I understand why people are calling 'hoax' on it, but it is really possible, especially given that area of Morocco has an average temp of about 18C according to the internet. If he built himself a shade from the shell as the first stage he'd be pretty good for surviving the aspects of dehydration.
Plus anyone who's ever been near a 2CV know you could probably drill through the metal with a pencil if you tried hard enough.
Edit: some more info on why it's possible.
- 2CV weighs roughly 560kg, they were built to save weight all round so the body panels, frame work and mechanical components were built 'light' (read thin, no carbon fibre here).
- The engine will have been heavy, but it's a relatively small simple block, it won't have been easy but "give me a fulcrum and I will move the world". It's doable, I'm pretty sure if I bug the petrol heads I know I'll find one who's done it on something similar or tell me how it's done. Edit: brohee (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4008052) posts that the engine is 66kg, which isn't super ridiculously heavy. Find someone who's around that weight and see if you can pick them up.
- If you're going on a desert holiday, taking water is a smart idea. 14 days water would be about 8/9 gallons for a man weighing 12 stone (I think, unless the 'recommended minimum water per day' calculation I found is useless). That seems like a lot, it's about 4 of the jugs used on water coolers, so he might have rationed it out and had less.
To round it off for you naysayers: http://citcity.citroen1.info/2CV/water.htm if multiple people can make boats out of them to race about a local lake there's every possibility someone could figure out how to make a bike.
(and yes, I'm locked into a 2CV research spiral now)
I have been in the area several times and it is very habitable (Although the temperatures are not very accurate, I don't think its anything less that 25-to-30 around March, especially when sites are reporting 19 even now, in May). The southern Sahara is less harsh that its eastern one (The one bordering Algeria), and has less dunes of course, thats way you don't see them in the pictures. Living dozens of kilometers away from the city of Tan-Tan (French article said he could have walked there) can boost confidence.
Even 30(C or F, I'm guessing C) is dealable. Being inside shade helps a lot, especially one conducting heat mostly into the ground (someone with a better physics background can tell me I'm wrong on that though).
30C in such an arid climate is actually quite nice - as long as you have enough water with you. But you never feel sweaty, water from your body just immediately dries away.
Yep, I meant C. Though from the French article I read that the new motorcycle engine is positioned a new way that all the smoke ends up on your face. :)
The hoax people are calling surround the fact he somehow fabricated a motorcycle from his car with a broken swing arm, but couldn't simply fabricate a new or fixed swingarm.
From the people who've read the French that's not the only thing that was broken.
GitHub is littered with people who came up with crazy solutions rather than fixing the problem in the existing. Hacking is not limited to just software.
Possibly thousands, with the propensity of wheels for exploding.
In a more serious note that's the benefit of living in our civilisation, we can experiment and do what we want to even if it has no measurable long term or commercial benefit. Or if someone got there first, why not have a go, could pay off (for example, SpaceX had a go)
[edit] though I do suspect they might be instances of SIRI unintentionally using Apple's idle clock cycles to troll online messageboards. Which may also explain 90% of youtube.
I was right with you until I started thinking about cooling the engine down and little things like that. I concluded that if you took the engine block from a car to do this, you'd end up with something looking like a cross between a motorcycle and a lorry....
Aircooled engine plus is a relatively small engine. One person could lift it clean off the ground without any extra leverage.
You need to consider that the mechanics of an engine back in 1990 (last year the 2CV was produced) were unbelievably basic compared to modern engines.
To be honest, I've no doubt the guy built this however it baffles me that he chose to take this approach rather than repair the vehicle. People argue it was more than a snapped swing arm but I'm confused as it would take significantly more damage to render it irreparable for a man of his obvious ability. We can rule out engine and chassis failure as these were key components in his 'motorbike'.
Bottom line, this is bloody fascinating, regardless of what the truth may be.
I've seen a bear of a man lift a 750kg engine out of a chassis (he gave himself a hernia several years later doing the same thing). I'd say it's possible but possibly a hoax.
Plus anyone who's ever been near a 2CV know you could probably drill through the metal with a pencil if you tried hard enough.
Edit: some more info on why it's possible.
- 2CV weighs roughly 560kg, they were built to save weight all round so the body panels, frame work and mechanical components were built 'light' (read thin, no carbon fibre here).
- The engine will have been heavy, but it's a relatively small simple block, it won't have been easy but "give me a fulcrum and I will move the world". It's doable, I'm pretty sure if I bug the petrol heads I know I'll find one who's done it on something similar or tell me how it's done. Edit: brohee (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4008052) posts that the engine is 66kg, which isn't super ridiculously heavy. Find someone who's around that weight and see if you can pick them up.
- If you're going on a desert holiday, taking water is a smart idea. 14 days water would be about 8/9 gallons for a man weighing 12 stone (I think, unless the 'recommended minimum water per day' calculation I found is useless). That seems like a lot, it's about 4 of the jugs used on water coolers, so he might have rationed it out and had less.
To round it off for you naysayers: http://citcity.citroen1.info/2CV/water.htm if multiple people can make boats out of them to race about a local lake there's every possibility someone could figure out how to make a bike.
(and yes, I'm locked into a 2CV research spiral now)