Ken Dineens FS-2 4 stroke powered bike
This is a 4 stroke powered 1/5th bike designed and built by my friend Ken Dineen. What started as a project to see if it was possible to build a 4 stroke bike ended up with three bikes being built, the UK national championship being won by Colin McCabe using one, and a 4th place at the 2007 World Championships in Italy, only being beaten by the Nuova Faor works drivers and a last minute change in the rules by the organisers to remove the advantages of a four stroke.
Powered by an OS FS26 engine, apart from the forks just about everything else is custom made. The really hard part was working out how to fit a flywheel and clutch to the engine, while keeping it narrow enough to allow the bike to lean over far enough in the corners. Ken came up with a reverse primary design, where the pinion is next to the engine and the brass flywheel is mounted on the outside, which also makes it easy to use an aircraft style starter to turn over the engine. The whole pinion/clutch assembly is custom made, even the pinion as there wasn't anything suitable. The assembly also includes a pulley so an o-ring can be used as a drive belt to turn a fan to cool the engine, as being aircraft based it doesn't have a large heatsink head and it's very enclosed inside the chassis.
Chassis plates are custom designed, but cut out by FibreLyte to ensure accuracy. Rear swing arm started life as a Nuova Faor one, but it has been machined to suit the transmission as well as reducing weight.
Body and rider painting by me, if you think some of Tamiyas boxart designs are hard, try detailing a rider figure from the inside!
A video of it running in the 2007 worlds final driven by Colin McCabe here http://www.northern-radio-moto-club.co.uk/videos/colfin.wmv
The nice photos were taken by a professional studio as the bike was featured in Streetfighters magazine. As their bike photos usually include a topless model, these bike photos also include a series posed with a topless Barbie!
Comments
cardesigner
Amazing! There's a lot going on there...wow!
Blacque Jacque
A truly exquisite piece of engineering. The race results make it even more impressive.
nogutsnoglory
Fantastic rc bike! I bet that sounds sick with the four stroke motor! Awesome! Hows it perform compared to a two stroke?
OCD
My mind is boggled. Wonderful!
OCD
...and still trying to wrap my mind around that reverse primary clutch.. what are the clutch shoes fixed too?
terry.sc
nogutsnoglory, it doesn't have the ultimate top speed of the best two strokes, but as the lower and stronger torque curve and smoother power delivery means it gets to it's top speed much faster and corners much better.
53HRA
That looks awesome Terry!
terry.sc
OCD the clutch shoes are mounted on the flywheel just like a normal engine - the difference is that the flywheel is mounted on the end of the crankshaft instead of against the engine. It just means everything, including the crankshaft, has to be machined so the flywheel can be locked on while allowing everything between it and the engine can freewheel on the crank.
Road Burner
Awesome bike!
Crash Cramer
So no pics of the topless Barbie??? I guess that wouldn't fly here on TC. Very cool bike and I think I spot a Tamiya mini alu shock on the triple tree.
Kokuzu
Top notch stuff going on here. Makes me considering planning to revitalze my Ducati....
twisty
Tops
def4x4
Awesome bike, and i like that techniqe!
Manuspain
Nice bike. It still needs some solutions for top end speed, but nice to see, and nice to hear. I ve seen it in worlds at Valencia last year and Worlds at Leipzig You can hear the 4T here : [Click here]
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