An Italian designer claims to be producing a small number of motorcycles with inverted three-cylinder engines.
Daniele “Titus” Sabatini is the owner of Nembo Motociclette in Rome, and his 1,814 cc upside-down engine, the Super 32 rovescio, is air cooled, uses two valves per cylinder, and is said to produce more power than expected.
Sabatini says he dislikes seeing motorcycle engines hidden by plastic fairings and large frame rails, “so I’ve thought that a good way to get a well exposed and updated air-cooled engine in a contemporary naked sport bike was just to invert it,” he says in the Kneeslider.
By inverting the engine he gets the crankcase to act as a chassis component and leaves the cylinders unstressed and out in the airflow.
Sabatini promised that a couple of models would be complete by Christmas and would weigh approximately 150 kg. Power, depending on the engine’s displacement, will be 160 hp or more. Sabatini says he can build them in 1814 cc, 1925 cc, and 2097 cc variations, and the largest of them will produce 250 hp, he claims.
He recently showed photos of a built-up motorcycle, and it looks like he’s making good on his promise.
Higher centre of gravity plus all that rotating mass higher. I wonder how it will turn?
/rs
It probably smokes a bit at startup, from oil seeping past the piston rings (like a Goldwing left on the sidestand), but otherwise the engine should function quite well. Oil would be collected below the valves and pumped back up into the crankcase
FUGLY…
@Madjak
Not very polished/refine built??? Pls write down the numbers … 150kg, 160HP ….. these people clearly know what they are doing. This is no Joe’s garage type of a built. Once they release a price it will be probably very very pricey, but we are not discussing economical side of things here, are we?
Wot’s Dat about keeping centre of gravity low ?
He was surprised at the power output, so I guess the handling was expected.
Why not put the gas tank under the engine ?
Wait – My bike already did that when it was sliding down the road upside down…LOL Ouch
I would imagine that it is a dry sump with external reservoir…but it looks like a garage custom to me…not that polished…go to customfighters.com and see bikes that are better put together…and as for the Hp…old hot rodders moto…no replacement for displacement…I guess the engines won’t be under terrible stress with all that displacement…
Later.
How does oil control work on something like that?