Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

'" . ~ with camera in hand to photograph each stage of the teardown. The engine goes together like a stack of aluminum pancakes, pierced by long M .... tension bolts that extend clear through the stack. With the through-bolts rD removed and one outer case pulled off, Ronnie up-ended the engine on a coffee « can, and proceeded with the teardqwn. First to be exposed at !,ither end of ~ w the engine is a steel drive plate, pressed Z and pinned to the powershaft. Two W connecting links carry torque to this ..J plate through McGill needed earn U > bearings. The other end of each link U connects to a hardened pin on a separate coupler ring. The coupler rings (one pair at each end of the engine); though sandwiched together, rotate independen t1y of each other, riding on • special Kaydon large diameter low-profile 4-point contac~ ball bearings. There's another pair of links on the other side. They join the coupler rings to a steel backing-plate which in tum bolts c1irectly to one of the two vane-pistons. So there are two pistons, nested together, two backing plates, and two mirror-image sets of couplers. Because the coupler rings run eccentric to the powershaft, by carefully calculating the geometry of rings and links, you can make the vanes scissor in and ou t toge ther as they rotate in a I-to-l overall ratio with the powershaft. The "leading piston" transmits power back to the shaft through the links. The powershaft has two deep cutaways in it for link clearance. Ronnie chose this configuration because it yielded a pure h:mnonic motion of the vanes. This minimizes the acceleration loads on the vanes themselves. At the cutaway area, the shaft if increaseli in section so that it has the same section modulus (resistance to twisting) as the solid sections. Ronnie says the cu taways aren't absolutely necessary; that the engine would work with altered geometry; but that the motion of the vanes would be more abrupt. It is customary on conventional engines to accep t th e same penalty on a short-stroke engine with a short connecting rod. Ronnie admits that one drawback of the model is the present vane seals. Each of the four vanes has five separate vane seals made from tool steel. And though each seal is inclividually lapped to its grove and to its mate, the seal is far from perfect. The teardown itself doesn't take long. The 15 basic parts of the ingenious li ttle engine lie in order on a picnic table in Ronnie Ryen's sun-dappled front yard. I'd gotten a feeling like stepping a century'back into history, that we were somehow like those 19th-century shade tree tinkerers in Germany and America, who dabble in the Otto cycle engine and then put it away, back in the days before somebody hitched the thing to a buckboard. Would it be that way again? Is there room for the likes of Ronnie Ryen in the 20th century's hyper-organized corporation world? Will his engine ever power a high-performance motorcycle? At this poin t, it's hard to judge. Rotary Engine Co. is authorized to issue up to $1 million in stock, wi th Ryen currently holding the. issue, trying to decidea how best to proceed. He has been contacted by aircraft, lawnmower, outboard, and snowmobile manufacturers, asking for more information. So far, none has seen fit to commit their own funds to' a develQpment gamble. Which is best? Wankel; Turbine? 'Stratified charge? or Ryen's engine? Or all of them, each exploiting its unique advantages? The R yenco design claims to offer as a motorcycle power unit: Light weight, smooth power delivery, broad torque range, inherent balance, potentially high peak power, good engine braking, and design simplicity on a par with a piston-port two stroke, What it will really do, only production and dyno will tell. Before it gets on a dyno, its vane-sealing problems will h ave to be solved. Ronnie Ryen's engine is a piece of a puzzle - a very large, complicated jigsaw puzzle. Who knows where it fits in? The only certain ty is that in American, under the socio-ec on om ic/p oli tical pressures builcling up, there will be some drastic changes in the way we get our power. And the Ryenco engine, at the very least, is food for thought. 1 CMC at Indian Dunes '" g; Lane Campbell Rex Staten doing it up. VALENCIA, CAL.,JULY 22 The CMC returned to Indian Dunes Park for the six th time this current points season, and for the sixth time it had a new face in the 125cc Exprt winners circle. Tim Lunde (Pen), who won the class at the last outing here in late June, seemed well on his way to repeating after he won the first of the two motos over Eddie Cole (Pen) and Robert Elliott (Mnk). In the second he was again off and flying, pulling out a sizable lead when Cole suddenly made his move. Over the twisty Shadow Glen course they wen t with Eddie really beginning to fly on his his home track. Two-thirds of the way through he had sliced Lunde's lead down to nothing and off the high speed jump, whizzed by for the lead and, a few minutes later, the WID. . That tied the duo on points, but the best finish in the final moto decides all matters, and Eddie held the trump card. It was almost a similar situation in the 250's, but not quite, as CMC Points leader Randy Myers cranked ou t only his second daytime win of the season