Diesel ... sportbike?!?

[unixronin]

Yup.  You better believe it.  Gizmag has the gen here, and drops hints about four other turbo-diesel motorcycles in development.  See another viewpoint here.  It's designed and built in Holland, uses a modified 1200cc VW 3-cylinder turbodiesel engine, weighs 445lb, and reportedly makes up to 120BHP and 200lb.ft of torque ... and gets 150mpg.  That's about 700 miles between fuel stops on a 5-gallon tank, or two weeks of your daily commute between fill-ups.

Photo gallery page here.

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

I want the engine for a chopper.

-Ogre

[bfudlmint.livejournal.com]

150mpg?!? that would very quickly be worthwhile for anybody with a long commute. What mpg does the average motorcycle get. I looked quickly and couldn't find anything above 80mpg.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Few on the US market do much better than 40mpg, and most of the ones that do are scooters. 125 singles and the like can get very good gas mileage, but while they're readily available in places like China, just try finding one new in the US ...
(Small singles and twins used to be popular in the UK. I don't know if they still are. I assume so, due to the graduated licensing scheme over there which limits riders first to 50cc, then to 250cc before turning them loose.)

[motomuffin.livejournal.com]

Fie! Inaccuracies! :)

If it's not a huge-engined supersport, (i.e. something rational and around a 600) you can easily expect 40-50 mpg.

The bandit 600 gets ~45mpg. My old shadow reliably got 55 mpg. My 1100cc bike gets 35-40 :P

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

It also massivly depends on how you ride. If you're like alot of people on sport/supersports, then you're gonna get 30-40, because you're gonna keep it at 9-10Krpm all the time. Smarter riders, even on literbikes are gonna get 50sih on the highway. Yamaha YZF-R1, and I average 35 on my commute, but that's been an average of about 15mph since the Slide closed. I typically *cycle* in. It's faster.

Somedays, I miss my old XT-500. I'd easily get an average of 50mpg around town.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

OK, maybe I slightly overstated. :)
But I wasn't considering 50mpg to be a big improvement over 40mpg when compared to 80 or 90mpg, and I didn't say "none", I said "few". The obvious corollary is that some subset of bikes do, indeed, do much better than 40mpg. :)

[bfudlmint.livejournal.com]

So what is good on the market for somebody who wants great gas milage, isn't concerend much with power since I'm just starting to ride and is over 6' tall. Ohh yeah and I can't comfortably touch my shoulders with my knees.

[smandal.livejournal.com]

I'm skeptical. If their technology is all that, why isn't in cars already? A 120bhp, 200 ft-lb motor that gets 150mpg would revolutionize the car industry, let alone the moto industry.

Inflated numbers? Unacceptable emissions? Wacky power curve?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

445lb total weight? :)

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Most of the combustive energy of a motor is lost to direct heat and friction losses. The only time the weight of the car comes into play is if you're trying to approach the acceleration performance of a bike -- you would use more power more of the time.

For example:

My 750cc VFR with 100hp/55ft-lb at the wheel gives 40mpg in mixed riding.

A late model Honda civic with a 1.7L inline-4 makes 115hp/100ft-lb at the crank and gives about 35mpg in mixed driving.

So, I'd think that a 1.2L bike motor that gives 120hp/200ft-lb with 150mpg could deliver something close in a car.

Something is hinky.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Part of the "something" is that the author of the forum article that originated the 150mpg claim blew his math rather badly. greyman pointed me at the original 2.5L/100km numbers in the Dutch specs, which works out to about a still-impressive 94mpg. Remember, diesels are more efficient, and on top of that, diesel fuel stores more energy per unit volume than gasoline.

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Yes, diesel takes you 30% farther per gallon, so that brings the eqivalent gas mileage to 70mpg. Closer, but not quite plausible.

This is interesting reading:

http://www.grinningplanet.com/2005/04-12/diesel-vs-gasoline-article.htm

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_direct_injection

For some reason I thought gas bikes got better gas mileage. My car gets 30mpg on the highway.

[greyman.livejournal.com]

Errrmm... my math suggests 2.5L for 100km is 2.5L for 63 miles or 95 mpg... not 150 mpg.

Still good, but not unachievable, assuming tall gears and a low speed.

I don't think it makes 120BHP and 95 mpg *at the same time*.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I didn't calculate the mileage myself, not having seen specific fuel consumption figures, I assumed the cited figure I'd seen was correct. Still, even 95mpg is impressive.