Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Dieselicious!

I'd love to power up one of these in the backwoods near our home with biodiesel from the grease vat behind Qdoba. These bikes can crawl up just about anything without leaving much of a trace. Lots of torque, less noise, fuel efficiency and true two-wheel drive put this high on the wish-I-had-it-but-can't-afford-it list.

The early "Trail-Breaker" off-trail bikes had a catchy "Goes Anywhere" motto and "go everywhere ... do everything" catch phrase. (Side Note: Great motto - I worked on helping the Jeep® brand trademark the "Go Anywhere, Do Anything™" slogan a few years back while working at BBDO-Detroit. This is the bike for everyone but Superman - the MK3 brochure proudly stated, "Ride one and believe. The only thing it doesn't do is fly."

Turns out Rokon has been building diesel-powered 2WD bikes since 1999 when they produced 20 for special duty in Mexican mines. It was either a Lister or Petter engine. Another Scotish company is producing a diesel bike called the Ecorider.

The bodacious brute above was shown off at the Electric Vehicle Council of Ottowa in 2008.