Kawasaki Motorcycles made a splash with a hydrogen-powered bike at EICMA final yr, and now a number of customized producers are stepping in to point out what a hydrogen-powered bike might appear like. There’s a brand new crop of idea bikes coming forth that reveals hydrogen might be the following massive factor in motorcycling. Maybe.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles are gaining momentum. Hydrogen is, in spite of everything, probably the most considerable molecules on Earth. And, while you combust it, you get water vapor as a byproduct. Manufacturers are taking discover. Honda, for instance, shall be promoting a model of its hottest SUV, the CR-V, with a hydrogen engine in 2024. But for bikes, we could also be on the cusp of one thing new.
Now, customized designers are getting in on the potential of hydrogen. Anton Brousseau, one of many three designers behind the Hydra hydrogen idea bike, instructed BikeEXIF: “Electricity might not be right for motorbikes. What else do you have? Hydrogen is closer to combustion, and it’s closer to that feel.”
Brousseau, with Andon Guzhov and Andre Taylforth (who’ve design expertise with Ford and Mercedes-Benz) designed the Hydra as a futuristic hydrogen-powered café racer, he stated. “It has a café racer feel. That was the inspiration. It’s just such a simple and clean idea and it was inspired by custom motorbikes.”
Anton Brousseau | Instagram
The Hydra idea makes use of a extra conventional, for those who can name it that, gas cell know-how. In a gas cell, hydrogen is handed by a membrane made from rare-earth metals. That creates a cost that may then energy an electrical motor. While the output is electrical, the enter is chemical. “In an EV, all you have is this big box and there’s no heart to it. It misses that mechanical character that keeps it alive,” Brousseau stated.
The trick to getting hydrogen right into a combustion engine, nonetheless, is direct injection. Kawasaki has mastered highly effective direct injection with its H2 line bikes, which have highly effective superchargers inbuilt that pump extremely compressed gas and air into the cylinders. Hydrogen wants extra air than gasoline, and this method might be modified for hydrogen. Kawasaki is planning a brand new line of EV bikes that may come out by 2025.
Others at the moment are seeing potential in hydrogen gas cell tech, too. Segway, the parents who make the standup self-balancing scooters, have proven a brand new hydrogen-electric powered bike idea, too. Called the APEX H2, Segway’s first idea bike makes massive guarantees, together with a high pace of 150 kph, or 93 mph, with 60 kw, or 80 hp, of energy.
The specifics of the place you get hydrogen, the risks of using with a highly-pressurized tank between your legs, and different logistical points nonetheless should get discovered. But it’s in use. Since hydrogen merely emits water vaper when its used, many forklifts which can be used indoors, like in warehouses, at the moment are hydrogen powered.
But with this a lot consideration on hydrogen and its potential particularly within the automotive world, it’s attainable that we might throw a leg over a hydrogen manufacturing bike within the subsequent few years.
Source: www.bikeexif.com