Diesel Electric Drive - Feasible?

oilburner · Post by **oilburner** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:06 am

Could a locomotive style diesel electric drive (not a hybrid) be made to work in a motorcycle? Enquiring minds want to know...

balboa_71 · Post by **balboa_71** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:05 am

Avery,
It's already been done. I can't point you to the url, but there is one bike in the Europe that has some kind of arrangement where the engine drives a generator/dynamo/whatever and the electrical power turns an electric motor which in turn drives the rear wheel. If I run across a picture/discription I'll post it here.
BTW, not very effecient as there is a great deal of loss between generator and motor. There are also issues with speed control that might be more involved than just varing the diesel engine speed. Funny thing about all these high powered alternators you see on the market (200+ amps @12 volts), they really don't do that very well without some sort of battery in the system.
Another approach is the technology used with Zena engine driven welders, rated for 100% duty cycle:

http://www.zena.net/htdocs/welders/compare.shtml

These things are really built, but I'm not sure they can be used to provide power for driving an electric motor....

Cris

balboa_71 · Post by **balboa_71** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:28 am

Avery,
Found picture of bike and caption reads:
"Kubota engine drives a 52volt 3 phase generator from a chopper which in turn powers two 24v motors."

Found it in photos of 2005 Hamm rally:

http://www.dieselbike.net/hamm.htm

Not much else to go on....

Cris