Has anyone thought of making a diesel motorbike? It would seem that an aircooled, single-cylinder diesel motor on a husky steel frame with a sprung seat and headlamp would make the ultimate "reliable" build.
It could be done with an HF motor, they seem to sell 2 and 4-stroke diesels, but another possibility could be a conversion of a two or four-stroke made for gasoline. Of course for many of us this would mean the Chinese 2-stroke kits (or HTs). I am familiar with how diesels work, and a cold diesel would be impossible to use or even start on one of these bikes, but a hot diesel could possibly be feasible. On the slanthead or higher compression 60cc HTs, the compression seems to be somewhere between 6:1 and 8:1, and a hot diesel with a glow plug could possibly skimp by on 7 or 8:1 compression. I've seen it done on older cars before.
Anybody have interest of experience with this? I'm fairly intrigued by it, and think of the benefits it would have- high reliablity, immense (well, relatively) torque, the ability to run on any fuel- important things to the survival-type builds and builders all over this community. It would be great if someone had already gotten into the idea stage on this at least.
PS- Purpose-built motorcycles have already been modded to run on diesel. See www.dieselbike.net
It could be done with an HF motor, they seem to sell 2 and 4-stroke diesels, but another possibility could be a conversion of a two or four-stroke made for gasoline. Of course for many of us this would mean the Chinese 2-stroke kits (or HTs). I am familiar with how diesels work, and a cold diesel would be impossible to use or even start on one of these bikes, but a hot diesel could possibly be feasible. On the slanthead or higher compression 60cc HTs, the compression seems to be somewhere between 6:1 and 8:1, and a hot diesel with a glow plug could possibly skimp by on 7 or 8:1 compression. I've seen it done on older cars before.
Anybody have interest of experience with this? I'm fairly intrigued by it, and think of the benefits it would have- high reliablity, immense (well, relatively) torque, the ability to run on any fuel- important things to the survival-type builds and builders all over this community. It would be great if someone had already gotten into the idea stage on this at least.
PS- Purpose-built motorcycles have already been modded to run on diesel. See www.dieselbike.net