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;)