Motorbikes & SteamPunk - this man gets it !

[Siliconous Skumins]

As I have not noticed this posted anywhere here, I thought I should do so for anyone who has not seen this yet. 


Peter Forsberg is a bike guy and something of a speed freek, and thus you may not see him as a potential steampunk creator - but don't let that fool you, this man's creation is every bit Steampunk done right...:

This is a [somewhat impractical] air powered Motorbike, you may have seen this recently on the web / Hackaday, etc. as it's been doing the rounds. This video is an interview with Peter as he talks about his creation and shows how it works.





The video is in Swedish, but there are English subtitles available (and "Auto-translate" is available if you wish to read some amusing gibberish in other languages...) 

Foppas Lufthojs Bygge

I love it, both the design and the impractical nature do make you think that this could have been a real Victorian era invention. 

[Deimos]

Impracticality can go to the devil! It looks great!
Would be fun to ride, but only for only short distances ...the old back would not be happy with anything more than a furlong or two.

[J. Wilhelm]

I can't see from the picture clearly - I haven't see the video yet... Does the handlebar actually work? Or does it turn just by banking the bike?  . I guess if you have to ride with the air tank on your back that'd be the worse part of it!

[mizzarrogh]

Late answer, but since at least i still find this actually interesting i decided to post anyway.

I am not by any mean associated my self with the project, but from what i red in Swedish motor magazines and the video, i think i can answer the questions here.

Yes, the handlebar actually works! It's made from an old watertap cast in brass.

Edit, No, the handlebar on the backpack seem to be a mock up, it was built from from an old sprinkler as i understood, but i think it would be possible.

He said that the backpack was indeed in reality extremely uncomfortable to wear so he did not relay use it except for the picture show, it was directly painful to wear that much weight on the brass banded "corset" directly resting on the shoulders, but at least i think the idea would probably work for short distances if one slightly modified the backpack a bit so it hangs more like a SCUBA pack instead.

(He said that the backpack will be replaced by a larger tube in a sidecar in the future.

(Since English is not my native language i tried to use the automatic spellcheck function, i am not sure if it got everything right... )

[J. Wilhelm]

Awesome look for the bike though. But next time he should incorporate the tank into the body of the bike.

[mizzarrogh]

He said that the new tank will be in a sidecar (it is not finished yet (or possibly he just does not want to show it yet), the backpack version is fitted with a modern SCUBA tube inside the coppercylinder in order to increase the range, it give Apr. 4-5 minutes nonstop ride at normal roadspeed (for this particular bike) according to the owner.

Fun fact he mentioned is that the engine is getting could instead of hot while running.

The valve to the cylinder feedline is an old watertap cast in brass and refitted with an open spring in the box above and a wire to the steeringhandle.

[mizzarrogh]

The cylinder walls are actualy made from real glass, they are about 5 millimeter (about 0 13⁄64" in imperial) thick.