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Honda Monkey Breaks World Record Covering 4,183 Km on Single Tank
- bergie 3y agoThat is a long distance to make on a Honda Monkey! We did only a slightly longer trip, from Helsinki to Gibraltar back in the 00s: http://web.archive.org/web/20110310093031/http://www.deathmonkey.org/ http://web.archive.org/web/20110310093031/http://www.deathmo...
- jacquesm 3y agoAnd you did it on the 50 cc version to boot. That's a huge difference in speed.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sriram_sun 3y agoIt was on a 28.5 gallon (108L) tank. Still impressive!
- xenonite 3y agoAnd there were many mountains in between. Hence, the bike gave 147 miles per gallon, a bit less than Honda's claimed 169 mpg.
- jandrese 3y agoThe extra 240lbs of gas at the start probably hurt fuel economy.
- 1970-01-01 3y agoMost interesting is how sponges were needed to stabilize the fuel.
- nickff 3y agoI suspect that the problem could have been solved with baffles (which are the typical solution to sloshing), but that it was impossible to add them to the tank post-manufacture.
- spurgu 3y agoBaffles would remove volume as well. But I'm not sure how that'd compare with sponges.
- 10000truths 3y agoI feel like baffles would be better because you'd have to fight capillary action to extract all of the fuel trapped in the sponge.
- spurgu 3y agoMakes sense.
- ilyt 3y agoOr maybe just too many of them would need to be addded. At that point tank weighted more than base motorcycle, baffles are used and "good enough" in bigger vehicles that have more wheels for stability. Sponges are also commonly used in race bikes so I'd guess there are some advantages vs just building a tank with baffles
- ecshafer 3y agoIt seems like it would have been better to do this at a track that is going to be more consistent.
- dharmab 3y agoThe sponsor, Acerbis, makes equipment for long motorcycle trips, so this is more interesting to their customers.
- rootusrootus 3y agoIt only went 2,599.7 miles, though? By my math that's 91 mpg. They gave up a lot of efficiency to carry around so much fuel.
- RoboRy 3y ago2599 miles / 28.5 gallons = ~91mpg? did they claim 147 in the article? I'm just curious how my napkin math went so wrong haha.
- yakshaving_jgt 3y ago1,000km is a tiring drive in a luxury SUV. I couldn't imagine 4,000km on a knee-high 125cc bike. They are very cool bikes though. I'd love to buy one, but I want to buy a Rebel first.
- jandrese 3y agoAccording to the article it was a three driver team that was swapping out regularly. Also, the bike was made full size by wrapping the thing in a huge fuel tank. Still, that's a long ride even on a full size bike.
- mtreis86 3y agoWrapping it won't lengthen the wheelbase or suspension so it will still turn in like a little bike. Still will be twitchy at speed like a little bike, and defo going to take pothole just like any other bike with little wheels, terribly.
- sacnoradhq 3y agoThen you don't know the meaning of the word "comfort." The B body, culminating in the Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Brougham LS (8th gen, "Body by Fisher") was a rolling couch you could sink into, with that ridiculously static-generating and uncleanable velour. Some Cadillacs and Lincolns were also okay, but Fisher put all other automotive brands, foreign and domestic, to shame in the comfort category.
- yakshaving_jgt 3y agoYeah I don't know. Sitting on a rolling couch and keeping focused on what's in front of me is also tiring when I have to do it for 10+ hours. As for the specific car you mention… Umm… Yeah I guess taste is subjective.
- sacnoradhq 3y agoStaying awake is a problem left to the driver. ;) Your tailbone will thank you compared to taking a trip in a Prius.
- sacnoradhq 3y ago4,061.8 km with 0 L fuel, 12 years ago (2011). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokai_Challenger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokai_Challenger The best ICE still isn't cool because it's fundamentally Earth's chain-smoker with terminal lung cancer failing to light a cigarette while almost blowing up their oxygen tank.
