Hi!
With the bike finally standing on its wheels I felt like it was a good time to start a thread here and introduce myself. Anders Johansson is my name, 31 years old and live in the northern parts of Sweden. I work as a mechanic at a combined power and heating plant and have been building all sorts of jet engines for the last 12 years.
For three years I have been building a gas turbine powered land speed bike from scratch, the engine is based around a Garrett TV94 core and everything else is either home cast or milled from blocks of aluminum on my manual lathe and mill.
The engine before the first test run.
The hot parts are made from SS304, SS316 and mild steel coated with cheramics. The engine once in its turboshaft configuration is calculated to deliver around 150hp on the rear tyre, even more if I dare to run it hot enough.
I spent a year testing and improving the engine and after the fourth rebuild it seems to work like it should, earlier I had problems with oil leakage and tight tolerances but during the last run I ran it for a minute at 100% without any problems other than a high oil temp which I will solve with a larger capacity and an oil cooler.
The first test, dressed for the occation and bloody nervous.
http://youtu.be/3Gd_H8ClmHwThe fifth test, lots of thrust since it almost tipped the test bench over.
http://youtu.be/gLYInPTrdaUWith the gas producer sorted out I started to build the chromemoly frame, a frame jig was built and a set of GSXR 750 wheels and forks was sourced.
At the same time I designed and built the power turbine section, it is based around an RR Allison C20 4th stage turbine wheel with a home built NGV section in SS304.
The C20 turbine wheel in its housing.
Making the NGV.
A mock up of the engine with an 5:1 angle drive gearbox in the bike frame.
Rebuilding the gearbox to fit the freepower section.
Fitting the parts together.
With the engine finally in one piece I built the frame around it.
With the frame taken out of the jig I could take it outside for a photo session.
Intake air box and underhang oil and fuel tanks built.
Fitting the pumps and regulators to the bike.
This is what the bike looks like now, I hope to have it ready for its first race in a year from now at the swedish Speed Weekend on Ice.
The goal is to take it to Bonneville some day and try for the record in the APS Omega class, the electric guys are bloody fast but I know I can do it!
Cheers!
/Anders