When i first started to plan to build a locost it was to be the standard 7 style with ford v6... but as i was doodling away at work on a scrap piece of paper i came up with a truely insperational design for a mid/rear bike engine'd pocket rocket...
Chassis wise it's not going to be to different to the book design a few tweaks in length and width plus full roll cage (not much heavier).
Thing is its going to have a full body (mainly gf), but some ally + a little steal for the roof, doors(gullwing) and floor. Hopefully i'll be able to keep the weight as low as poss, going to try to keep it under 500lbs without wheels, engine and me but with suspension and hubs etc.

my question is... is a bike engine (1000/1100 blade) going to be suitable or am i going to have to settle for a car mota?


can't see it wieghing much more than a Legends car and they use bike engines.

The lowest you'll realistically get a book chassis bike engined Locost without spending serious cash is about 400kgs. Mine weighs about 420kg (920lbs) and has lightweight brakes, no reverse, blade engine (one of the lightest), bike radiator, 3 piece split rims and very little extras, but I could save a little in several areas. The heaviest you want a BEC to be is about 500kgs (1100lbs), so what with adding roof, doors, full cage, bodywork etc, I would say you are going to be marginal on weight if you want to use a bike engine. What rear axle etc were you planning to use, I take it either a quaife transfer box type arrangement, or a car based IRS diff?
Best thing to do is sit down and work out the weight of all the extras you want to add, then add a bit more (there is always a bit more! ) and see how the figures come out.

Chris

With my car the biggest way to lose weight is to reduce the size of the nut holding the wheel...

...as those who have seen me will testify!



rgds,

David

did mean 500kgs not 500lbs

planning on using car based rear set up (sierra). did look at quaife box but i'm trying to keep £ to the minimum. As for wieght saving... no carpet, lightweight seats (formed from a custom mould in cf... aventually) very few dials + switches, no reverse( who needs to go backwards when going forwards is alot more fun),etc etc ,plus anything else anyone can suggest thats not needed. anything to save weight will be looked at as long as it's still going to be safe.

So if you are looking at 500kgs without wheels and engine, this means 600kg+ with wheels and engine, too heavy for a BEC in my opinion. It might just about be OK for a busa engine (which adds 30kgs more incidentally), but then you are kinda defeating the object of a BEC (light weight = stonking performance) and are getting into loadsa money territory with dry sumps etc to add on to the £3k+ engine cost. I'd personally go for a car engine if you cant keep it below 500kgs all up

Chris

[Edited on 21/1/03 by ChrisGamlin]

Go here for a good bike engine comparison:

http://www.striker1.plus.com/engine.html

Mooselogic......(cool name BTW)

Do you also check the mid-engine section?
Lots of bike motor users there too

not sure where i came up with MOOSELOGIC... have got a mate who got runover by a moose whilst he was skiiing in canada. Broke 4 ribs and one leg, flippin huge animals. He did say something profound about the logic of moose's but i can't remember it, so thats probably were the name came from.