- nomel 3y ago> The Tokai Challenger covered the 2,998 km (1,858 mi.) off in 29 hours 49 minutes and it took an average speed of 100.54 km/h (62 mph). Wow, faster too! When comparing the aerodynamics of a dude in a jacket to a wing, I suppose being an average of 20mph faster makes sense.
- nickff 3y agoBut the article isn't about an internal combustion engine, it's about a company that makes aftermarket fuel tanks, which chose to celebrate an anniversary by setting a record. Why did you feel the need to wrap your environmentalist polemic in such a complicated metaphor?
- phowat 3y agoNitpick, Acerbis doesn't make aftermarket fuel tanks. They make racing suites, gloves, helmets, things like that.
- nickff 3y agoAh, I thought they made the ones listed on their website under their brand; are these white-label products or something? https://www.acerbis.com/en/motorsport/plastics/fuel-tanks https://www.acerbis.com/en/motorsport/plastics/fuel-tanks
- fsckboy 3y agoI think from now on they might white label your response, call it acerbiç
- jeron 3y ago>An impressive 4,183.8 kilometers (2,599.7 miles) without refueling. this distance reminds me of the Cannonball Run from Red Ball Garage in Manhattan to Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, which is about 2,900 miles. I don't think anyone's done a Honda Monkey Cannonball Run yet
- samstave 3y agoYou really need to watch the documentary on Cannonball Run - its fascinatingly full of historic tidbits that you didn't know that you knew, and those you didnt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b7erU_DOfE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b7erU_DOfE
- emrah 3y agoOn a single "largest motorcycle tank ever used, designed and built in-house with a whopping capacity of 108 liters (28.5 gallons)" kind of tank that is, but still an amazing achievement
- mabbo 3y agoPutting this into perspective, my Honda Civic has a 50L[0] gas tank. 0- when it reports that there's 0km left in the tank, I can only fill it up by 40L, so is it really a 50L tank? Hard to say.
- jamiek88 3y agoTypically there’s a reserve of 10-15% of the tank capacity ‘hidden’ from the time to empty indicator. 10 liters seems on the high end though.
- taneq 3y agoI suspect smaller tanks get relatively larger reserves, I had an old MR2 with a 40L tank and its fuel light came on after 30L too.
- SECProto 3y agocounterpoint, my yaris has a 42L tank. The light comes on around 36L to 37L in. I know if pretty well so I've pushed it to 38.5L (another ~30km past the light) but never risked going any further.
- taneq 3y agoTo be fair, my MR2 was an '87 model so maybe it's changed since then. I wonder how old the Civic was?
- silisili 3y agoNot a moto rider, but wouldn't that be really hard to drive? It feels like sloshing would cause significant balance issues.
- phlipski 3y agoThere doesn't appear to be any aerodynamic fairings used. I wonder how much efficient they could get with some drag reduction...
- gpm 3y agoSo they made a super efficient vehicle, right? > To achieve this feat, the technical team at Acerbis engineered the largest motorcycle tank ever used, Oh.
- mtreis86 3y agoThe monkey gets 160+mpg, it would be difficult to improve much on that. Certainly not going to get a 2x multiple of it for cheaper than you can increase the fuel tank by an order of magnitude.
- gpm 3y agoGood for a consumer vehicle. For a random stunt it would be pretty easy to improve on that. Start with things like "aerodynamic fairings" and "low rolling resistance tires". Someone above linked a solar car, which went roughly the same distance, significantly faster. Given that it apparently had 1.8kw nameplate capacity solar panels... and it covered 3000 km in 30 hours, we know it's (substantially better than) 1.8kwh/100km (at 100kph!). 0.03 gallons of gasoline release 1kwh of energy when burned, combined with the above the solar car was getting the equivalent of 1150 mpg. This trip would have taken 2.26 gallons (falsely assuming perfect efficiency, but then we get to ditch all the weight and aerodynamic losses from having solar panels on board... and I assumed the solar panels operated continuously at their nameplate capacity). That's still slightly larger than the Honda Monkey's 1.5 gallon tank, but it's not unreasonable to think that someone could have done this. It would have been a lot cooler than "strapping on more fuel tanks" IMO.
