Too bad there aint many Can-am Spyders on the road. They have a real reverse gear built in (not a starter motor thingo like the Goldwing)...Will be a long time before you find any in the wreckers.

http://spyder.brp.com/en-au/See/Can-Am/Showroom/Index

Test rode those things and was surpised at the amount of torque (same V-twin as the Aprillia Millie, but tuned for Torque over Power).

Also if we can legely put a bike engine in a mini we can then put two in as their are mini's registered in Aus with twin A series lumps just a thought...

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

Kenno,,, stop trying to steal all my glory,,, that`s my idea,,, all MINE you hear!!!!!!!!!!!

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Alright then.

Seeing as QBR has got official DOT approval to do a mid-mouint conversion, I cant see why the powerplant cant be a bike engine - at all!

Matt - We need a good shell. BTW, bid on that Hayabusa down in Adelaide but was outbid. Still looking buddy.

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

no worries trickster,,, there`s plenty of fish in the sea

I have my eye on a really really lovely roundnose shell , all prepped up , dead straight, absolutely no rust , primed & ready for paint,,, i`ve struck a deal with him but i havn`t got the money right now, he`s waiting for me but i`m not sure how long he will hold out...it comes with a whole pile of parts , discs , engines etc etc etc & want it all but we could talk turkey & go halves or whatever if you`re interested?

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Someone mentioned a big V-Twin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cin23BMM ... re=related

http://www.spartan-v.com/Home.html

Vapourware. But there are loads of bike engines from which to chose which would make for a vastly different experience. Harleys (like 'em or love 'em) have been 'hogged out' to over 2 litres and tuned to the heavens, there's BMW boxer twins, Triumph triples, Moto Guzzis (used in kit car replicas of the old Morgan three-wheeler) and so on.

Ideally though, you'd go for a massive v-twin with a shaker bonnet and a slightly off-beat idle so it sits and the lights, gently shaking on coil-overs, crobba crobba crobba...

As always, the transmission is the issue (NZ doesn't have emissions laws for low volume vehicles). There must be a very compact yet robust diff and rear axle to use. I was thinking about some of the more powerful quad bikes, but as always a lack of talent, money and time means it's just a "What if" scenario at the moment.

Yep, sounds like a deal.

Lets go halves in the shell and secure that before it goes, and you can pick up the rest of the bits at your liesure.

PM me and let me know the cost.

Cheers,
Tricky

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

I saw an episode of American Chopper where they made a harley based trike for a paraplegic man. It was chain driven, but had a reverse gear that "bolted" on to the harley gearbox. it used a separate gear lever to engage rev. eg: main lever in neutral and then engage reverse.

So it might be worth looking at trike websites. They also had a diff assembly that ran off the belt drive.

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-James.

Toyota 4EFTE Powered Minivan.
102 Kw @ The Front Wheels....Oh What a Feeling!

One of the advantages of the Harley big block (1340+) engines is that they're non-unit construction, so the gearbox isn't part of the engine. Pretty prehistoric method of making an engine, but it enables you to run, say a Harley motor up front and an Alfa transaxle in the rear. Weight distribution would be better and you get the "potato potato" sound when idling which is so important these days

Could then then gang up two harley motors for a V4!!

Not sure what sound that would give you though...

There is a crankcase + crank conversion in the US that adds a 3rd cylinder, ie makes it a W3.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Talking about reverse gearboxes, bike engines and big V-twins, Phil Irving once suggested that a planetary gear out of a lathe could be used to make a forward and reverse setup for a bike engine into a light car.

I want an all wheel drive R1
Think about it 2 liters, 8 cylinders, 320bhp, close to even weight distribution, good fuel economy. Give it a standard look but on 12x6's and then theirs always the possibility of forced induction .

just thought I'd put it out their and on my list of dream toys.
Come on Matt and Trickey, I'll drop a shell of on the weekend

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

There was a Harley 'V4' on American Chopper a while back (the Intel bike). Although the actual bike was the usual horrorshow, the engine looked fantastic and I imagine the sound would be superb. And now that Harley have introduced fuel injection (just a million years after everyone else), it would be a really neat engine for a Mini. If I win Lotto, I will do this conversion, if only for the sound.