Diesel motorbikes - not as OT as it looks

Oct 04, 2011 1 Replies

It's the flashy thing Gromit - and it's gone wrong! Russ and Molly have a moment of TV fame.



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How do you hide the fact you're riding an East German concrete mixer? Hang a dog trailer off the back of it...



Despite no-one in this film noticing it at all, the motorbike here is a particularly heroic construction by my friend Russ, where an early '60s vee-twin air-cooled diesel was shoe-horned into a bike frame, Moto-Guzzi stylee. Which almost makes sense, when you compare it to his next bike, which is a VW Polo diesel mounted longitudinally.


Preferably with some degree of protection for the dog. That was an utter abortion of a dog trailer. I've seen several home-built dog trailers (and a few built onto the back of trikes), so know it can be done properly.

Not impressed by that at all, you need something with a decent bit of power - like the 1L 3cyl Daihatsu (quoted as 40bhp NA, 60bhp turboed) as a minimum. Most of the small engine diesel conversions on bikes are just gutless crap.

Now THAT's more like it; but I'd still prefer a small turboed 3potter.

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