Motorbikes have great fuel efficiency, turbo-diesel cars have good efficiency, and so do hybrid cars. If you combine them all together you could get well over 100 mpg.
While we're at it, why not add a ceramic block, variable valve timing, desmodromic valves, etc. and run the whole thing off used vegetable oil (see link).
This whole rig might not be very cheap or practical, but of course tons of "ecologically-minded people" would buy it, and the rest of us would have fun laughing at them from our 4x4's until we all choke on our Big Macs.-- discontinuuity, Aug 03 2005 Grease Car Company http://www.greasecar.com/How to run a diesel car off straight vegetable oil [discontinuuity, Aug 04 2005] diesel sport bike http://www.squidbus...owthread.php?t=1671 [normzone, Aug 05 2005] XR3 Diesel-Electric hybrid Car http://rqriley.com/xr3.htmA cool 3-wheeler scheuled for release in Feb 07 [J Vander, Nov 13 2006] Hm...all the inconveniences of a bike but without the light weight and blazing performance..-- moPuddin, Aug 04 2005 [mo], check out the Twin Star diesel sportbike. It's got torque out the wazoo.-- elhigh, Aug 05 2005 Might make a cool trike.-- wagster, Aug 05 2005 My bruvva-in-law wants a harley, so he can be "that fat boy on a Fat Boy". a diesel would suit him well.
I personally prefer a lightweight on-off road bike of around 400cc. The new Suzuki springs to mind. But when I worked on bikes I liked Ducatis. (I worked for Honda)
P.S. Anything with a bio-diesel link is cool. They grow soybeans for B20 around here.-- moPuddin, Aug 06 2005 There are lots of diesel bikes out there, especially in Europe. One German make, I think it's "Lowe", has an optional side car that will hold 3 people. Mass transit bikes. Cool!-- quibix, Aug 06 2005 The diesel part is OK. The electric motors and batteries part terrified me at first, since I like machines and furry mammals light and nimble. But who knows, with emerging technology, it might work.
I had the pleasure of working on full-dress motrocycles that weigh just under 1,000 pounds. Some people don't seem to car, as it's all about the image. They also tend to roam about in large packs of accountants, so it's easier to pick up your fallen sofa.-- moPuddin, Aug 07 2005 A diesel/electric hybrid scooter would be nice, probably would get 250 mpg or better. I can't see it happening, they sell all the conventional motorcycles/motorscooters they make now.-- whlanteigne, Oct 02 2005 Somebody's been working on this for six or seven years. Don't remember the name, but they apparently had a working prototype and were shooting for 200 mpg and $7,000 retail. I'll try to dig up the link.
And check out the XR3 link.-- J Vander, Nov 13 2006 There's a diesel version of the Kawasaki KLR650. I think they were made for the US Navy, which has a one-fuel policy that uses diesel. I think I read that the company that makes them was thinking about marketing them for the consumer market, but the price would be too high (around $18000).
I'm too lazy to find the link now. Just google for "klr diesel".-- jmvw, Nov 13 2006 And of course, diesels are generally louder than gasoline engines. Considering how the motorcycle crowd includes noise enthusiasts, this should sell rather nicely.-- ye_river_xiv, Dec 01 2009 Nothing beats the sound of a diesel, but they're actually really quiet now, and they tend to run at low RPMs so the actual noise going down the road is often quieter. Easy to make loud though if you wanted to.
(Im a biodiesel making VW TDI driving Dodge diesel truck driving fiend).-- oxen crossing, Dec 03 2009 random, halfbakery