Diesel bike
 

Now I know there have been discussions about such evil devices before, and most have been concoctions dreamt up in garden sheds combining old bikes and some sort of third world diesel filched from a construction site gen-set.

This one on the other hand is the first diesel bike which has caught my interest. It uses the 3 cyl Daimler-Benz common rail 800cc turbo diesel used in the Smart Fortwo, in other words a proper automotive engine.

I'm not a great fan of big trailies so the choice of style wouldn't immediately appeal, but as a product it's got a lot of credibility. Don't know how the CVT would be in real life, but at least it's shaft drive and reasonable weight. The fuel economy is claimed to be in the realms of 60gm/km CO2 which should be of the order of 100mpg in old money and some 600 odd km range, great for the more adventurous amongst us venturing off the beaten trail.

The big stumbling block is of course the Eu17k price tag though.

Opinions?

Re: Diesel bike
 

iv always wondered why the big companies havent done this yet? i know alot of people think diesel is the devils fuel especially for a bike but if youre not interested in massive performance and want amazing economy (maybe a courier?) then it would be ideal

Re: Diesel bike
 

Not sure how long that exhaust would stay attached to the bike if you went offroad though!

Re: Diesel bike
 

That would be fuggin useless off road.

US army have some kawa-KLR650 -alike that you can run on diesel, kero, Jet A, whatever you can find. That would actually be useful off road, same idea, less power. That smartcar engine thing would be good road bike/tourer.

Re: Diesel bike
 

not sure it would be much good for rivers either. how much does it weigh? it cant be light at 800cc. ~50bhp not bad for the fuel consumption I suppose but surely you'd just be better off with a smaller, lighter petrol bike?

oh, and from the front it looks like the ******* son of sooty and thunderbird 2.

Re: Diesel bike
 

50bhp? What good is that going to be with a lump that size!

Re: Diesel bike
 

nowt. just saying its not a bad power output if its getting 100mpg.

Re: Diesel bike
 

This guy on the Zumo forum had a test ride.

According to him the weight is 225kg, service interval 40k km, and up to 600 mile range!

I suspect the power can be rather deceptive with that type of engine, 100Nm makes up for a shortage of outright power in real life.

I'd like to see a proper road tourer version, the spec puts it as a direct Deauville comparison, and if it offered 100+mpg when fuel reaches £2/litre it sort of begins to make sense.

Re: Diesel bike
 

I had a look at the videos and the bike looks quite nice, it seems to roll well and handles OK in the sand, but there was one thing I am not sure I could live with. It sounds like a rattly old Post Office Van that has been to the moon and back!

I know, I am being a nana! But these things are important. ;-)

Re: Diesel bike
 

Did they bring the CVT from prototype to production? Haven't read the spiel yet - mated to a CVT 100Nm would probably be quicker than expected

I'm surprised tbh, I thought you'd get more than 100Nm out of an 800cc derv

That's less than the ADV kicks out and it's getting on for twice the power

Of course the caveat being you only get one third the fuel mileage;)

Re: Diesel bike
 

I don't think that spec is the full-fat version TBH. Smart advertise the Fortwo diesel as 40kW and 130Nm, the bike version is 35kW and 100Nm.

100Nm from a 0.8L is about 16Bar BMEP, 130Nm would be a tad over 20Bar, as a comparison a Honda 2.2L TD gives 20Bar which is about the benchmark for current common rail diesels.

Why the lower spec? Is 35kW a tax break point in Euroland? Is it so an upgrade will be available? Is it a limitation of the transmission used? Who knows.

Re: Diesel bike
 

130Nm sounds more like what I'd expect from a layman's observation... Not to mention you can gain massive increases in torque with ECU flashing in cars, wonder if the same would be possible on the Diesel bike?;)

Re: Diesel bike
 

why a CVT I wonder. Do they not expect bikers to be interested?

Re: Diesel bike
 

no, its a diesel!

Re: Diesel bike
 

There is no Smart manual AFAIK, I had assumed the CVT was what they use in the diesel cars but might be wrong on that. I think the petrol Smarts were autos using discrete ratios (certainly the one I tried was), but they may have also introduced a CVT for them too by now.

In theory a CVT will make much better use of the available performance and potential economy by allowing the engine to run either up to max power and hold there while the vehicle accelerates, or can track the optimum economy curve versus road load. What a CVT bike with this sort of power/torque on tap would feel like is an interesting question.

I know the only CVT car I've driven felt quite strange at first, plant your foot down and the engine goes up to near max power and just sits there. That was quite a few years ago, and control systems have progressed a lot.

It's an interesting question about what sort of power unit/transmission a vehicle should have, there's absolutely no reason why there should be any sort of variable gearing, it's only done in order to overcome undesirable characteristics in the power unit. Why do you want gears, other than it's something to do? It's a bit like arguing for starting handles or kickstarts or manual advance/retard levers, there's no need for them and better ways of doing things. Things evolve, I suspect the traditional manual gearbox will disappear in the relatively near futureTBH.

Re: Diesel bike
 

Diesel engines have a narrower torque band I thought, hence a CVT keeps it in the torque, more of the time

Kind of like when you take a close ratio box to the lim-->infinity

</geek>

:-$

Re: Diesel bike
 

I reckon your right embee, although you will maybe lose the 'feel' with a cvt, and other similar options, its another way of making it easier to ride. Like with everything nowadays were always making things to make our lives easier.
I went in an audi the other day that had the fancy dsg gearbox, it was wierd to not think of using it like a manual and it having a seamless shift, for pure driving pleasure its not for me but i guess if your using it day in day out then it probably makes it alot easier

Re: Diesel bike
 

i suppose it would be similar to an electric bike- press the "go" button (triangle) and off you go, max torque until you press the "stop" button (X)

http://www.thegamesnews.com/wp-conte...Controller.jpg

Nah, not a chance. People ride bikes for the feeling of involvement- thats why scooters and cars aren't as fun. Theres a satisfaction in getting the best out of a machine, make the machine too simple to use and you remove that feeling.

P.S. Flat cap disclaimer- I dont like computers or silly gizmos like FI. I drink real ale. And I'm only 21.[-(

Re: Diesel bike
 

Bumpety bump.

http://www.motorrad-hofschaller.de/d...tschritte.html

Diesel bike that looks a bit more interesting. Wonder how much it weighs...
translated
http://translate.google.co.uk/transl...tschritte.html

Re: Diesel bike
 

think of it as experimental engineering.or a cement mixer on steroids,and as for miles on a tank of fuel my mates aircooled xt600 does 4 or 500 miles on a tankfull,mind you it is the bigger plastic one,and could anyone put up with the noise and vibration,and less face it diesels are best suited to large heavy vehicles, tractors and cement mixers