by besting Tracy Oswell. Randy, who recently had a falling-out with his shop sponsors, pushed his private Bultaco to the first moto win with Husky-mounted Terry Clark second and Oswell (CZ) third. When Oswell pulJed a maneuver similar to Cole's and won the fmal moto, he had only Terry to thank for his second. Clark, mean'Yhile, finished third in that round to take third overall over Bob Haag (Hus) and Chuck Lunde (Hus). Clark reports that he has just signed up with Husky as a fully-sponsored rider and will trek back East for the championship trail going on back there. First, however, he intends to race the 125cc World Championship event in Missouri in a few weeks. Rex Staten won his second 500cc overall of the season here at the Dunes with a convincing two-Inoto sweep. Works Husky pilots Billy Clements and Mark Blackwell claimed second and third. When asked why they weren't campaigning back East, also, Mark explained that "the factory wants and needs more local wins to help sales so they have been instructed to stay home. Mark's overall perfonnance was quite respectable when you consider he got here late and failed to get practice. ''I wen t around for the first two laps jus t trying to read the course. Then I decided to gas it but when I pulJed up behind Billy, I saw that Staten was already out of sight." ' Indeed. Rex ran away from both moto crowds. Clements took second in the first round, bu t midway through the second, he lost that position to Mark, who was by this time turning lap times almost identical to Staten. Hot and cold running Dave "Eropkin, who has given a few weeks time to think over if he wanted to transfer to Expert or remain Intermediate, having already garnered the move-up points, got the decision made for him today by CMC officials as he continued a week-long bot drive by winning two of the three rounds in the 125 Intennediate. Dave is 'currentlv fifth in the Point Standings, but he i~ bound to overtake Marty Moates for fourth if he decides to stick around and race Expert. Pat Hubbs (~uz), second to Dave, will also be moving to Expert after only a very brief visit to the Intennecliate ranks. Yamaha's Tom Burgess won his f"rrst CMC 250 Intennecliate class of the year and he did it in clean sweep fashion. Larry Lewis, despite a poort 10th in the second round, finished in the runner-up spot, barely edging out Jim Hunter's 3-4-5 on the Husky. Lewis was Honda two-stroke mounted. The Inter's 500 side was extremely close at the overall tabulation. Richard Smith (Mai), by virtue of a final moto win, attained the win with Martin Tajra (Mai) second. CZ's James Russell, well on his way to a letter-free, t'Yo-didget number next year, won the first moto, but fell to seventh and ninth in the next pair for third. The five-rider 100 Junior class was an easy one to figure out. Bob Welch (Hod) won all three races 'Yith Barry Vanderpool (Hod) second each time. Mark . Arsenault gave Hodaka yet another spot with three trays. The only other three-moto sweep came from Bill Barlow (Hon) in Division IJ of the 250's, and it was in real runaway fasion. Doug Anderson (Hon) was third Larry Cheever (Yam) in the frrst moto, but came back to take second in the fmal pair for second overall. In Division I, Skip Keeley (Mai) guaran teed a high finish by winning the first two motos and coasted home the' top poin ted with a second to Artie Dodge (Hon) in the final. . [n reverse order, Richard See pow<:red his Penton to a second in the first 125 Junior Division 1 race, then turned around and won the next two after Steve Ryan (Mai) failed to add to his first moto win. His vacancy in rounds two and three allowed Kevin Tidball (Pen) and Lonnie Stark (Hus) to move by on overall points. Tim Hoover overcame such a fate in Division II after missing the first moto. A third and a first moved him in to a secure second behind Tom Morris (Pen), who dipped to a low eighth in the last round after topping the first two. A disappoin ted Mark Lisenby took his Maico to a fmal 500 Junior win, but his pair of thirds just weren't enough to top Charles Beck's three d4eces on a Maico. John Fry (Yam) bettered them both with two wins and a coast-home third. This Sunday, being the fifth one of the month, means Carlsbad is the site for the CMC daytime meeting. Under the lights, the programs include Ascot Park (Wed.), Orange Country (Thurs) and Irwindale (Fri.) John Bethea CMCMX Indian Dunes Pk. Valencia, Calif. July 22, 1973 by John Bethea 100 JR Bob Welch B. Vanderpool Mark Arsenault 125 JR I Richard See Kevin Tidball Lonnie Stark 125 JR II Tom Morris Tim Hoover Steye Maxwell 125 INT Dave Eropkin Patrick Hubbs Brian Renshaw 125 EX Eddie Cole Tim Lunde RObert e,lIiott Steve Gerber Jim Beauchamp 250 JR I Skip Keeley Artie DOdge Steve Potts 250 JR II Bill Barlow Doug Anderson Larry Cheever 250lNT Tom Burgess Larry Lewis Jim Hunter 2S0 EX Randy Myers ,racy Oswell Terry Clark Bob Haag Chuck Lunde 500 JR John Fry Charles Beck Mark Lisenby 500lNT Richard Smith Martin Tajra James Russell 500 EX Rex Staten Bill Clements Mark Blackwell Mike Vorba Jim O'Neal HOd HOd HOd Pen Pen Hu, Pen Ric Hu, Bul 5uz Pen Pen Pen Mnk Mnk H-D Mai Hon CZ Hon Hon Yam Yam Hon Hu. Sui CZ Hu' Hu' Hu, Yam Mai Mal Mal Mal CZ Mal Hu, Hu' Bul Mai

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