Friday 11 November 2011

The Bike Runs On Air

O2 Pursuit

An Australian-designed motorcycle that runs purely on air has just been revealed. Environmentally friendly people look out for this new innovative vehicle which runs completely on air.

The "O2 Pursuit" compressed air-powered motorbike has been designed by RMIT industrial design student Dean Benstead. Instead of a regular petrol powered engine, the O2 Pursuit uses an Australian-designed compressed air engine developed by EngineAir Australia.

It still requires energy to power the air compression system but it is the first step towards an environmentally friendly future on the road. Dean Benstead designed the bike looking to this future.

The design of the motorcycle was the focus of this project therefore its speed is not as fast as it could be. It still hits an excess of 62 mph however, which is the equivalent of 100 km/h.The bike is about the size of a regular 250cc moto-cross two-wheeler, and uses a number of body components donated by Yamaha Australia.



There are plans to make the vehicle more efficient and faster in the future as this is a prototype. The manufacturing process involved extensive research and the development of computer generated concepts before building began. Rinlatech Engineering was the company behind the final model.

Benstead says the concept offers motorbike riders some fuel for thought when it comes to filling up their rides. "I wanted to explore the viability of compressed air as an alternative fuel, and my childhood experiences riding dirt bikes led me to design the motocross bike based around the Engineair engine," Benstead says.

He says his next model would likely take a different form, and would also use more high-tech lightweight parts to keep the weight down so it's "comparable to a heavy-duty mountain bike".



He plans to make the bike marketable to the public in the future which may see the beginnings of a new breed of environmentally friendly transport. See the O2 Pursuit on Friday 25th November at the Sydney Motorcycle and Scooter Show, Australia.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Share it

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More