One of the rarest types of motorcycle out there is the diesel motorcycle. Just a couple of diesel motorcycle designs have ever entered what could be considered mass-production, while most others have been relegated to weird boutique bikes, one-offs, or vaporware. The most successful diesel motorcycle ever built was the Royal Enfield Diesel, a bike that was advertised to achieve an incredible 200 mpg. And now you have an opportunity to own one for the tantalizingly low price of $6,507.
The Royal Enfield Diesel is a product of a different time. This motorcycle wasn’t meant to be fun to ride. In fact, its top speed is slower than that of a Japanese Kei truck. Instead, the Royal Enfield oil-burner is all about saving its rider piles of money. It was never sold in the Americas and the vast majority of survivors are still in India. Even diesel conversions of Royal Enfields are very rarely seen on this side of the world, let alone factory-built examples. It’s been over a year since I last saw one without having to translate an Indian site first.
Sadly, this motorcycle isn’t for sale here in America. However, it’s just a skip and a hop across large ponds in the Netherlands. It’s also a ’90s model, so it’s just a call to an importer and a boat ride from being in your hands. One of you should buy this little guy before I start ringing up importers.
Okay, I know you’re still probably scratching your head over the diesel thing. History is chock-full of diesel motorcycles designed to fulfill specific roles.
The most famous example of diesel power on two wheels is the Hayes Diversified Technologies M1030M1 combat motorcycle. This motorcycle, which I have written about previously, was designed to fulfill the military’s mission of streamlining its fueling process. See, the military saw a problem with the fact that it had to carry around different fuels for its many vehicles. The more vehicles could run on the same fuel, the more simplified logistics became for managing fuel purchasing and allocation. The fuel of choice was JP-8, since that’s what the aircraft already ran on. Thus, the M1030M1 is essentially a Kawasaki KLR650 that can run on JP-8, diesel, or darn near anything else that burns. As a bonus, the bikes got 100 mpg in the field, too, which is great!
I say the M1030M1 is the most famous example right now because it seems like every motorcycle YouTuber has played with one of these in recent months. I’m honestly surprised I haven’t seen a FortNine video on the M1030M1 yet. The M1030M1 is arguably the only other mass-produced diesel motorcycle and it’s believed that only 440 or so were built, so we aren’t talking about a ton of units.
There are plenty more diesels out there, including the Star Twin Thunder Star 1200 TDI sportbike, which used a VW diesel, or the EVA Track T-800CDI adventure bike, which used a diesel from a Smart Fortwo. Then there’s the Boccardo Aero 97, a commuter built around the same idea as the Royal Enfield Diesel, but far less successful. Also outrageously obscure is the Sommer Diesel 462, a German diesel motorcycle. There have even been some diesel muscle cruisers brewed up like the Axiom and the Neander.
Most diesel motorcycles exist not for the fun of the ride, but to save the rider oodles of money. Diesel engines are already efficient, but some builders have found that diesel engines get ridiculous fuel economy when they’re attached to a pair of wheels. Well, that’s most of the bikes above, anyway. Some of them are just weird, like the Thunder Star and the muscle bikes, which were built to prove that diesel motorcycles could be as good or better than gasoline bikes.
Unfortunately, most of those motorcycles are so unknown because they never sold in any real numbers, if they even reached production at all. You’re more likely to get struck by lightning than to find a single Track T-800 for sale. That leaves us back at the HDT M1030M1 and the Royal Enfield Diesel as the only diesel bikes you’re likely to find without straining yourself too hard.
Sadly, the secret is out about the M1030M1 and most of the ones I’m finding for sale are around $15,000, which is insane when they sold for a third of that in government auctions. But if you know where to look, the Royal Enfield Diesel is still affordable!
Why Royal Enfield Went Diesel
The history of the Royal Enfield Diesel, also called the Taurus, is a smidge fuzzy.
Royal Enfield itself says production began in 1993. However, there’s a weird twist in that local news sites like DriveSpark says Royal Enfield started building diesels even earlier in the late 1980s. It’s also easy to find late-1980s Royal Enfield Diesels on India’s equivalent of Craigslist. We’re not sure who is closer to being correct, but the year difference isn’t huge enough to matter.
