In the world of ICE (internal combustion engines) and E motorcycles (electric engines) there was a small space left for compressed-air-powered ones. Dean Bensread, design student at Australia’s RMIT decided to “pursue” this idea by producing a full scale prototype motorcycle propelled by the air from scuba diving tanks – meet the O2 Pursuit. Basic idea is bizarrely simple – take one Yamaha WR250R bike, strip all the engine and electric parts, make some room for the scuba diving tank, mount the DiPietro air engine and off you go.
But there’s an immediate question of “why haven’t somebody try this already”?
Well, there are obvious drawbacks with this design, autonomy and safety being the biggest ones. With the power storage capacity of 5 times less then the e-motorcycles of today, this bike will need frequent “fuel” stops. Compressed air tanks are very dangerous when damaged, and air compressors are still powered by electricity.
But there are good sides as well – super simple design with minimal moving parts (reliable and cheap to run), quick recharge times and no air and noise pollution. Would this technology go anywhere? Well – as long as the oil is pumped out of the Earth – our answer would be, unfortunately, no.
A bevy of build and design images are below, enjoy !
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