Diesel Motorcycle

[africajim]

LOL! Have you ever ridden a Royal Enfield?

I owned a 500 T Bullet, good grief, on a good day flat on the tank you could hit 85mph indicated, on a bad day, (wind in your face on the flat) it struggled to hit 60mph!
I loved the old bullet, it reminded me of what I loved about motorcycles, the adventure,,,,when you went out with your helmet in hand, into the shed, kick the bike a few times,,,, back into the house with the helmet,,,, it ain't goin anywhere today! DOH!
When you went to pass anything it was more a case of "will I make it?" or would it run out of power? Run out of petrol? Just feckin break down?! LOL!
I recall thinking one afternoon, "I had a Honda SS50 could give this thing a good race!"
Royal Enfield? Thanks,,, but no thanks!

Fair point Africa jim, but I did say if economies your bag;)
I have ridden the newer EFi Woodsman and your right on the power side but I was impressed with its agility you can throw it about with modern Avon tyres. I think the latest EFi ones are built alot better too, plus electric start.

Aye, agreed, the newer ones might not be quite so bad. I saw a diesel Enfield once, but usually folk in the know say to keep well away from bikes with ditch pump diesels in them.
Here's my old one;

Royal Enfield 01_2011-12-31.JPG (76.81 KiB) Viewed 1379 times

I wish all the success to Track and their tractor, you never know, it may well be the next in thing!

Personally, I think electric may well be the dark horse, whether battery or fuel cell generated. Bring it on!

[GB]

A mate of mine has the diesil Enfeild, 405 single, does 160-180 to the gallon, but I can safely say its the worse bike I have ever ridden, but attracts the most attention wherever it goes even if it only gets there at a maximum speed of 62mph!

[cozmo1589]

Funy you should mention this pal, i bought a book for an uncle over christmas, imaginatively named "is that bike diesel mate?". Aussie fella riding a bike (looks like a mod'd xt or something) around australia powered my cooking oil. Also in there an attempt at breaking the motorcycle land speed record on a diesel bike. Someone must think it's a good idea!

I've seen one of the Track Diesel Bikes in the flesh in Poole earlier in the Summer, it was a demo bike for the local Police as it was drapped in high vis reflective Scotch M3 stickers. Didnt see it move but it looked quite impressive. I am led to believe that UK models will be built in Dorset during 2012.
A tad expensive really but then all new innovations are until the masses buy into it. Bags of torque, great MPG, super long service intervals and big claims of high mileage engine longevity will be a hit with some i am sure but for that money, i'll take a new Ducati Multistrada in Red please

[Selous]

Just 1 of many Enfields Diesel

[video size=100 width=425 height=344 type=youtube]GMDxI0jZ_9w[/video]

[Road2Manchester]

Diesel Do

Smart Car 3 cylinder or Diahatsu Charde 3 pot engines have been used for home made DB's but these NEW ones have one issue. The builder buys a brand new £7-8k bike and drops the motor, then adds theirs. (Decent small diesel plant motor s are about £1200 new) Thats why they are expensive. The book mentioned above is OK and the bike was built by students with a single thumper engine.(Goes thru v belts like figs thru a parrot) To date the limitatins have been A) small powerfull Oil burner engine B) matching that to a small bike gearbox C) using a torque convertor transmission alternative that sucks up even more power. D)Taking a modern 2-3 cyclinder motor such at Kabota, and building a bike from scratch.

Any of the above is not a designed diesel bike, just a lot of bits cobbled together. Resulting in HEAVY, UNDER POWERED,NOISEY and EXPENSIVE.

As with the great electric car revolution, the initial cost far outweaighs the saving.

Facebook/oilybyker is hoping to build one in 2012 for a round UK trip.

There are a few diesel bike websites too. Most home built, some look very good.

Anyone fancy a Hydrogen Cell powered bike....... ????

[bambertino]

Hi guys,
ive got a 750 twin ruggerini in a yamaha frame,does about 60mph and 100+ to the gallon, will bring it along to a couple of the rallies this year. Also the diesel guys have a

good rally at the bat and ball pub/campsite in sussex june time which is a good weekend.
Also have a great rally in Hamm germany, some good bikes getting built now,

[OB1]

I was given that "Is That a Diesel Mate?" book for Christmas too: looks like a good read! B)

One point that many seem to miss when pointing out the £16,000 price tag is that these bikes are, near enough, bespoke. The company is talking about a production run of 3 or 4 bikes per week and they will be hand made. Jim, the BMW that you mention is built by a multi-billion dollar company that has its fingers in multiple automotive pies and churn out thousands of units every week on an automated production line. How can you compare the two? :blink: If you take the price of a BMW R1200 GS at £10,595 or any of the other mass produced Adventure styled bikes, the cost of the Track doesn't sound too much.

You also have to realise that this company is in its infancy and, as production increases, parts will become cheaper to source as they are bought in greater numbers and turnaround will be quicker.

There was also a mention of electric bikes being the dark horse of the future of motorcycling. As we stand, there are a number of companies building electric bikes (including BMW and KTM) that are either prototypes or early production models. The most powerful that I have seen produces around the same power as a 250cc petrol bike, will do around 2 hours of riding... and costs over £9,000!

If I had the £16,000 to buy a bike that will do 80-100mpg and that had a 500,000 mile life expectancy and service intervals of 16,000 miles, I would be putting my deposit down today!