First Diesel bike Build?

[navinav]

Hey guys,
I'm new to this forum from the states. I would like to plan on building a diesel bike but do not know where to begin. I have been monitoring this website and reading some threads about conversions. I would like to start with something simple and move on to buying a frame and front end. I was wondering if I could stick a diesel engine in one of these things because it seems like the most affordable way to go for me right now.
http://gokartsusa.com/customorderkikker ... opper.aspx

[pietenpol2002]

Would probably work as a hack for around town. Do check vertical height as you need about 19 1/2" if your going with the single clones and there's plenty of room for a CVT or trans. As you may know the Hardknock has a history of less than stunning customer support. And then there's the matter of getting them licensed. It varies by state and some states apparently won't license them. In fact the report was that some states had reversed themselves and were recalling the registrations/licenses issued previously on Hardknocks. Bummer for the owners. Do your homework via other owners for your respective state. Plenty of them available on Craigslist including licensed rollers which would be precisely what you'd want.

[pietenpol2002]

Oh, and welcome. Great place to hang out and get an education. Good bunch of guys.

[navinav]

I think my main reason for the bobber kit was to get an education on putting a bike together. I was hoping to start on something affordable and fairly simple before I move on to something I can fabricate and produce myself. Is there a frame or kit you recommend for beginners as wells as an engine that I can get decent power and max. mpg?

[albertaphil]

Well, there are many pages of conversation on this site about engines vs. bike capability. You have a few basic categories

a)single cylinder air cooled: gets you up to about 11hp which will let you comfortably go 50mph, but not much more, and you'll get about 120mpg (that's per imperial gallon)

2)multi cylinder air cooled: gets you from 15 to 25 hp, made in europe or china mostly, pretty light (less than 150lbs). With one of the upper end engines you can cruise at 70mph and get around 100mpg. The v-twin chinese air-cooled are in this category, which are good power for the price, and they are simple, but up to now have had less than stellar reliability, though the manufacturers are likely getting things sorted out, and there is enough experience on this forum to avoid some mistakes.

3)multi cylinder liquid cooled: mostly kubota or yanmar, perhaps some euro engines like lombardini. Kipor makes a liquid cooled v-twin of about 20hp. Here you have lots of options and a range of power, but they are heavy for the power they make, which is okay if you're putting it in a big frame. But you also need to figure out where to put your radiator and associated hoses. Probably not for a beginner project. You can get into automotive engines like the smart mercedes engine, but then you have to deal with electronics issues. Briggs and Stratton now sells dihatsu 3 cylinder diesels which will get near 40hp if turboed, but you'll have to pay for it.

So those are your options. This is the problem with putting lawn mower or generator engines in a motorcycle. You get little power and a lot of weight, which is exactly the opposite of standard motorcycle culture. But if you're choosy about your frame and engine combo, and don't expect to keep up with hyabusa your neighbor has, you can make a legitimate road machine that will get incredible fuel economy, be mostly reliable, will impress about 5% of the population and perplex the other 95%. It's why we do it:-)

Cheers,
Phil

[navinav]

Thanks Phil,
I think at this point the enfield conversion will probably be the most affordable. I found some later model enfields for less than 2 g's. I think this is a fairly standard conversion so I'll stick with this one for the experience. Any idea where I can purchase a cvt transmission to go along with the engine?

[coachgeo]

CVT- CVTech. See the CVT Sub forum found in the Forum Clutch, Primary & Final Drive + CVT Info.. this is found in the same Technical Talk area where this Bike build forum lies

[pietenpol2002]

If you're going with the Enfield, I'd stick with the original gearbox. Virtually everything for the conversion can be purchased. I recognize that the CVT would be more efficient, but there's something about meshing your own gears. For more info check out the recent discussion regarding an Enfield conversion and the accompanying debate about gearboxes at the link below.

https://www.dieselbikeforum.com/view ... f=2&t=1397