Star Twin, a company in Holland, has designed and built a motorcycle with a turbocharged, direct injection diesel engine. There's potential for biodiesel here, and reportedly the bike gets 150MPG. It's called the "Thunder Star 1200 TDI Sportbike". KneeSlider tells us that Star Twin started with a three cylinder diesel engine from the VW Lupo, redesigned numerous parts using SolidWorks 3D computer modeling software, and cast them in aluminum. The frame is their own design.
Power output begins at 80bhp and 165 foot pounds of torque, but a bit of remapping of the engine controls increases this to 120bhp and 250 foot pounds at 5500rpm. The bike weighs 450 pounds.
The bike is not to the production stage yet and they are exploring lots of different configurations, touring, commuter, etc.
