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erice

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Posts posted by erice

    Orca's develop new behaviour an tastes

    in MarineTalk

    Posted

    i wonder if the nibbling on rudders is linked to how they chase down whales and sharks in the open ocean

    apparently they like shark livers and whale tongues, perhaps they chew up their propulsive fins to stop them in the water? 

    not much to get their teeth on to on a yacht but the rudder

    training for the kids?

    “It’s a shark they are hunting,” he says. “They eat sharks.”

    He later adds: “They actually bite the tails off [of the great whites] from the back.”

    https://roaring.earth/killer-whales-attack-monster-great-white-shark/

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16672002/moment-whale-rips-out-tongue/

    The advice issued by the authorities is to stop the boat and wait for the orcas to get bored.

    Typically after 30-60 minutes they leave, but by then the boat can be rudderless and incapacitated.

    Instead Mr Herminio threw the engines in reverse, creating froth that sent the orcas temporarily away from the rudders and gave him time to drop the sails and keep the boat moving backwards.

    Going astern, the spinning props were preventing access to the rudders.

     

    autonomous ekranoplans....just add destination

    in MarineTalk

    Posted

    built out of carbon and powered by electric motors run off hydrogen powered fuel cells, imagine something like this as a bus hopping round the bays of nz dropping people off to their batches etc

    take a lot of traffic off the roads and open up huge number of beautiful spots that are now too slow and hard to get to

    AVM+NZRC+Mount+Cook+Airlines.JPG

     

     

    • Upvote 1

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    yesterday 3 of us took as much gravel as possible to get out for a play at journey's end, tapora

    small.1482214548_journysend.JPG.d3585052

    small_je.JPG.6f710c5bf8d0169a796528a419f

    and back along the kaipara hills road

    small_kmr2.JPG.b74b9362260f5a6a3feee1618

    dodgy cross-winds at times but the rain stayed away 

    a good hard 250km has done a lot to combat the locked-in syndrome and frustration at having to cancel a trip to murchison to see friends

     

    • Upvote 1

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    barry's point road harley let me take their new pan america 1250 out for a day long test-ride recently

    all the tradition harley 'character' features like; low power, poor handling, bad brake etc. were absent

    making it an extremely competent sports-tourer that in the right hands would scare the crap out of many sportbike riders

    smaller than my GSs with an engine tuned more for power than torque they seem to be selling well and future models should get better as minor issues are addressed 

    left-jpg.3233745

    https://www.advpulse.com/adv-news/2021-harley-davidson-pan-america-specs-unveiled/

    not quite as well-fitted to me as my usual mounts; used, old, high-mileage, self-serviced beemers so i can't see a pan american in my future

    but it'll take 2, take bags, get to the bottom of the south island in record time and still get along the molesworth and nevis gravel roads without missing a beat and should still do the commute and shopping runs

    • Like 1

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    friends of mine eagerly await each year when a new year of classic bikes can get the $50 a year rego

    starts at 40 years i think, it makes owning multiple bikes much cheaper as a newish big bike costs >$500 for rego, most of that ACC levy..........motorcycling about the only? hobby that gets pinged like that by ACC.... 

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    good spotting

    not many about

    terribly spindly forks amongst other questionable design decisions

    if you like the z1

    kawasaki they started making the z900rs in 2018

    note the big upside down forks and radial calipers

    https://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/kawasaki/live-2018-kawasaki-z900rs-long-term-review.html

    https://bikereview.com.au/review-2018-kawasaki-z900rs/

    040618-Kawasaki-Z900RS-01.jpg

    of course there's a market for 4 into 4 pipes, but they're not cheap mass produced stamped iron with thin chrome

    https://www.bike-urious.com/4-into-4-exhaust-2018-kawasaki-z900rs/

     

    • Upvote 1

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    and the guzzi v8

    the video says the only v8 motorcycle ever made

    maybe this was before the morbidelli v8 of the 90's

    they made at least 4 prototypes.... but maybe the less said about it the better

    Morbideli%20V8%20%202.jpg?resize=595,587

    $60,000 and you were supposed to ship it back to the factory for servicing.....didn't get enough orders to start production

     

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    yes laverda are still big in combine harvesters 

    social.jpg

    and lamborgini still make tractors

    tra1.jpg

    funnily enough it took a 4WD SUV until lamborgini found a car that people really started to buy

    in only a few years the urus has become their #1 all time seller

    might have something to do with the state of roads in china?

     

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    the odd sound of an early 180 degree crank laverda jota triple

    have got an RGS corsa in the shed overseas, a black version of the red RGS in the back ground, but they have the later, smoother 120 crank

    the reason for the 180 crank was they got lazy when they first stuck another cyl on the twin and didn't bother changing the crank pressing

    with the result that 2 cyl fire then 1 and the whole thing shakes a bundle.....then they did the right thing and made the 120 crank....but it lost the distinctive sound....so now the 180 crank jota is the 1 collectors want 

    https://timeless2wheels.com/2786/laverda-jota-180/

    • Like 1

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    1 hour ago, jim s said:

    "Rolls-Royce Merlin engine with a 3rd bank of cylinders grafted on 1 side" any background info on this?  i know there were quite a few merlins floating around in the 60's and 70's ( i even had possession of one for a while) but that would be a tremendous engineering feat...

    perhaps it was this.................no wrong dates

    Sunbeam V12 Special

     

    The 1917 12 litre, 48-valve, Sunbeam Maori V12 aircraft engine produces 270hp at 2100 rpm.

    Created in the spirit of Sunbeam's record-breaking post-WW1 cars in 1998 by Wallace McNair of Hamilton, New Zealand, using Sunbeam vintage components.

    Currently on display at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Marlborough.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/sidm/3295986425

    another here

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/customs-classics/9666507/Old-land-speed-record-breaker-is-fired-up

     

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    My understanding is that that is what a typhoon tempest engine was...on walk-about, will dig up more at home.....but a quick search says that typhoon engine was a Napier sabre.....up to 3000 ps monster ..... a 24-cylinder piston engine with sleeved valves. Actually it is better described as two 12-cylinder horizontally opposed engines*, fused together in an ‘H’ cross section, as opposed to its famous ‘competitor’ the V-shaped 12-cylinder Rolls Royce Merlin......perhaps it was a Napier Bentley

    Motorbikes

    in Everything Else

    Posted

    in the 80s watched a typhoon? engined 30?s race car go around pukekohe track at a wings and wheels

    owner/driver said he liked the pukekohe back-straight as it was the only place he could get the car into top gear

    didn't like that the power would destroy the narrow classic car tyres

    can't seem to find any mention of it on the web

    but did find something similar in brutus

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/300387755/meet-brutus-the-most-dangerous-car-in-the-world

    While Brutus was actually built (well, started being built) in 1998, aero-engined cars initially rose in popularity after WWI as many aircraft engines were available after the war, because Germany was not allowed to have any aircraft.

    This led British motorsport enthusiasts to do the thing that motorsport enthusiasts have always done and jammed the biggest engine they can get into their cars, as tracks like Brooklands (the oldest race track in the world) only had two banked curves and sheer, outright speed was the priority, making it a simple matter of mount a hugely powerful aircraft engine on an old chassis and use it for racing purposes.

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