diesel...

[conpants]

you know, the stuff we slip in



but have they ever or are they going to ever make a diesel bike??

[Rob W]

There was a pic on here the other day showing a diesel engined bike, cant remember the thread though sorry
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[Keith]

I know little about diesel bikes themselves, but I believe Royal Enfield still make a diesel motor.

I was wondering about it myself, are the motors inefficient or something? I think thats a question for The Oracle.

[edit] Found a site with quite a few old diesel bikes, some of them are quite nice too. [/edit]
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[conpants]

makes sense to.. all that torque, add a turbo and its got the preformance of a petrol bike.

it would sound like a van though

[Fortuna]

^^^That does 100mpg

[conpants]

i want one now

[Kickstart]

Hi

Diesel engines are more efficient (for fuel consumption) than petrol engines, but they need to be larger capacity for the same power (they run with a far leaner mixture than petrol engines). Also helps that diesel fuel has about 15% more energy by volume than petrol.

Enfield did make a diesel bike. Think they have recently dropped it from production (acceleration was so slow that it got overtaken by decomposing tortoises). Think that some diesel bikes are being developed for the army (currently the only need for petrol the army has is for bikes, which makes things more difficult logistically).

Sure you can turbo a diesel engine to get some performance, but then you could turbo the petrol engine as well.

Diesel engines have no throttle so gain there for far more limited pumping losses. This also means that they do tend to work better with a turbo (on a petrol engine with a manual gearbox when you change gear you shut the throttle, which tends to stall the turbo).

Personally I am not keen on diesel engines. I dislike the way they produce power, with low down torque promising loads which they totally fail to produce at higher revs. Much of their fuel consumption advantage is purely down to the energy content of the fuel, and should they start taxing fuel by BTU rather than by volume most of that advantage would disappear.

All the best

Keith
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[Fortuna]

You mean British Thermal Units?
If you do mean that then yeah, waive any benefit goodbye as what you save you'd pay in tax.

[MarJay]

I read an article in Bike magazine a few months back that reckoned diesel bikes would be the next big thing. It said that you could theoretically build a diesel engine for something like a gold wing that would be the same physical size as the 1800cc petrol version but have more capacity, say 2l.

This engine would make maybe 10% less power than the petrol, but it would make 20% more peak torque, leaving the good ol' goldie with 120ftlb of creamy smoothness.

They said this does translate well into other types of bike (cruisers/off roaders etc) but you'll never see a diesel Fireblade.

Phew!
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[conpants]

I want a 50cc diesel

[Demonic69]

Someone is making one for the military apparently, was in a magazine a while back.
https://motorcyclecity.com/Military-bikes/M1030Diesel-Kawasaki.htm
Et Voila.
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[mchaggis]

There's nothing wrong with diesel engines, except for a few things.

A) They're as rough as a very rough thing. Multi-stage fuel injection will get around most of this though.

B) They don't rev very high. No way around this.

C) They need very high pressure fuel injection and more complicated, better injectors to cope with the speed needed for multi-stage.

D) They (used to) sound like tractors.

E) They need to be bulky to be strong enough to cope with the extra stress the compression combustion entails. Multi-stage fuel injection helps get around this as well though, but the engines are always going to be big and heavy.

Hrm, might not just be a few issues then. It'll be good if we can get 150+ mpg though. With a 4-5 gallon tank, that's a good 5-600 miles to the tank. Enough money, R&D and it can be made to work.
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[pipnet11]

[Kickstart]

[yambabe]

Dunno about diesel, but there's been a really trick custom bike with a cement mixer engine doing the rounds of the shows this year. Saw it first at Speedfreaks, then again at the Bulldog.

I can't find any pictures of it though!
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[Robby]

The army are developing - well its developed AFAIK, just starting production - a diesel based on a kawasaki KLR 650. The engine is new and made in either the UK or US, about 800cc single and I think its turbocharged.

Very tough, very good on fuel. Only makes about 30bhp, but meant to be excellent for traction and general off road use, also hard to stall and far more resistant to getting wet.

So fairly squaddie proof. The US marines are loving it. I want one.

[Demonic69]

https://motorcyclecity.com/Military-bikes/USMC-mc-training.jpg

120-150MPG and 24bhp. Would be a fookin craic

https://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,588-538739,00.html
They have a review from two R6 riding lassies.
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[Sadie]

You might be interested in this.
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[innominate]

Nowt wrong with diesel.
Just not been concentrated o enough untill now.

INFO Please someone who speaks dutch translate for me

Piccies Would you turn your nose up at this???
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[map]

[stinkwheel]

The main problem with making a diesel bike is that noone makes a unit construction diesel engine which is compact enough to fit in a bike. Most of the diesel bikes on the market use a diesel from some other application coupled to an older design of pre-unit gearbox. The Enfield is a case in point, it uses a Robin engine which is commercially made for running pressure washers and generators. Therefore the bike is very slow (70mph out of a 600 single) but returns unbelievable fuel economy (250mpg).

There are some pretty decent small diesel engines out there. Kubota make a small, three cylinder tractor engine which is pretty revvy but again, getting the power to the back wheel is the problem. I have considered the possibility of hydrostatic drive but there is a huge power loss and considerable lag in the power delivery.

I have seen a bike which used a pinto diesel engine that had a direct shaft drive through a dry clutch. One gear takes you from zero to about 115mph

I would personally like someone to make a bike with a detroit 2-stroke diesel engine which would have plenty of power. It would never happen though as they are very dirty and loud.
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[JonB]

So theoretically a diesel bike would be surperior for city commuting, the fuel efficiency would outweigh the power, when you don't need much power in a city anyway. Good commuter material.
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[Kickstart]

Hi

About 15 years ago a French company was building bikes using Peugeot car engines, including the diesel.

They went under unfortunatly, and the whole scheme might well have been a fiddle (it was greatly funded by the EU).

All the best

Keith
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