150mpg motorcycle?
February 26th, 2005 by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider"Just following up on yesterday’s post about the Thunder Star because I was rereading that article in Sport Rider. They toss in one statistic that I find pretty amazing, almost to the point of unbelievable. The Thunder Star gets 150mpg! It’s in the article and on the cover so it isn’t a typo, of course they call it a V-twin on the cover, too, and it’s a triple, so… I didn’t mention it yesterday because I was a little hesitant, can that be true? That’s the sort of mileage you would expect from one of those Solex motorbicycles or various mopeds but from this? If accurate, that should prompt an awful lot of development in this area.
Last week, I was talking to a guy who runs a diesel car, a VW as a matter of fact, and he reports some pretty high numbers, up around the 50mpg mark, and when you figure this bike only weighs 450 pounds with a VW diesel, it sounds plausible. There’s been so much development of diesels lately that we may be seeing a big turn in that direction. Interesting, but I think I’ll wait for some confirmation of that mpg number.
Posted in Diesel Engines, Diesel Motorcycle
| Top Of Page
11 Responses to “150mpg motorcycle?”
Please read before commenting ...
This is a public forum, NO PROFANITY OR PERSONAL ATTACKS WILL BE TOLERATED! STAY ON TOPIC! All comments are filtered, if yours does not appear, do not resubmit, it has been held for review. Comments may be edited or removed by the moderator. Above all, keep the conversation civil! Thanks.
November 8th, 2005 at 8:50 pm
please a touring model.
January 30th, 2006 at 1:18 am
It’s all about aerodynamics, weight, and engine output. Not only Diesel but Gasoline engines with a light bike, around 500lbs, and a proper hp and torque output, say 90hp and 50ft/lbs or so, and a good faring for touring, say a modification of the faring on the Hyabusa, and proper gearing for cruise to match the HP and output and you to can have a bike that gets 80 plus mpg. Wind and gearing are the killer on mpg. Low gearing can give you the acceleration you want but kill you mpg. It’s all in the balance. Links on the web to the guys that build streamliners and motorcycle aerodynamics can give clues as to what you should have for a high mpg cruise bike including calcs on gear rations, hp output ect. I found in building my kawa these articles to be most helpful and was able to significantly improve the mpg on my bike.
February 12th, 2006 at 1:38 am
My last 2 cars have been VW diesels. The first was a ‘91 Golf, 1,600cc, no turbo. I got 50mpg or better. The current one is a ‘96 Jetta, 1,900cc with turbo. It gets over 40mpg. I’m a sales rep and average over 2,300km per week, so I need the mileage. I wouldn’t be surprised if a 1,200cc diesel bike at 450lbs could get 150mpg. Look at the torque. 165ft-lbs. Can you imagine the gearing you could run on this thing? My cars cruise at 100kph running about 3,300 rpm. You could easilly gear this thing to get 100kph at something like 2,300rpm. Yup, I wouldn’t be surprised to see 150mpg.
April 11th, 2006 at 11:52 am
E-mail all the motorcycles that are automatic by Suzuki in the range os $4,500 to $7,000.
April 11th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
It does not stand to reason that reducing the RPM will increase mileage. It may be very well that the VW diesel provides its highest torque and highest efficiency at 3,300 RPM. Diesels are ideally run as close to their peak power output as often as possible for highest efficiency and durability. If you geared the motorcycle for cruising at 2,300 rpm, or 30 percent below optimal RPM, you most likely would experience reduced mileage and shorter engine life. If you just accelerated higher to bring the RPM’s back up to 3,300 there would still be a reduced benefit due to the greater amount of wind resistance at higher speeds. There is an optimal combination of power range, gearing, and speed to achieve the highest mileage in a vehicle. Often the engine’s capacity or power output is reduced to achieve this. This is constantly proven out in the diesel truck shipping industry.
-todd
May 11th, 2006 at 8:53 am
150 MPG sounds good at first, but can you imagine where the cost of fuel would go? And we think it’s high now! If it were possible (150 MPG.), it will only be a short time, and the fuel would be priced according to fuel mileage obtained. It’s happening now. Just look at where the prices were, and are today. Diesel was quite a bit less than gasoline, but now matches or surpasses the price of gas. It’s not just the demand, it’s the fact you can go farther than on the same amount of gas. Get people to use it, have them buy the vehicles that use it, and gouge, gouge ,gouge. I’m certainly not against great fuel mileage, just the fuel giants ripping us off and destroying the break throughs obtained for their own greed. Ok, I’ll get off my soap box now.
May 26th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
So has anyone modified their street motorcycle with a dustbin fairing? How come we had 70hp 160mph bikes back in the 60s, but now, the same 160mph needs 110hp?
May 30th, 2006 at 12:49 am
As far as the mileage, this bike SHOULD get this kind of fuel efficiency. The VW Lupo that the engine is pirated from gets a solid 80 (yes, 80) mpg in a two door aluminum unibody four seat chassis. Furthermore for those following the military diesel bike that just set the land speed record @ 192.5 mph, it achieves 110 mpg @ 55mph. And that is from an AIR cooled INDIRECT injection NON TURBO single cylinder!! These #s are for a mil contract bike, too, so it’s not some souped up prototype. Unfortunately, for those who want one they are planning to strafe their buyers for $19k if they want one. Hopefully the Dutch will be a little more realistic.
May 31st, 2006 at 5:45 am
Seems like everyone here thinks this is a good idea, but the crunch question is would you buy one? If you were in the position of only being able to run one bike, what would the formula have to be to make you choose a diesel over a conventional petrol fuelled bike?
August 26th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
aerodynamics are what mileage are all about, Motoguzzi came out with one that was unbeatable in 1956, instead of long and swoopy they reached down to the ground and scooped the air around and over, coupled with a fuel efficient diesel motor and a proper constantly variable transmission you should be able to get 150 mpg at highway speeds, I’ve owned 5 vw diesels and the turbo charged ones not only have more power but better mileage too, I currently have a 96 vw tdi, a 86 ford ranger 4×4 with a turbo charged toyota 2.2 diesel, and a 2006 smart car and the best it has gotten so far is 84 mpg, the body style on it is far from the conventional aerodynamic shape, much closer to the dustbin shape
January 18th, 2008 at 10:15 am
How about 470mpg? Craig Vetter (the fairing guy) addressed this in the 70’s & 80’s. Here’s his site: http://www.craigvetter.com/pages/470MPG/470MPG%20Main.html