The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. The radial configuration was commonly used for aircraft engines at turn of previous century.

If you want to know how the radial engines work, have a look at this video:

Radial engines have been used not only in aeroplaces but also in tanks, combat cars, self propelled howitzers so it was quite natural progression that someone would come up with an idea of using these engines in Motorcycles.

Megola

The Megola was a German motorcycle produced between 1921 and 1925. a rotary engine mounted within the front wheel. The engine contained five cylinders with side-mounted valves, each of which displaced 128 cubic centimetres with a bore/stroke of 52 by 60 millimetres providing total displacement of 640 cc.  The cylinders rotated around the front axle at six times the wheel speed; thus while the cylinders were at maximum of 3600 rpm the front wheel was turning at 600 rpm, or roughly 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) 

Here is a short video:

Verdel 1912 Radial Engine Motorcycle

You always thought that the Rocket III had the biggest engine? Or maybe the Boss Hoss was the only motorcycle with mad engine? Wrong. Here is our list of some madder engine motorcycles:

Dodge Tomahawk

The Dodge Tomahawk was a non–street legal concept vehicle introduced by Dodge at the 2003 North American International Auto Show. It had 507PS 8.3-litre V10 motor from the Dodge Viper. The engine was encased in an aluminium housing with a swingarm mounted at both sides. Tomahawk was produced and sold in very small numbers (not as street legal motorcycles).

And if you see closely, this has 4 tyres. This really was a mad mad design.

Alfabeast

Every rider wants to be faster. Even being 5-10%  faster would be sufficient for most. And not everyone can keep upgrading the bike. And in most of the cases, you don’t need to be upgrading. It is time to see if you are actually utilising the full power of your existing bike. Read on.

We will be discussing following points in this article:

1. What is Power and Torque?
2. What is power band?
3. Optimal Gear shift points
4. Should you up-shift if your target destination is only 50-100 feet away?
5. Quick Overtaking while touring

Let’s first get into some technical discussion. Everyone has heard the terms bhp. And most consider that higher bhp, faster you can go. WRONG. Power (bhp) and torque (Nm) are two different things.

“Power determines a vehicle’s top speed and torque determines how fast a vehicle can reach this top-speed.”

Note: We understand that there are many important factors like weight, aerodynamics, gearing, etc. which contribute to determining a vehicle’s top-speed and acceleration. In order to keep it simple and easier for everyone to understand, we have assumed these factors to be constant and not discussed them in this article,  Also note that the explana

Every rider wants to go faster and if you can find some more power or top speed in your existing bike; that too without spending much money, who wouldn’t want it? The solution to more power or more top speed is chain/sprocket kit. You can get exact percentage gain that you can calculate before modification.

So let’s see how this magic upgrade works.

If you are looking for the relation between sprocket and acceleration/speed and don’t want to dive into the details here it is for you:

• A bigger rear sprocket/ smaller front sprocket will give you an increase in acceleration but decrease your top speed.
• A smaller rear sprocket/bigger front sprocket will reduce you acceleration but increase the top speed.

It is as simple as that. No guesswork. Now let’s look at the Sprockets in detail:

There are lots of options available in the market right from aftermarket ECU (for motorcycles having fuel injection), bigger carburettors to air filters and what not. All *claim* to provide a lot more power without any penalty in fuel economy or any other penalty. Today we want to take a look at one such mod that will deliver what you want. No guesswork about how much you would gain. It is simple mathematics.

Sprockets: What is this?

Let us first understand some basics about what sprockets are. A sprocket is a toothed wheel whose teeth engage with the links of a chain. Any motorcycle with a chain drive system has two sprockets and a chain connecting both the sprockets. The smaller one at the front is called the “Driver” while the bigger one at the rear

Now that you have taken the plunge and bought a new superbike, you are ecstatic and nothing can match this feeling. Here are few of the tips to make sure that you remain a happy superbike owner for long time.

Respect the power:

"With great power, comes great responsibility".

Yeah, this is THE superbike that you own and boy it can go fast. I mean, real fast. But you need to learn to respect the power & speed.

Superbikes are extremely deceptive. You may feel that you are going at 80 kmph when in reality you would be doing 180 kmph. First get acquainted with the power, learn to control it & not let it control you. Only then, you would be able to enjoy this wonderful thing.

Improve riding skills:

Try and improve your riding skills. Most first time owners have never been on a vehicle which can do 130+kmph in first gear. It simply can’t be explained how fast these bikes would accelerate. So all your experience with smaller cc machines needs to be re-calibrated.

We aren’t talking doing knee downs here. We are talking about simple straight line acceleration. Imagine driving a car with 2000 horsepower and you would be close to understanding acceleration of a superbike.

You might want to get associated with a group of other seasoned SBK owners in your city. It is not just belonging to a rider group to look cool. You can actually learn a lot from their experiences and can save a lot on service/repairs too!

Upgrade your riding gear:

When you ride a machine having potential of insane speeds, rethink about upgrading your existing riding gear. Your beloved hel

You must have read our article about common motorcycle engine types. If not, click here to read it. In this article, we are going to explore some one-off or offbeat motorcycle engines.

