homebuilt diesel motorcycles

someone here (sorry, can't remember who, thanks to whoever it was.) posted a link to a discussion forum about homebuilding tractor implements. i went there...

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happened to come across this and thought it was SO cool...

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tell me that's not cool.

b.w.

Reply to
William Wixon
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Pretty neat but the three cylinder Kubota goes for about $5000 (or more.. I can look it up Monday).

-Carl

Reply to
Carl Byrns

It's not homebuilt but Kawasaki already builds a diesel version of it's KLR dual/purpose bike. They're supposedly releasing a civilian version of it some time soon. Modify one of those to run on vegetable oil and you've got a pretty cool motorcycle.

John E.

Reply to
John Emmons

The idea would be to get a used or surplus engine for cheap and build the bike around it - if you have to pay full list, it kind of ruins the economy factor since the payback period is way too long.

Kawasaki has been selling rolling frames to HDT-USA who has been building Diesel bikes for the US Military for a few years. Under the new "One Battlefield Fuel" initiatives they need to use Diesel, JP or Kerosene for running everything new.

And the best part for military use being that Diesel doesn't go BOOM! nearly as easily as gasoline does.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Enfield motorcycles..now made in India, have a deisel powered one lunger

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

- Proverbs 22:3

Reply to
Gunner

Yeah, but would you want to stake your life on it's reliability?

Thought not. ;-)

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

I wouldn't want to have to rely on one but it would make a nice, unusual 3rd bike to have in the garage. I've thought about picking up one of the "new" Enfield's.

John E.

Reply to
John Emmons

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 01:16:46 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Bruce L. Bergman quickly quoth:

So you're saying that the country which gave us the Prince of Darkness (whilst eating steak and kidney pie) does better engineering than the country which brought us curry and the Kama Sutra?

Hmmm...I dunno about that. ;)

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Two things immediately spring to mind.

First is that it's sorta like buying from HF or Grizzly. The Enfield India bikes are a "kit" rather than a ready to run machine. They still represent a pretty good value for the dollar spent if you are a fan of that style of bike (which I will admit to liking)

Second, it's not exactly airplane or space tech, it's a modern copy of

50's technology. Sometimes ya gotta walk, but failure mode tends not to be catastrophic.

I have seen a few writeups on the diesel Enfield. They are using a single cyl farm engine. Dead nuts reliable, exceptional mileage, acceleration that requires a calender to plot. Not enough power to wear itself out. All good attributes for a bike for use in an economy where there may not be a lot of cash on hand. Not surprisingly, they had no plans to export any of the diesel bikes.

From my perspective the dealer network is where these really fall flat. Dealers are expected to buy the bikes for cash up front then resell. Not so bad but delivery is by guess and by golly, from what I have heard while I was looking into these. Sorta like an HF lathe, they should be gone through before they go out the door, but often are not. They are a complete shock to someone that thinks all bikes should be as close to maintenence free as a generic Japanese bike is.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

Italian diesel engine - need I say more??

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Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

Actually..Ive ridden one. Its not a bad bike, and has a fairly decent reputation.

Gunner

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

- Proverbs 22:3

Reply to
Gunner

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