Despite the coming era of electric motorcycles, there is still plenty of life left in the internal combustion engine.
KTM has just released two enduro bikes with direct-injection two-stroke engines, two Dutch designers have built a wooden bike (pictured top) that runs on algae oil and a South American has invented a bike that runs 500km on one litre of water.
Ricardo Azevedo’s bike runs on waterThe KTM two-stroke engine eliminates the need to pre-mix fuel or change the jetting for different environments.
An Australian two-stroke invention (Crankcase Independent Two-Stroke) also uses direct injection, but has a by-pass valve that replaces the throttle and provides progressive cylinder deactivation ensuring minimised pumping losses.
Meanwhile, Honda recently registered patents for direct-injection two-stroke engines.
The Dutch wooden motorcycle runs on algae oil grown by scientist Peter Mooij as bio fuel.
Designer Titsert Mans thought it appropriate to put it in a bike made of sustainable materials such as wood.
They have written a book, The Thick Algae, to explain their principles.
Sao Paulo inventor Ricardo Azevedo says his T Power H20 bike can even run on polluted water.
It uses a car battery and the water to generate electricity and separate hydrogen from the water molecules. This results in internal engine combustion which powers the bike.
However, don’t hold your breath waiting for some of these technologies to come to your bike.
Ricardo’s bike was revealed back in 2015 and no manufacturer has yet taken up the challenge of introducing it to a production bike.
But change is surely coming and the internal-combustion-engine motorcycle is not dead yet!