Here is a list of some Offbeat Motorcycle Engines:

1. V8 engine
2. Square Four Engine
3. Oval-Piston V4 Engine
4. V5 engine
5. Wankel/Rotary  engine

1. V8 engine :

V8 is a common engine configuration found in high capacity cars, trucks, and SUV’s. The V8 engine is like a V-Twin or a V4, but with a total of eight-cylinder (four cylinders on both sides of the V). Because of their big size and weight, these engines are rarely used in motorcycles. One such example is BossHoss motorcycles.

2. Square Four Engine :

Designed by the legendary Edward Turner, square-four engines can most easily be described as a pair of parallel-twins that are joined together. This engine was made famous by the 500cc Ariel Square Four. These e

We have all been exposed mostly to one type of bike engine i.e. Single cylinder engine found in most of the motorcycles. But there is lots of variety in type of engines that are used in motorcycles. Know what they are? Read on.

Commonly found motorcycle engine types are:

1. Single cylinder engines
2. Two cylinder engines
3. Triple cylinder engines
4. Four cylinder engines
5. Six cylinder engines

1. Single cylinder engines :

Single cylinder engines work best on small cc bikes. They are cheap to maintain and fix if something goes wrong. So you will find them across all commuter bike range like Splendor, Platina and even Yamaha R15.

You may have heard the term “Pushrod Engine”. It is a type of single cylinder engine. It used to be found in Royal Enfield earlier. In Pushrod engines, the camshaft sits in-between the cylinder heads of the engine. The crankshaft is connected to the camshaft via a chain or gear system, so that when the crankshaft turns the camshaft follows. When the camshaft turns, a lifter pushes a pushrod that opens and closes the engine’s valves. This engine benefits from higher torque at lower rpm b

While everyone enjoys riding their motorcycle, do we ever give a thought to the drive type we are using and why? We guess not. That is why this article to explain benefits and disadvantages of each drive type.

There are 3 drive types for motorcycles:

1. Chain Drive
2. Belt Drive
3. Shaft Drive

Now let’s look at each drive type in details.

1. Chain Drive:

Chain drives are the most commonly found drive type for motorcycles. Chain drive comprises of a simple chain of linkages connecting two sprockets. The front sprocket is connected to the gearbox output shaft. It is the driving sprocket and the one at the rear wheel is the driven sprocket. Both these sprockets are connected through a chain, which also comes in a variety of designs. 

Disadvantages:

• One of the disadvantages of chain drive is that it requires frequent lubrication (every 500-700km).
• Chain Drive systems have lower life as compared to other two drive systems.

Advantages:

• Chain and sprockets are the most efficient at transmitting power, with only 1 – 4 % transmission loss. That’s significantly less than belt drives & shaft drives.
• Chain drives are very simple in their functioning and are very cost effective to run and replace. This is why this chain type is most commonly used.

2. Belt Drive:

We Indians are always looking for getting more bang for the buck in everything. This is why Maruti-Suzuki’s “Kitna Deti Hai” ad campaign resonated so well with public. And seeking value for money products in riding gear isn’t a new trend.

However, earlier we used to get sub-standard / knock-offs at lower prices and riding jackets used to start from Rs.5-6000/-. This put them out of reach of many riders who wanted to purchase riding jacket for the first time (mental barrier to spend so much money for JUST a jacket) or for riders who wanted something simple (that still offered good protection) for daily commute.

In most of the cases, companies decided (correctly in our opinion) to not offer the removable thermal and rain liners. This enables them to offer cheap riding jackets that has decently good level of protection at quite low prices. So we decided to identify cheap riding jackets that offer good level of protection and still won’t cost you a bomb.

Note: we have considered only brands that are known across India. These jackets are shown from cheapest to costliest)

Here is the list of 5 best riding jackets under ₹5000/-

1. Scimitar Cosmo V2 Riding jacket ₹4450 3350
2. Aspida Atlas Riding Jacket ₹5000 3750
3. Scimitar Metro V2 Riding Jacket ₹4899
4. Rynox Helium GT Riding Jacket ₹4999
5. BBG Metro Riding Jacket ₹5000

Let's look at each jacket i

You must have heard stories of altitude sickness that xyz suffered at Khardung La or at Chang La and are worried whether you can actually ride at high altitude. Fear not. We explain you what AMS is all about.

The points that we will be covering are:

• What is altitude sickness?
• How high do you have to be to get altitude sickness?
• What Causes Mountain Sickness?
• Altitude sickness symptoms
• Altitude sickness Prevention
• Treating Altitude sickness
• Altitude sickness medicine
• List of medicines to carry while riding at high altitude

What is altitude sickness?

Altitude sickness is also known as Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). It is a pathological effect of high altitude on humans, caused by low partial pressure of oxygen at high altitude. People suffering from AMS feel the symptoms like flu, dizziness or a hangover.

There are actually 3 types of Altitude sickness.

• Acute Altitude / Mountain Sickness
• High-altitude pulmonary Edema (HAPE) and
• High-altitude cerebral Edema

High-altitude cerebral edema and high-altitude pulmonary edema mostly occur at very