- Thread starter Anastacio
- Start date
Diesel Motorcycles in DR
Because almost none exist. They are very expensive, heavy, generally slower with less performance. Motersickels have no real need for the torque a diesel produces. This is easily accomplished with a "thumper" at a fraction of the price.
Anastacio, just a stab but in the USA diesel fuel is usually quite a bit higher than gas, is it the same way in DR ? As a biker , I just can't imagine any benefit to diesel unless as you ask extremely low consumption.
I can: the military. More robust, rugged, fewer moving parts and run on the same diesel fuel most military machines do. There is a thread about some military diesel dirt bikes, I believe Island Dreaming brought them up. The cost is astronomical.
The US military has spec'd Hayes diesel bikes:
HDT - Hayes Diversified Technologies, Diesel Motorcycle Manufacturer - Company Information
Don't know about the DR, although the NP DID buy a bunch of Harley Hogs for BARRIO work. :cheeky: Talk about the wrong tool for the job!
Do not know about DR. In India, most local mechanic mount diesel engines on the Enfield Bullet. Later Enfield themselves manufactured diesel version. But later people lost interest in them because of the back pain problem.
I applaud innovation however, I ride a heavy Kawasaki and even then at my age they have to lift me off the bike after a long trip.
diesel here is about 20% cheaper then regular gasoline. In Belgium it is about 25% cheaper. The cars, no motorcycles I know of in Belgium, which run on diesel are cheaper to maintain, and get better mileage. There is an extra pollution tax however. Therefore in Belgium it only makes sense to get a diesel car if you drive more than 35.000 miles per year. Hence most company cars are diesels.
Hayes makes a modified Kawasaki 650 for around 20 K USD IF you can find a way to buy one. It's one and likely only claim to fame is the ability to burn the same fuel as everything else on the NATO battlefield, finding plain old gasoline can be a problem
Not sure what a standard Kaw 650 get for mileage but the diesel is around 100 MPG, very tough bike, will pull like a tractor, off road put it in 3rd gear and forget shifting, while cruising shift into 4th and never touch the lever again
is it practical; no, is it fun: yes; but one very expensive toy BTW, does not have traditional diesel smell you would expect
The most satisfaction I got out of it was watching the Dominican Customs clown try and figure out how to classify it
Not sure what a standard Kaw 650 get for mileage but the diesel is around 100 MPG, very tough bike, will pull like a tractor, off road put it in 3rd gear and forget shifting, while cruising shift into 4th and never touch the lever again
is it practical; no, is it fun: yes; but one very expensive toy BTW, does not have traditional diesel smell you would expect
The most satisfaction I got out of it was watching the Dominican Customs clown try and figure out how to classify it
Purely economical, the bike was not nippy but pulled fine, just not what I'm used to. A bit like opening it up and waiting for hand mail rather than email. But like I said, if not a speed freak and need to be horsing at every given 30ft stretch then this is fine. I'm presuming they do the work themselves if like Robert said they are expensive. DOminicans don't register long term benefits and so I can't see anyone paying out if they can do it cheaper.
Yessah!
The main advantage of the diesel bike is when you are motoring through the desert and run low on fuel you can just idle up to first M1 A2 Abrams tank you see and ask for a couple pints, or if you happen to be at sea you can ask the grapes on board the first US carrier you come across if they can spare a few gallons of JP 5 (Don't have to worry much about fire in this case). bottom line, I guess it gets quite a bit better mileage than standard Kawasaki but the extra 10-12 grand you will pay in initial cost sure could buy a lot of extra gasoline
Chuck, NATO has a few hundred, USMC uses them but not aware of anyone else. The aforementioned uses them strictly as a fuel compatibility issue and they seem to be holding up well, not that gasoline machine of the same design would not. problem is with gasoline powered is when you put diesel/kero/Jet Propellant in them they get very quirky
If you think of a forward deployed NATO mechanized unit with a few hundred tanks, APC's Humvees, rotors etc., having to haul gasoline for a few motorcycles would be very low on priority list and kinda inconvenient addition to the hundreds of thousands of pounds of diesel already hauled
Island, I haven't had to ride through the desert this week and not planning on any MC trips on the water so I keep my rice burner ok ? lol