Air-powered Motorcycle. 62 MPH.

Last month, the “Pursuit” was unveiled by industrial designer Dean Benstead. For a change, a bike prototype fueled not by gas or electricity, but by compressed air.  It uses the breakthrough engine technology developed by Angelo Di Pietro of a company based in Melbourne, Australia, called Engineair.

It’s a motocross geometry bike mostly made out of aluminum components, weighting only 100 kg (about 221 lb) with a “Di Pietro” chamber Air Engine, able to reach 100 km/h (about 62 mph.) Compressed air as a genuine alternative to gas and electricity? Benstead said “The bike is running a standard scuba tank which runs air compressed up to 200 bar. With further developments, we would be looking at running a tank at 400 bar with increased capacity to also increase the range,” He was recently named in Melbourne’s Top 100 most influential people and is currently working with Australia’s Engineair and French company MDI on a new design that can bring the technology to the market.

14 Responses to “Air-powered Motorcycle. 62 MPH.”


  1. 1 J Dec 30th, 2011 at 9:17 am

    Awesome- can’t wait to see what happens when a 400-bar tank blows underneath the guys gnads….

    Mickey Thompson ran a funny car in the early 70’s on compressed air, developed like 2500 hp, which was 1000 more than what the standard nitro engine at the time was putting out…. Then someone woke up to the downside of highly compressed air tanks running down a drag strip at 220mph…..

  2. 2 Mithion Dec 30th, 2011 at 9:38 am

    Looks interesting. I think the whole compressed air tank blowing up is just as dangerous as a tank of explosive fuel blowing up, only time will tell.

  3. 3 CafeSportyTC Dec 30th, 2011 at 10:05 am

    unless the fuel is atomized into a mist or vapor the gasoline wont explode… it will burn off like a more potent oil lamp. the tanks have a service life of a certain amount of cycles, and tanks capable of 400 bar (which to me sounds stratospheric) need a signifigant amount of reinforcement…. last time i checked they were ridiculously expensive…. imagine have to replace the expensive bottle every 200 charges… need idea though

  4. 4 Steve Hog Radio Producer Johann Dec 30th, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    All you need is a small gas compressor to continually fill the tank – instead of electric/gas hybrids you have gas/air hybrids.

    I wonder how many miles you get before refilling?

  5. 5 colemanfu Dec 30th, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    I bet it has a better sound than the electric one?

  6. 6 Timmoking Dec 30th, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    can you imagine the aftermarket potential for exhaust valve customisation? “Oh, mine sounds like an old gunnery sgt after eating a sack of peanuts!”

  7. 7 A 1 CYCLES Dec 30th, 2011 at 3:49 pm

    mickeys drag car…was a fuel based motor and all the air it used was compressed. i believeits still on display at big daddy’s museum in florida…neet idea..i looked at the website.pretty cool air motor

  8. 8 Intermountain Dec 31st, 2011 at 10:06 am

    Great idea. Glad someone is thinking outside of the box. Hopefully this or some other technology can be developed and used successfully in transportation that will put a huge dent in the $3.50 gal gasoline mongers.

  9. 9 Red Dec 31st, 2011 at 10:39 am

    If we could get one to run off hot air D.C. would be the middle east of the 21st century.

  10. 10 Woody Dec 31st, 2011 at 10:42 am

    Due to the huge amounts of energy lost as heat and other waste, the compressors needed to fill an air tank use more energy than the tank ultimately holds. Not knocking the bike cause I think it’s a cool toy, but it’s not a cure for anything but boredom. With 80%+ of America’s electricity (like for powering compressors) generated by burning coal, it’s not really anything to celebrate from a green standpoint either. I do think it’s a cool experiment though, who knows where it could end up?

  11. 11 Aroy13 Jan 3rd, 2012 at 4:29 pm

    To those who complain this is a toy, or not “green” enough, here’s an idea. Try doing something like these guys did. And why oh why does everything have to be green? Use your brain, come up with a better idea. If you can’t do better, don’t knock it!

  12. 12 Woody Jan 3rd, 2012 at 8:56 pm

    I could care less if it’s green or not, if I was into green I wouldn’t ride a motorcycle-I’d be riding a bicycle 🙂 Green is for wallets. I was commenting to the article since they said, “Compressed air as a genuine alternative to gas and electricity? ” and I found that funny since gas or electricity will be needed to run the compressor that makes this bike run.

  13. 13 nicker Jan 3rd, 2012 at 10:17 pm

    RE:
    “…If you can’t do better, don’t knock it!…”

    Dude, as long as there are Progressives who use the international Green Movement as an excuse to control how there rest of us live and what we do….. you better believe we’ll take every opportunity to “knock” the hell out of those clowns.

    -nicker-

  14. 14 James McBride Jan 3rd, 2012 at 11:40 pm

    I’d love to have a go on this. I don’t suppose they’ll supply a foot pump so people can refuel on the go…?

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Cyril Huze