We all talk about the powerful V- Twin engines in
motorcycles, specially Harley Davidson comes in everybody’s mind almost
instantly when we thought of V-Twins but way ahead of its time Jim Feuling an
inventor and mechanical engineer of California, USA had thought of getting more
out of V-Twins and he landed up with an idea of converting the puissant V-twin
to a mighty W3 by simply adding another cylinder into it.feuling W3 The idea of
making W3 came into the mind of Jim while working with Harley Davidson on a very
critical project, where Harley Davidson got stuck in the middle of a project and
met with a deadlock situation and abandoning the project was seemed as only
profitable alternative. Jim Feuling being a renowned inventor known as “Mr.
Fixit” then called upon by Harley Davidson and a cracking deal between the two
was struck and Jim living up to his mammoth sized image gave the desirable
solution to Harley Davidson.Feuling W3
Working with 45 degree V- Twin engines at Harley Davidson Jim got this idea to
further explore the possibilities of V- Twins, he thought of noble idea to
convert V2 engine to W3 by adding another cylinder at the same 45 degree angle.
He gave this idea to the Harley Davidson management and offered them a mutual
deal but to the surprise of Jim, Harley Davidson refused his offer and preferred
to stick to its so-called V2 engine image. Jim was astonished that Harley
Davidson refused his proposal, which as per him would be so cost effective and a
profitable venture as the W3 project required only 10 different changes in the
existing V2 engines and moreover these changes could be brought into without any
changes in the assembly line. Jim was committed and confident with his idea
decided to move further all alone, he started doing all his R&D works at his
premises, which later turned into Feuling Motor Co. Jim started getting patents
for all his W3 designs including patent for “Fast burn” 2- valve, Max Flow
cylinder heads and Hi Velocity ports, to the AR (Anti-Reversion) header pipes
and low-restriction CVX mufflers and finally he got the patent for the W3
prototype motorcycle in December 1999, which simultaneously got the permission
for commercial mass production also.Feuling W3- engine
W3 Engine:
The 45×45 degree 2500cc air- cooled engine comes with 3 cylinders with 2 valves
per cylinder. The W3 engine is capable to produce ridiculous 25Kgm of Torque at
3000rpm and odd plus 150bhp of power with Top speed of 236Kmph, these figures
are seriously furious and unimaginable for year 2000. Still these figures can’t
be matched by many of the top manufactures’ bikes of the World.
Carburetor:
The 39mm Mikuni flatslide carburetors are used as trio for W3, a multi- point
fuel injection system was also available as an option on production
bikes.Feuling W3
Transmission:
A carried over 5- speed manual transmission from Harley Davidson is used in
Feuling W3 with belt final drive instead of chain drive.
The Feuling W3 motorcycles were made available at $30’000 to the market in Jan
2001. Jim Feuling excited by the market response decided to further improvise
his product with some of his other inventions but unfortunately could not see
the success of his invention as he passed away at the age of 56, in December
2002. His invention as W3 is still an inspiration for many automobile companies
and the R&D work is being carried out by many of them.
NOTE:
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request. Any correction or more info on these bikes will kindly be
appreciated.
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