I wrote about the Diesel last year, and this part will be relevant:
When the Taurus was introduced, a Bullet 350 made about 18 horses from its 346cc four-stroke single. This was good for a top speed nearing 70 mph, depending heavily on conditions. Royal Enfield’s history page doesn’t say why the Diesel was put into production, but DriveSpark reports that it had to do with fuel prices at the time. Diesel was reportedly about half of the price of gasoline back then, making a diesel-powered bike compelling, even if the motorcycle was more expensive upfront.
Housed in the familiar Bullet frame is something different. The Taurus ditched spark ignition for a 325cc diesel single made by Greaves Lombardini in Italy. This air-cooled industrial engine is good for 6.5 HP and 10.7 lb-ft torque. As you could imagine, these are slow and top speed hovers around 49 mph. That makes its performance about on the level of a 110cc gas motorcycle. According to an owner’s manual that I found, these weigh in at a heavy 370 pounds as well.
These engines redline at 3,950 RPM and I have to know how much it’s vibrating at that engine speed. If you were willing to put up with the torture of riding a shaky single-cylinder going no faster than 49 mph, Financial Express Drives says you’ll be rewarded with a whopping 190 mpg to 211 mpg fuel economy.
To put that into perspective, Honda says a Grom should hit something like 166 mpg. Of course, real-world numbers for both motorcycles will be vastly different, and the Grom is known for getting closer to 100 mpg in the real world. But there’s no doubt the Taurus is thrifty. Being cheap is the entire mission of the Royal Enfield Diesel. A Honda Grom does wheelies, will hit 55 mph, and is a total ball. The Enfield Diesel rider isn’t having that kind of fun. At the very least, the Royal Enfield Diesel has a nice 3.4-gallon fuel tank.
This Royal Enfield Taurus
If you can hit that magical 200 mpg you’ll be going a whopping 600 miles between fuel stops. Just don’t expect to get there quickly. Even a more realistic 150 mpg is still 500 miles of range! Combine that with the reported cheapness of diesel back then and the Royal Enfield Diesel made total sense. If you didn’t care about having fun, you saved a ton of cash.
Unfortunately, the diesel experiment wouldn’t last that long. Royal Enfield never released sales numbers, but the Diesel/Taurus is said to have sold well. What killed them was stricter emissions regulations and the last diesels rolled off of the Royal Enfield line sometime around 2000.
I’ve done more digging around India’s OLX marketplace longer than I’m willing to admit, but I’ve noticed that Diesels from the late 1990s are worth a lot more than the older ones, but they’re all still dirt cheap for people living in America.
This motorcycle is currently sitting in the Netherlands at Dutch Lion Motorbikes for the low price of €5,850. No description is offered other than the fact that it has low kilometers and a Dutch registration. I can tell you that riding it will be weird. These motorcycles are known for having hilariously awful brakes and a reversed shifter where first gear is up and the rest of the four total gears are down.
Unfortunately, at current exchange rates that translates to just under $6,507. At least the selling dealership says it can arrange worldwide shipping, which is good. All in, and I bet you’ll be well under the $12,500 that an Enfield Diesel sold for on eBay last year.
If you do buy this ride, you’ll have a turn-key diesel bike that won’t be the most thrilling ride of your life, but should be easy on your wallet. And while Royal Enfield no longer makes the bikes, the company is still proud of having produced the most mass-produced diesel motorcycle in history, which is still pretty wild. Just make sure to make a lot of time to get somewhere.
(Images: Dutch Lion Motorbikes, unless otherwise noted.)
On my wish, but will never be able afford, list.
That kickstarter/shifter/rear brake lever(?) interchange looks potentially dangerous and painful as hell to one’s right foot/ankle under the wrong circumstances!
So if I may tangent and slightly rant, this right here is why EV motorcycles don’t make sense. Motorcycles built for economy get near 100mpg, and these get well over, and with a few gallon tank get over 300 miles of range, which is way longer than I’d need to stop and refuel, stretch my legs and what not.
Yes the Livewire does 0-60 fast enough to rip your arms out of their sockets, but do that too much and you’re getting less than 100 miles of range…total, and then recharging for over an hour.
