hand. I kick in first gear using a rather rustic rocker switch. Engage the clutch and off you go. The baron, who weighs around 350 kilos, begins to move heavily. Not much of the 150 hp and 120 Newton meters can be felt in the first few meters. The nine-cylinder only pushes at medium and high revs and produces quite accurate thrust.
The first turn is pending. Delay! Oh, the brakes have to get used to working, to say the least. Take a deep breath. Very deep. If the box is even more difficult to turn than Frank’s V12 bike, then I’d rather drive around the globe. In between, the Australians can do an inspection on the radial engine. Basta.
But – oh wonder – it works. Better than expected. However, the Red Baron steers quite sluggishly, because the wheel load distribution is at an estimated ratio of 60/40 to the disadvantage of the front wheel. In order to minimize the enormous steering forces, power steering would be appropriate. But maybe the steering damper is just too tight.
The beams of the rigid frame serve as a lean position sensor, but above all the side stand. From an incline of 8 degrees, it mills grooves in the asphalt. Two or three kilometers of getting used to it are behind me. Now let’s see how fast the box accelerates to 100 km / h. If anything.
Unfortunately, the old Harley four-speed gearbox cannot do anything with the thrust of the nine-cylinder. The second goes in, the third bitches around badly and suddenly the gears crunch. "I almost thought about it", grumbles Frank, "350 euros on Ebay. Couldn’t have been clever." The builder stands in front of his work and sums it up. "New gearbox, raise the side stand – then things can really start".
Frank’s next plans
The air-cooled monster crackles below me. Meanwhile, onlookers have gathered around us. Maybe they think the same thing as I do: How do you get an idea like that? Frank scratches his beard and answers: "No children. Time to tinker. A friend who understands me. And a lot of nonsense in my head."
I take off my helmet and go around the Red Baron one last time. Frank designed everything himself, from the steering head to the frame to the power transmission. madness. "First the V12 bike, now this hammer – what’s next?" Frank Ohle stands there and smiles away my question. He turns slowly and says: "A time machine. Honest. Then I travel back and weed out the mistakes I made in the Baron."
Hopefully he’ll take me with him. I also built some mistakes into my life …
Chopper / cruiser
Driving report: Ohle motorcycle with V12 engine
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Technical specifications
Gargolov
Frank Ohle (51) is a mechanical engineer and motorcycle freak. The "Red Baron" is already his second trick.
engine:
Air-cooled four-stroke nine-cylinder radial engine, type Rotec R3600, 3600 cm3, bore x stroke: 80 x 80 mm, approx. 150 HP at 3600 / min, approx. 120 Nm at 2200 / min, two valves per cylinder, ohv, Harley four-speed gearbox, 40 Bing carburettor, secondary drive via intermediate shaft, dry sump lubrication, double ignition
frame:
Ohle rigid frame, Springer fork with 50 mm travel, integral brake system with a single-piston floating caliper at the front and rear, 280 mm brake discs, rims v / h: 3.00 x 21 / 10.5 x 18, front tires Avon Cobra 90 / 90-21, rear Avon Cobra 300 / 35-18
Facts:
Seat height 630 millimeters, weight around 350 kg, tank capacity 22 liters, wheelbase: 1680 mm, construction time: 20 months, top speed: around 160 km / h, value approx. 60,000 euros
Further information: eisengesicht@t-online.de
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