150mpg diesel bike?

[Mojoe]

I came across this on the net. it is a new concept bike that runs on diesel, and possibly biodiesel.

http://www.metaefficient.com/metaefficient/archives/news/efficient-diesel-motorcycle-created.html

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[Dan Dubeau]

I'd probably consider buying one if they ever went to mass market, and the price was reasonable

[chriskatana]

"250 foot pounds of Torque" HOLY SH!TE

[wittymonkey]

I certainly will consider ! But how much would this be ? If it's over 10000 US$ .... still cheaper to buy a used kat and put gas in it at 3 US$/ gal

w.

[md86]

Oh yeah , I think that was in one of the bike mags a few months back . Sounded interesting , but still a few years off ...

[CoNViCT]

Thats nice, I wonder what it sounds like?

[Bakkendance]

Well it certainly isn't *extremely* ugly, and the thought of running 150 MPG blows my mind hmmm and with a diesel motor, maybe someone could rig up a second tank so that it could run on vegitable oil like these. Then you could run practically forever without paying for gas!

Oh and does that taillight look alot like the Clear Alternatives tail for a 98-02 Kat?
More pics

http://www.startwin.com/pagina/bikes/special/thunderstar/artikel%20ingenieur/groot_desel.jpg

[Badkitty]

i just wonder how it wil sound. I mean look at everything else deisel. Dont think i could stand that engine sound. Then again i've heard some bikes with a gnarly engine and exhaust sound, Honda RC51. There is a guy down my street with one...i can hear it drive by while in the shower. :O

[The CyberPoet]

You won't see it in the USA, and here's why:

The Lupo 3 cylinder VW diesel engine is not EPA sanctioned. The diesel catalytic converters and post-burn clean-up doesn't have a functional lifespan up to spec with the "dirty" diesel fuels that we have in the USA (high sulfate contents contaminate the cats and the direct-to-cylinder injectors), and so VW won't even try to get it through... which means unless Thunderstar comes in millions of $$ to do an EPA certification, don't expect to see that engine here.

It's a real shame too, as there is so much potential for something like that.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[WildKat]

yeah I saw that in motorcyclist awhile back.. it was a very good read about how it was made.

[Badkitty]

what sucks it they look at how clean or dirty it burns, but if its no cleaner than normal diesel i dont care. Because i would think trading more miles per gallon results in less actual polutants. To me.

for example: A car that gets 28.7mpg traveling 12,500miles in a year using 437gallons a year produces 8,725lbs of CO2. For 0.698lb a mile

Now take a motorcycle. Mine gets 50mpg and traveling 12,500miles using 250gallons produces 4973lbs of CO2. 0.39lb a mile.

I know its hard to get the fuel CLEANER Burning..but if you can travel a farther distance on the same amount, i would think thats better. I know its still the same pollutants coming out of the fuel , but at a SLOWER rate. Not lesser concentration

[The CyberPoet]

CO2 is the least of the worries, IMHO -- they can be readily scavanged by plants.... It's the CO, HC's and the NOx that's the real concerns in my mind. And when it comes down to those, our existing bikes are horrid, esp. on HC's (since we have non-vapor-sealed tanks, one Katana can spew forth more HC's parked on a hot day than a dozen five to ten year old toyotas driving the interstate together).
But diesels pose their own issues, with gas discharges that are heavy enough to hang around at street level and particulates heavy enough to fall to the ground immediately (to contaminate the water supplies next time it rains). The Europeans have a good solution going with their diesel post-detonation clean-up; to match it, all we need is cleaner fuel to feed the same engines -- get on the gov't about that.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Badkitty]

the site i got those numbers also had the other chemicals , including CO , i just chose to list one as an example.

Well someone needs to do something NOW. SCREW THESE OIL COMPANIES. They have enough money now. If we ever get electric going we're going to get raped by the electric company then, but at least it will be cleaner.

[Chronos_Titan]

Cyber the clean fuel is coming in 07 and yes we will have a very similar system here in America. However the US NOx standard is much more strict than Europe. Thus making the US so much more expensive, than the European counterparts.

With diesels you get a choice, they can be clean or cheap, but they can not be both. I would imagine to meet the US emissions standards, even with the 07 diesel fuel, the engine alone would have a base cost of around 2000 dollars, and that is to the manufacturer. To sell this i would be shocked for anything less than 15,000 final price.

[The CyberPoet]

Cyber the clean fuel is coming in 07 and yes we will have a very similar system here in America. However the US NOx standard is much more strict than Europe. Thus making the US so much more expensive, than the European counterparts.

Actually, the NOX standards are pretty much the same by the new specs, with slightly different target dates:

Euro:
EURO 3 (Jan 2001): 0.50
Euro 4 (Jan 2005): 0.25
Euro 5 (2008): 0.20
USA/EPA:
1998 - 4.0
2004 - 2.0
2007 - 0.2

The particular emissions on the Euro 5 spec is half of the 2007-EPA spec.

Still, I'm very happy to hear that the reduced sulfer content diesel will be available here, because it means that a large number of European built vehicles will be able to be brought in (BMW D3 comes to mind) -- whether the manufacturers decide to import & market them here in the USA is a different story. It also gives me hope that the Lupo-engined Thunderstar may become available here

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet