Identify this part?

[Hank]

First person to identify this part wins a beer.

[loingrader]

I don't think my bikes have that part but ill play and guess a stator.

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[Lonesome Dave]

Heat/cool sensitive rheostat ??

[tannerc]

Heat/cool sensitive rheostat ??

Im with LD, looks like a rheostat.
Is this a bike part?

[Hank]

Not a rheostat or stator.  No hints yet

It's a cool looking part with an interesting name.

[Black Hawk]

Looks to be some kind of thermo switch with the heater box on the bottom

[Bogus Jim]

The more I look at it, the more I think it is a flux capacitor. How you generate 1.21 gigawatts on a motorcycle, I'm not sure.

[Hank]

The more I look at it, the more I think it is a flux capacitor. How you generate 1.21 gigawatts on a motorcycle, I'm not sure.

.. single track, lightning, and a tall tree...

[Akunin]

one hell of a heat sink on that shaft... looks like a fan motor of some kind. surely this isn't from a motorcycle!

[Hank]

OK, it is NOT from a motorcycle.

[Hank]

One more hint:  You all own one.

[Bogus Jim]

Microwave oven permatron!

[Hank]

I know it as a magnetron, but yes it is what generates the microwaves!    I'd never seen one until our microwave stopped microwaving recently.    Beer for Jim!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_magnetron

[Bogus Jim]

Magnetron is probably the more precise description... some of the Asian parts distributors seem to call it a Permatron.

Sometimes, the words get lost in translation. I remember seeing an ad by a Japanese reseller for a STM "ripper clutch", which of course we would know as a slipper clutch.

[Hank]

Magnetron just has such a funny B grade sci-fi movie ring to it, I love it.

And then you look at it you can think of about 20 things it almost looks like.    Hey is that a really small IC engine?  No I guess the crankshaft can't stick out the top of the cylinder head

I just thought it was neat, and not something you see every day, even you though use it every day.