I’m reminded of a junkyard wars episode Mileage Marathon where the winning team used basically a moped engine and did 59 laps on a cup of fuel, 170mpg, and that was 25 years ago.
I think e-bikes are ok as much smaller range/performance needs, simpler, can charge at home, great for apartment dwellers, but the e-motorcycles, just no point.
I disagree. Motorcycles may be OK on mileage but emissions are still a problem. Small motorcycles/scooters with swappable batteries are an excellent solution even for apartment dwellers if low cost wall chargers are made available.
Given how hundreds of millions of people around the world DD small motorcycles and scooters I think there is a good niche for electric versions, especially if they last longer.
I think an electric trail bike that you only plan on taking to the local riding park for the day could be good. They make a lot less sense on longer trips considering you would need the ability to charge at your campsite. Running a generator to charge your bike kinda defeats the purpose.
As cheap bastard says – emissions are the problem.
Visit a place like Hanoi where the primary mode of transport is millions of Euro 3 scooters (which exceed US motorcycle standards) for some air that you can not only breath but also see and taste. Worst air quality that I’ve experienced in my travels to date.
It’s not as bad if they’re fuel injected with catalytic converters, like you said unregulated in Hanoi, similar to 2-stroke lawn equipment here in the US, which having a neighbor with a bad carb and real bad misfire it reeks when he’s mowing. Even my ’98 Harley with the carb is pretty stinky.
But modern fuel injected bikes like the Grom get over 150mpg and have the emissions controls, and can just go for miles and miles.
Vietnam requires Euro 3 for motorcycles and scooters. They are fuel injected, 4 stroke, with catalytic converters – stricter requirements than in the USA. The USA is behind even developing countries like Vietnam when it comes to motorcycle emission regulations and a Grom puts out more local air pollution (HC / NOx) than a V8 F-150.
It’d be interesting to know how efficient this ancient diesel actually is.
A gasoline equivalent such as in a small generator is typically 15% thermally efficient, even modern ones, so this ancient tech diesel might be 20% but probably less. Which absolutely sucks compared to modern engines.
A modern gasoline engine made to prioritize efficiency like the one in a Prius is about 40% thermally efficient even meeting all California emissions. So I’d expect a comparable gasoline engine using the latest and greatest ICE tech, again tuned for fuel efficiency should do MUCH better than this thing, maybe 300 mpg even with some more power.
As a 17 year owner of a new 2000 New Beetle TDI, I approve. The name of this game is miles per gallon, not how the engine revs to red line on a sweeping curve; nor the sounds made from a high revving engine. The ability to slough off engineered gasoline price per gallon increases due to one manufactured scam after the other (Think, Price increase per gallon due to fire in a refinery…..or hurricane off the mid atlantic) I curse VW for destroying diesel forever as a viable means to achieve high miles per gallon of fuel. As good as any hybrid Prius is today, imagine a properly engineered hybrid diesel/electric drive system. Must everything be a high revving canyon carver to meet approval by the western media? In my opinion, no, it does not.
It’s a shame the military didn’t buy a ton of those KLR diesels so that we could buy them at auction today for a few hundred bucks. I’d love to have one, but they sell for like $20k and you’re always one little unobtainable broken part away from it becoming a very expensive boat anchor.
As someone said, “agricultural” is the key word here. I have had 4 Royal Enfield’s though none of them diesel thankfully, I can’t imagine those bikes being any slower than they already are (were). Mine were not the nice modern ones they have now, mine were early 2000’s bullet’s (500’s).
They’re a hoot to ride, one had this same reverse shifter setup which you get used to after a few rides but is still very odd. The brakes are abysmal so plan ahead. Modern ones are much nicer though.
I’ve been thinking of getting a motorcycle, but who has the money for fuel?
Looking at the Taurus’ right side, the engine cover reminded me of a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engine.
I don’t think I’d want to put enough miles on one to recognize much fuel savings. Those brakes look scarily inadequate for what must be a pretty hefty bike.
After reading this and looking up the military bike. I really like those diesel or not.
Always wanted one of these just for fun but can’t afford it sadly. A while ago there was a post on ADV Rider about someone doing a round-the-world trip on one of these.
I’d imagine they are very agricultural but at least the fuel costs are low.
This definitely seems like a great bike for many towns in Europe.