The awesomeness that is the turbo diesel-powered Neander monster-cycle has now received the regulatory blessings of the proper authorities in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland and is finally heading for production this fall. If you'll notice in the photo above, the beast-in-question is completely surrounded by Polizei and yet none are reaching for handcuffs, tickets books or other constabulary paraphernalia. Ok, that one guy on the left looks like he's unsnapping his holster but we have it on good authority that he was merely reaching for a stick of gum.

According to the folks at Neander, zealous officials from the TÜV pored over every mechanical and structural detail, from the never-before-seen fork design to the physics-defying wheelbase before giving it their seal of approval and bowing down in awe. Despite all this, company chairman of the board, Lutz W. Lester, put his own backside on the line and drove the machine with counter-rotating crankshafts for as many kilometers as was necessary to ensure the handling and comfort was at the top-notch level it needed to be at. It was.

[Source: Neander]

Click above for more shots of the hydrostatic chopper

The group that introduced the world to the hydrostatic motorcycle powered by a diesel engine has now made a chopper. Regardless of what you may think of the chopper culture that has proliferated the airwaves these last few years, this machine features quite a bit of novel engineering. For instance, the single-sided rear swingarm completely hides the hydrostatic transmission from view and supports the rear wheel and suspension system. The Kubota three-cylinder diesel engine has been turbocharged and feeds power completely automatically through a hydraulic motor to the rear wheel, making this machine completely automatic.

For the technical folks among us, there is an entire thirty-seven page thread on the build-up of the bike -- one that I spent about a few hours going through. Be sure to take a look at our gallery of the bike and watch the videos after the break. There is lots of impressive working going on in garages all across the country, as this machine clearly demonstrates. Good job, guys!


[Source: Hydraulic Innovations via The Kneeslider]

Just the other day we reminded you of a diesel motorcycle currently being built for military purposes, and before that we shared information on the Neander Motors' machine with its dual counter-rotating crankshafts. These products prove that there is significant interest in diesel motorcycles, a fact not lost on the Gray Eagles, an "informal collection of retired engineers and executives from Harley-Davidson and Outboard Marine." These engineers are working on converting the V-Twin engine powering numerous Harley-Davidson motorcycles to run on diesel and/or biodiesel fuel. Along they way, they've added fuel injection and a turbocharger for good measure. If produced, the Harley-diesel could do 100 miles per hour and return 80 miles per gallon. Potential customers for this proposed vehicle include Harley-Davidson themselves as well as the military ... oh yeah, and this writer.

[Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Motive and Autoblog]

Neander Motors has invested a great deal of time and money in order to "break new ground and to adapt engine power to the modern demands of reducing fuel consumption and emissions to a minimum." This is certainly a worthwhile cause to us here at AutoblogGreen, so I decided to bring you news of their hard work. They have created a small, compact, turbocharged diesel engine. They have also created a new motorcycle (seen above) around this engine to showcase the design and commercialize it. What is so different about the engine? Well, small diesel engines have the nasty habit of being rough around the edges, and they weigh quite a bit in order to reduce those rough edges. Adding mass adds reliability and lowers the "shakiness" of the design, which is important when the device is going to be used by people used to the refinement of today's powerplants.

So, they have designed a system with two counter-rotating crankshafts, along with two connecting rods per piston. Each crankshaft effectively cancels the vibration of the other one, making the engine much smoother. This allows the mass of the engine to be greatly reduced. For a more detailed explanation of the workings, check out their website. It would be nice to see an engine just like this used as the range extending generator in a vehicle like the Volt... running on biodiesel to boot!

[Source: Neander Motors]

There are many believers in alternative fuels these days, be it biodiesel, ethanol or butanol, who wish to share their knowledge and passion about the energy potential of renewables to the masses. One way that some choose to do this is by creating high-powered vehicles and attempting to set land speed records. We have seen it with the E85 Viper and now we see it with Die Moto, a custom motorcycle which has been designed to run on biodiesel and WVO. The vehicle is built using BMW parts for both the motorcycle chassis and transmission and the engine, which is from a diesel BMW available in Europe. Read more about their attempts here.

While we are on the subject of diesel motorcycles, I thought I would share some other enterprising DIY builds. Check this one out, it is a custom frame built to house a single cylinder diesel engine made by Hatz. And this one is especially interesting to me, because it uses not only a diesel engine, but also a custom designed hydraulic transmission to send the power to the rear wheel. How does this work? The same as hydrostatic transmission in tractors do. Click here for an explanation. The hydrostatic bike was made by Hydraulic Innovations. Cool, huh?

[Sources: The Kneeslider, The Crucible, Leongardt and Hydraulic Innovations]

Europe's love affair with all things diesel continues with the release of the Dutch-built Trackstar T-800CDI motorcycle. It uses the same DaimlerChrysler 800cc 3-cylinder diesel engine found in the Smart fortwo. The Trackstar is the first commercially available diesel motorcycle, and it can run on 100 percent pure plant oil or different modes of diesel fuel. Officials are hoping to sell up to 500 units over the next two years. Other diesel bikes have been used by the military or are scarce in supply.

[Source: Gizmag]