- AngeloAnolin 3y agoI initially thought that no modification that will impact the amount of fuel was performed on the machine. That in itself will be an amazing feat. This can be considered great if they made advancements in engine / combustion design that increased the distance traveled on a per liter (or gallon) of fuel.
- slim 3y agoThat advancement was made by honda, so these guys had only to make a bigger tank to win the record
- metafunctor 3y agoOne could drive from the south of Finland to Lapland and back without taking a piss break, in that, you could.
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y agoI wouldn't want a 28.5 gallon tank of fuel between my legs
- qup 3y agoIn a catastrophic event, how different is it from 2.5 gallons? (A pretty normal size) Does a rider survive either one exploding?
- mchannon 3y agoLiquid gasoline is actually pretty safe. It’s the fumes that can cause an explosion. A properly designed gas tank will prevent the formation of fumes, whether by having a “bladder” within (most modern cars do this) or perhaps some type of venting. I’d consider it far more dangerous to be going 40mph under the prevailing speed limit on a highway you can’t go around, such as over a bridge. The tank is a minor consideration. I also believe you could find a way to use bladders and fairings in your tank design such that it bulges out into a 50gal tank when starting off and gradually stretches and shrinks back into the existing profile and shape as the gas gets used up. A further mileage hit at first, but all bonus miles.
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y agoInteresting. I didn't know any of that.
- dpeckett 3y agoWas reading about "The Quiet Achiever" the other day, the first transcontinental crossing in a solar powered vehicle (interestingly also 4000km). Kinda crazy looking back 40 years how far we've come! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmTRI6giSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmTRI6giSU
- seanp2k2 3y agoImagine how far an EV with a similar amount of weight of batteries to vehicle weight could go. I'm not an EV hater, just pointing out here that even lithium-ion batteries are in the range of 100-265 Wh per kg while gasoline is around 12,200 Wh/kg (roughly 50x the energy density). This is a big part of why there are no commercially-viable EV aircraft, and probably won't be for some time -- namely until battery energy density improves by an order of magnitude or so. As for this mini motorcycle, it's impressive that it still looks pretty decent and someone unfamiliar with this model might even mistake it for stock. I never quite understood why it's so hard to find even aftermarket tanks for bikes that get the range up to car range...I just want to go 500 miles on my bike without refueling. Put the gas in the frame AND into a 5+ gallon tank up top. Put gas into a portion of the seat. Put it up behind the headlight or in a big fender. Carrying jerry cans or even the bag style ones is just so bulky and inconvenient for overlanding on two wheels without a support vehicle carrying extra fuel.
- AeiumNE 3y agoJust talking energy density is a little misleading if internal combustion engines can't capture most of it
- inhumantsar 3y agoWe are really not far off commercially viable short-haul EV flights. Harbour Air in Vancouver is converting their fleet of Beavers to EV and a company in Scotland is working on converted Cessnas. And purpose built aircraft will likely do better than these. They won't replace the 737 any time soon of course, but progress is progress. https://harbourair.com/harbour-airs-all-electric-aircraft-operates-first-point-to-point-test-flight/ https://harbourair.com/harbour-airs-all-electric-aircraft-op... https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-58177865 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetl...
- b0z0z0 3y agoI completely agree with your first paragraph. But the 2nd, with gas storages encircling the rider like that, sounds very dangerous in the event of a crash.
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- TowerTall 3y ago> To achieve this feat, the technical team at Acerbis engineered the largest motorcycle tank ever used So, this has nothing to do with fuel efficiency. It is just a question of who can build the largest gas tank.
- graynk 3y agoI misread this as “Monkey Breaks World Record Covering 4,183 Km On A Tank” and got REALLY excited at first