Diesel Motorcycles

[r77toy]

I was at the Griffith Park SideCar Rally a few years ago and saw a bike using a diesel powerplant, anyone know him? Anyone have contact info for any diesel powered bikes?

 

Thanx

[dirtrider]

Afternoon r77toy

 

There are a few diesel motorcycle around. Probably the most famous is the diesel Kawasaki KLR that the military uses.

 

Another is the Sommer.

 

Try this web site for some other diesel motorcycles.

 

http://www.dieselbike.net/

 

[Guest Kakugo]

Royal Enfield built a diesel bike using a Perkins engine usually employed in generators. To the best of my knowledge it is the diesel motorcycle built in largest numbers.

Ironically enough it was killed by emission regulations: India has adopted the old European emission standards for motorcycles (EURO 1) and, differently from car regulations, these do not allow for separate standards for diesel and gasoline engines.

A few were converted by Sommer in Germany to run more powerful engines (lifted from lawnmower tractors if I remember correctly) but the bike was still desperately underpowered.

 

A few were imported in Europe in the '90s (before EURO 1 came into effect): they were considered too dirty (these engines were not the modern squeaky clean diesels), they were desperately underpowered and, much more critically, they were expensive, really expensive. You could get a nice bike for the price of a genuine Enfield (which sported front and rear brake drums, just to give an idea) and a damn good bike for the price of the Sommer.

[bmwsit]

I always thought this one looked interesting

 

http://green.autoblog.com/2009/03/13/eva-track-t-800cdi-diesel-motorcycle-launched-equipped-with-eng/

 

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dieselmotorfiets.nl%2F

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7ceHD5Gwfg&list=UURhp6UDOOqgN4uZlAwW38HQ&index=1&feature=plcp

[TeSmSp]

The TV show "American Chopper" built one a year or two ago.

[r77toy]

The one that I saw was a conversion with with a portable generator engine.

[Francois_Dumas]

Have a look at Track (from The Netherlands). They recently started exporting to the US as well.

 

http://www.dieselmotorfiets.nl/

 

 

[moshe_levy]

The diesel KLR that the Marines use which I have seen at many trade shows is made by Hayes Diversified in California. See http://dieselmotorcycles.com/ Last I checked, which was a few years ago, they would not sell to civilians as they were workong overtime just to fulfill military orders. The New York Times reviewed the Hayes machines here http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/automobiles/24KAWASAKI.html

 

-MKL

 

 

[bmwsit]

Have a look at Track (from The Netherlands). They recently started exporting to the US as well.

 

http://www.dieselmotorfiets.nl/

 

 

Can't find that they actually sell to the US just yet, but there is talk that you can buy one from the Canadian dealer, for roughly $24,000+

[r77toy]

I have a colleague working on a story about Diesel conversions.

[Francois_Dumas]

Have a look at Track (from The Netherlands). They recently started exporting to the US as well.

 

http://www.dieselmotorfiets.nl/

 

 

Can't find that they actually sell to the US just yet, but there is talk that you can buy one from the Canadian dealer, for roughly $24,000+

 

 

Scroll down in their news page. They shipped at least one to the US already.

 

http://www.dieselmotorfiets.nl/nieuws/