The idea of a diesel motorcycle is one we like a lot around here, the Thunder Star 1200 is a long time favorite, the Neander is pretty interesting, too. While some of these companies have been working on putting a diesel in a motorcycle frame for years, it seems like it’s taking forever to actually get one on the road. The Neander is finally for sale, the Thunder Star still sits. There are some really old slow movers like the Royal Enfields but, that’s another story.
While all of this development work has been going on, the fuel supply and price situation has been steadily changing and the emissions regulations are getting tighter. Diesel now costs more, sometimes a lot more, than gasoline. Regulations covering particulate emissions are really tight and after treatment of diesel exhaust is getting complex and expensive.
PSA Peugeot Citroen, one of the leaders in European diesel engines, is changing course and developing a new gasoline engine to meet the new Euro 5 and Euro 6 emissions standards. Diesel is big in Europe but if a major manufacturer of diesel engines sees diesels as too expensive to keep clean enough for the new standards, there may be a problem looming for the small displacement diesel market and that is where any diesel motorcycle would fit in.
Diesel engines in motorcycles were never going to be a big market but it was an interesting possibility. It looks like those endless development cycles may have killed them before they got a chance to get moving.
UPDATE: I forgot about the HDT Bulldog, too, which Chris mentions in the first comment. Thanks for the reminder, Chris.
Link: Wards Automotive
Related: Thunder Star 1200
Related: Neander
Related: Gray Eagles Turbo Diesel Harley Davidson
chris says
Don’t forget HDT USA diesel KLR 650. They’ve been delaying production for civilians since they started the company. By the time they get it out there, no one will be able to cost effectively use diesel fuel anymore. Nothing like filling up every 630 miles of riding though. I hate gas station parking lots because they’re full of irritable SUV driving taxpayers.
Mr. Tanshanomi says
Other than for the Marines — where the ability to run on diesel fuel is purely a logistical convenience, not a functional requirement — diesel power for motorcycles seems to be an answer to a question no one has asked. Despite all the crazy bike designs that have been tried over the years, diesel bikes are largely absent from motorcycle history. That should tell us something.
kneeslider says
Diesel bikes don’t have to answer any burning questions, sometimes, someone builds one just to scratch an itch. If it’s neat to try it and it works for the builder, that’s enough.
The military’s one fuel approach makes sense for them, the chance to run biodiesel might be all someone else wants. But whatever the motivation, it may be a moot point soon as the article above points out.
Tinker says
Are the Diesel motorcycle standards the same as Car diesels? Everyone seems to assume they are, but I’ve never seen the actual standards, so I don’t know. If they are that makes it difficult to get them in production, but not at all (legally) difficult to make one yourself.
I’d like to see a VW Lupo engine put into an MC, for example. Not to mention the GX-3 in production.
kneeslider says
The Lupo engine is the one used in the Thunder Star 1200.
hoyt says
It is perplexing to think this same scenario can be applied to gasoline economics in the not-so-distant future.
When gasoline costs $7-8 a gallon (or more), riding motorcycles for fun on any given Sunday starts to impact recreational decisions.
I’m not ready to move to the “silent” electric alternatives.
What’s the latest with hydrogen, algae, etc.?
Good thing 1/20/2009 is around the corner so we can get progressive movement on changes to the infrastructure to support alternatives.
Renegade_Azzy says
I would love one of these things, and screw all the goofy enviromental regs. How much polution did the creation of all of those standards and gizmos put into the enviroment? How many chemical shad to be used?
Who wouldnt want an engine that would just go.. keep it warm, keep it fed, and it does its job, just like a trusty old dog gaurding the porch.
Fricken enviro-weinies… Hydrogen wont take off because we cant store it properly (being hydrogen is one atom, and the smallest one at that) Nd it costs so much to produce here on Earth. Electric is ust moving the issue of energy creation down the road, and giving us a very crappy storage medium to boot.
IM all for tech just for tech’s sake, but lets hope some yahoo doesnt get it in their brain to start legislating more… Oh wait, they dont ask us commoners about that kind of thing, they ust pass their regulations and screw us. Sorry, thought I was in the USA or something… must have had the wrong time period frame of mind.
hoyt says
yeah…”fricken enviro-weenies”
Please.
Billions of people around the globe earning increased disposable income translates directly to purchasing their own vehicle as one of their new-found freedoms. If there wasn’t the enviro-weenies challenging engineers & legislature to create clean engines, we’d all be worse off due to the dramatic increase of personal transit around the world.
skadamo says
check out Amyris. The bio enginineer yeast to turn sugar cane into diesel at $55 / barrel. Any fermentation plant can be converted to the technology for 50 million. Diesel bikes may not he dead.
todd says
The only thing “those enviro-weenies” have succeeded in doing in California is make it nearly impossible for manufacturers to sell bikes here. We only see a small portion of the models available to the rest of the world or even the rest of the country; only the top sellers.
OK, the air is clean which is good but why can’t we just have one set of global emissions standards? Why can’t California accept the strict universal EURO standards? It’s very expensive for a manufacturer to have to test a low volume vehicle again and again for each set of standards . So often they don’t bother.
-todd
Marvin McConoughey says
The chances are excellent for future diesel motorcycles, though perhaps homemade. Diesel engines for cars are getting smaller and lighter as the auto industry downsizes and technology improves. Volkswagen has a new series of small diesels coming, a small diesel is destined for the Indian Nano car, and for big bike fans, the new Subaru boxer diesel is already in production and looks enchanting.