The Gullible wallets

[Jeram]

I thought Id start a thread for famous or interesting "bike performance gimmicks and scams"


Ill start it off

Icat...
claims to improve fuel economy, starting ease and power accross the rev range... turns out that its just a useless capacitor...

like a dodgy buisness, this product has been marketed at different bikes for almost a decade under different product names



here is what I beleive to be the most definitive review of this product
http://crfsonly.com/reviews/icat/icat-c ... review.php



anyone want to chime in with info on the 2stroke crank superchargers
how about the power-now by scary fast?
Im sure there are hundreds...

grahams... got any oldskool scams from back in the day?
I bet your itching tell another story

[graham]

Ok Jeram, you got me........

That device reminds me soooooooo much of an almost identical product, advertised mostly the same way that has been around for many many years, as long as spark ignition took over from hot tube ignition.....and no I not that old.....yet!

100 years ago one of the things suggested (in Ford model T servicing guides) to keep your engine running when oil usage was a problem, was to get a coat button and using the 2 holes in the button as a spacing device, cut your HT lead and baring the wire, wrap it through the hole from each side so you had an air gap of 4mm or so in your lead.

This meant the secondary voltage had to climb to about 20KV to jump the gap before it got to the spark plug...... Any oil on the spark plug gap in the cylinder would not cause the voltage to be bled away before jumping the gap as usual.

This idea actually has merit, some spark plugs are made this way (they have an LV code in the champion range) for some outboard engines that have a very high voltage using CDI ignition. The gap is between the top terminal of the plug and the centre rod that goes down further to become the centre electrode of the plug. These plugs don't have a thread on the top and the top terminal has a small 1.5mm hole through it so air can get to the gap.

If your lawn mower won't quite start, pull the plug cap just off the terminal and you may find that the extra voltage may just be all you need to get it going.....

So......... many years ago I was at an Ag (farmfest type) show where this bloke was selling spark intensifiers.....

He had an old side valve in line 6 cylinder engine on a stand, tuned with an over rich idle mixture....... he started it up, gave it a huge rev to draw a crowd, and started his sales pitch...... He took one plug lead off one cylinder and it rocked a bit but still kept idling...... another lead off and it just stalled...

So in went the spark intensifer between the HT coil and the distributor cap...... He put all the leads back on, gave it a big rev to clear itself and let it set back to Idle...... He them pulled one plug lead off, it still idled..... two leads off......still idled...... three leads off.....it just idled, very rough but it kept going........(he had it tuned perfectly for the rich Idle mixture)

The sales pitch was 150% more spark at the plugs with the Intensfier and better economy, and it helped your sex life as well....all this for only$$$$..........

Well he sold hundreds, and every now and then the Idea is re-discovered and it comes around again......

Graham

[2TInstitute]

Direct Hits was one name the ("Vowel Feline" I call them on forums) snake oil has been marketed under.
'Nology Wires' is another beauty claimed to have 'less resistance' blah blah blah. A common theme with snake oils is many are ignition related

On a VMX forum a idea was hatched to build the biggest shitter in history using all the massive fails. Plastic levers, Nylon sprockets, travel extenders , flexi handle bars , anti dives,etc etc, some of the cogneseti got all out of shape when I suggested a gold bling DG head

[tomo91]

this one you guys might be interested in



its called a radial reed vavle the bloke trying to sell it was saying it improved the fuel air mixture and you wouldnt have to run as bigger main jet etc etc

i cant find much on it anymore as the us rz350 site deleted the 5 page s@#t fight between him and the tuners etc

from what i understand he would take your payment but never had a complete one finshed etc

[Jeram]

Im trying to picture how that that thing works or "is claimed to work"

does it sit on the downstream side of the carb and replaces the reed block?

[2TInstitute]

Who could forget the "Hy-clone" thing they advertised during the V8's that sat in the inlet tract. Better fuel economy more power etc etc

You could look up the patent on that thing, wish they tomo wish they didn't delete that thread it was a car crash and a trian wreck all in one made compling reading.

[graham]

And then of course the "polariser"

Perhaps they thought the only way they could get a holden to feel like a luxury car was to align all the karma in the one direction......

Graham

[tomo91]

ah the hyclone haha my mate almost got conned into that one with his "low lux" some mechanic told him if he installed TWO at 200 odd dollars with extractors and carby he would be able to lite it up in 3rd without a worry..

gees did i laugh when he told me that

[Jeram]

anyone care to explain what these guy were thinking?









Sounds like his jetting was off, and now his crank is lighter because it had lots of meat taken off it. haha

[graham]

The spark gap in the HT lead is alive and well.....

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ROYAL-ENFIEL ... 5194f62d58

Graham

[Jeram]

heres another picture of that 'radial reed valve' bullshit

now I see that its not just fundamentally flawed mechanically, but also flawed interms of fluid dynamics



howd this guy ever think it would make any power?

[OzzyElsie]

anyone care to explain what these guy were thinking?

Sounds like his jetting was off, and now his crank is lighter because it had lots of meat taken off it. haha

I think these cuts are meant to increase windage and pump more air-fuel through the engine - i.e. is a supercharger.

Undoubtedly it would have increased disturbance of the air through the engine, if it would end up a net lost or a net gain I'm not so certain. My guess is that it would be something of an unguided weapon - giving some benefits in some situations (revs, throttle opening, engine load etc) and some equal disadvantages in other conditions.

Windage and the compression of the descending piston is a cause of lost horsepower and has been seen as such for a fair while. There have been a number of attempts in 2t's and 4t's to harness that lost power. The Wulf 2t is one such design.

I'm not certain as to why the Wulf didn't 'see the light of day' in the market place. But with modern technology, oils and engine management it might still have potential (if electricity doesn't take over beforehand).



Would it be nice to have of these oin your collection .

[2TInstitute]

OK here's the short version .
The decnding piston does not 'pump' anything. It does create some small amount of static pressure, however a two stroke relies on the pipe to do ALL the work. Also residual cylinder pressure is far greater than case pressure anyway. So in order for any intake charge to be 'pumped' into the combustion chamber. Residual cylinder pressure has to be over come then once it does, the pull from the diffuser should begin to work as the piston approaches BDC. At BDC is when the bulk of transfer flow occur, not because of anything in the cases it is all down to the diffuser in the pipe, creating a large pressure depression.

[Jeram]

and even if it did work... the diagram clearly shows another flaw...

theres no point 'forcing' more air into the cylinder when the exhaust port is wide open!

[Jeram]

and I think that the only reason people thing the paris crank supercharger ads power is because the people who fall for it are the kind of people who dont properly maintain or tune their two stroke.

these guys come in and fully rebuild the motor, they also happen to cut a couple slots in the crankshaft. so 100% of the bikes improvement is because the motor got a little bit of TLC that was much needed.