Motorcycle running on water?

[Old and In the Way]

Scanned the forum and didn't see this posted. Here's a link to a 60 Minutes / New Zealand backyard inventor who claims to run his 350cc motorbike on water. He runs the 'fuel' through some kind of conditioning process and then pours it into his bike....off it goes. Pretty interesting.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=692927989&n=2

[GregD]

1. My first thought when I read your title was

I sure hope it has floaty wings or it's gonna go glub glub the moment you slow down. Don't drown riding that over deep water!

[Trillo]

2. Curious. n/t

[Trillo]

6. There seems to be much information online.

From the video, it appears the gas tank may be modified from a typical motorcycle, judging from time 3:54 (M:S). The interviewer's left hand seems to be pointing to where the water (fuel) was placed. It doesn't look like any motorcycle gas tank I've ever seen. Later in the video, a specialist named Idriss (sorry if spelling's wrong) thinks the inventors special process might be electrolysis of some kind.

There is much info online regarding motorcycles or cars that allegedly run on water, if you search for it. It appears a few claim to have gotten what might be a similar system working, still others claim only partial success with electrolysis and achieving only hydrogen/oxygen supplementation of the regular fuel. People have set up discussion boards to share knowledge. With respect to some of those working on it, their problem seems to be generating enough hydrogen fast enough, and all they've achieved is supplementation of the normal fuel with hydrogen/oxygen gas. Others talk of some kind of resonant frequency that needs tuning in order to feed the electrodes to exponentially increase the hydrogen/oxygen produced, otherwise, more commonly understood physics principals seem to apply (It can't be done by electrolysis without expending too much electrical power for it to be practical to power an onboard ICE).

There are also conspiracy sites aplenty. Stories of inventors of water-powered engines being threatened and some disappearing or killed. Others who've left for another country. There are also some patents filed for some of the various devices claiming something useful related to generating hydrogen from water onboard a vehicle and running it in a typical ICE; these can be found by looking for them.

The audio of the exhaust gas analysis part of the motorcycle video claims that carbon levels are normal. I've never seen an exhaust gas analysis of an old motorcycle engine, with somewhat worn rings and valve seals, that was converted to run on hydrogen. It seems that a number of specialists would be qualified to comment on that, as hydrogen has been used in experimental vehicles with relatively typical motors for a number of years. All one would need to test the inventors hypothesis that the carbon came from the motor's oil emulsifying with the water fuel would be to analyze the emissions of a similarly worn engine running on hydrogen gas. Of course, the inventor never seems to claim that this motor runs on hydrogen, only some water processed using a secret method.

I find myself wondering if he's concealed an electrolysis system inside his fuel tank; it appears his tank could be similar to some of the patents I've seen for on-board electrolysis systems.

According to the 60 minutes video, this is the guy's site, and it's spare of info:
http://www.biosmeanslife.com/home.html


Browsing around, I found this experiment, alleged to be repeated by some others, regarding Plasma Electrolysis of water, and I wonder if it's "related":
http://jlnlabs.imars.com.nyud.net:8090/cfr/logbook/cfrmhmc2.jpg
http://jlnlabs.imars.com/cfr/html/cfrmhmc.htm

[Ready4Change]

3. Jesus is a biker?

:)

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Uh-huh. And how much does this "conditioning" cost?

There have been a number of scams in the past where an "inventor" claimed to be able to run a gasoline engine on water plus a little of his "magic elixir", or whatever they were calling it at the time. Sometimes these turned out to be obvious scams, where, say, ethanol or acetone (both water-soluble) was cleverly mixed in after the "ordinary water" had passed inspection. I believe it's also possible to prepare a solution of picric acid -- an explosive -- in water and get an engine to run on that just long enough to separate the mark from his money. But in reality it's no cheaper or more efficient than burning a liquid fuel, and it will pretty well ruin the engine after a few uses.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Especially if someone stands to make a profit.

[Old and In the Way]

5. I appreciate your skepticism.

But did you watch the program? It's interesting, to say the least.

[woodstockny]

7. I have heard such concepts now and then.

Even if this works, isn't water a resource that can become as scarce as oil? I would think that this would just cause the greed and military efforts to fixate on different targets.

That's quite hypothetical of course, since it would have to work, first.