page_title: Diesel motorcycle
hierarchical_section_title: Diesel motorcycle
caption_attribution_description: English: At sea aboard USS Tarawa (LHA 1) Feb. 12, 2003 -- A member of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Special Operations Capable (SOC) waits his turn to onload his motorcycle for a helicopter flight into Kuwait. The Tarawa Amphibious Ready Group arrived in the North Arabian Gulf in mid February as part of a regularly scheduled deployment. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Larry Carlson. (RELEASED)
context_page_description: A diesel motorcycle is a motorcycle with a diesel engine. With a traditionally poor power-to-weight ratio, most diesel engines are generally unsuited for use on motorcycles which normally desire low weight, compact size, high RPMs and rapid acceleration. In the 1980s, NATO forces in Europe standardized all their vehicles to operate with diesel fuel. Some forces had fleets of motorcycles and trials were conducted with diesel engines on these. Air-cooled single-cylinder engines built by Lombardini of Italy were used and had some success. This led to some countries re-fitting their bikes with diesel engines.
  In 2005, the United States Marine Corps adopted the M1030M1, an off-road motorcycle based on the Kawasaki KLR650, and retrofitted it with an engine designed to run on diesel or JP8 jet fuel. Since other U.S. tactical vehicles like the HMMWV utility vehicle and M1 Abrams tank also use JP8, adopting a scout motorcycle which runs on the same fuel would ease logistics.
  Further development by Cranfield University and California-based Hayes Diversified Technologies led to the production of the Kawasaki KLR650 based motorcycle for military use.
context_section_description: A diesel motorcycle  is a motorcycle with a diesel engine. With a traditionally poor power-to-weight ratio, most diesel engines are generally unsuited for use on motorcycles which normally desire low weight, compact size, high RPMs and rapid acceleration. In the 1980s, NATO forces in Europe standardized all their vehicles to operate with diesel fuel. Some forces had fleets of motorcycles and trials were conducted with diesel engines on these. Air-cooled single-cylinder engines built by Lombardini of Italy were used and had some success. This led to some countries re-fitting their bikes with diesel engines.
  In 2005, the United States Marine Corps adopted the M1030M1, an off-road motorcycle based on the Kawasaki KLR650, and retrofitted it with an engine designed to run on diesel or JP8 jet fuel. Since other U.S. tactical vehicles like the HMMWV utility vehicle and M1 Abrams tank  also use JP8, adopting a scout motorcycle which runs on the same fuel would ease logistics.
  Further development by Cranfield University and California-based Hayes Diversified Technologies led to the production of the Kawasaki KLR650 based motorcycle for military use. The engine of this motorcycle is a liquid-cooled, single-cylinder four-stroke which displaces 584 cc.
  In India, motorcycles built by Royal Enfield could be bought with 325 cc single-cylinder diesel engines because diesel fuel was much cheaper than petrol (gasoline) at the time, and of more reliable quality. These engines were noisy and unrefined and not very popular because of lower performance and higher weight penalties. The engines were originally designed for use in commercial applications such as electric generators and water pumps.
  As of December 2006, several companies produce diesel motorcycles.  More recently is Axiom Diesel Cycles.
caption: A USMC M1030M1 motorcycle and rider awaiting a helicopter flight into Kuwait.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "A member of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) waits his turn onboard USS Tarawa to onload his motorcycle for a helicopter flight into Kuwait.  The 2,200 Marines of the 15th MEU arrived off the coast of Kuwait in mid February on the ships of the Tarawa Amphibious Ready Group -- USS Tarawa (LHA-1), USS Rushmore (LSD-47) and USS Duluth (LPD-6).\rU.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Larry Carlson", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "1904:01:21 12:12:47", "Image ExifOffset": "604", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "742", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5028", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2006", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1378"}