Sam tells me his bike has a john-deere/yanmar engine ( TNA-72. 3 cylinder about 900 cc displacement.) He made a billet flywheel and bell housing so the original clutch fits. The transmission is original. The fairing was removed and headlight brackets from another bike were used. The forks are two inches longer than stock to give additional clearance to the front wheel/engine assy. Iit runs on ordinary diesel and he's used it also on 100% canola oil by CRISCO company (cooking oil) as a test. No difference in performance experienced except starting a little bit hard.
He built it about 5 years ago as an amusement and says the stack (exhaust) has the "required" flapper. <G>
Thanks for the info Sam in washington, pa.

This machine is now owned by Dave who tells me this bike has a top speed is 63 mph Best fuel gets 70 mpg at 55 mph. It loves biodiesel. I have repainted it added a faring and the tail section around the seat and have added duel tanks. I have reoutfitted the tubing with biodiesel compatible tubing and hooked up an electric switch to go from tank to tank. Future modifications may include getting a tall fifth gear to up my top speed and up my miles per gallon at 55.

Sam Mayberry built this bike now owned by Dave. The Yanmar BMW

Ariel Yanmar Diesel Motorcycle

Two picture's of the Yanmar Ariel. A close-up of the engine and a shot of the finished bike By Dr Robert Harms. More Information here.

This bike was pointed out to me some time ago. It was up for sale on Ebay. I've taken the liberty of posting up the builders discription of the build and a few details about the bike.

No need to depend on Middle-East oil when you can drive this chopper that runs on bio-diesel (or regular diesel fuel if you don't want to buy bio-diesel).This bike started life because of my son's Middle School Science project on renewable fuels. The idea of making our own fuel from used vegetable oil caught our attention and after reading up on the idea, we decided to build a bike that runs on it. The chopper started life as a 1977 Honda CJ360 with a trashed motor but it had sound frame, front/rear end and a clean title. We bought a new engine on ebay, a 9hp diesel made for Yanmar by Launtop. The old used tank and spring seat are also ebay finds. Drive is through a 40 series Comet torque converter and heavy duty jack shaft (bought new from an Internet go-kart place). Lights and other electrical parts were picked up form Jireh. Most everything else was made by us. All bearings were redone, and it has all new rubber and fittings.The rigid frame was fab'd out of 1020 mild steel tubing, 1 1/2" for main down tubes and 1" for all other tubes. All welds were mig done by an experienced welder. The frame was moulded with NAPA ultra-light filler and painted dark grey using a textured paint called Hammerite. The battery and all the other electrics are hidden in a metal flower-pot under the seat (to keep with the bio-friendly theme). To complete the bio theme, we airbrushed the tank and fender using gold base coat, leafs were done in black using freehand stencils, then it was covered by 7-8 coats of green apple candy (all Createx AutoAir). Cleared using Napa rattle can. It gives a nice colour shift effect that doesn't show up in the photos.

This is a full size motorcycle and I ride it around town almost every weekend (I'm 6'5" and 235lbs). It is street legal and the 9hp diesel is plenty strong for road use. The seat is very low and it can easily be driven by a child (my 14 year old son rides it in the neighbourhood) and it has platforms for your feet not pegs (see side view photos). It is a hard tail but the seat is sprung as is the front fork. Ride is rough but smoother than an old hard tail I had in my youth.The engine is pull start but does have a compression release. There is no shifting required (the torque converter has variable 'gearing') and it pulls like a train from zero to 70mph. It smokes and shakes like a diesel, but the smoke smells like French Fries! And, we get well over 100mpg from fuel grown here in the good old USA. This was a great project for us, and the only reason we're selling it is to make room for our next project, a gas/electric hybrid chopper. But the biggest surprise of this project is that as gasoline prices continue to rise, we now look at fields of corn and soybean differently - they're a potential fuel source for our future that really works.

Bike has very few miles on it since it was built. It comes as is with no warrantee. It has a clean MN title, all paper work for the parts we used, a small tool kit for the road, and a box of extra parts scavenged from the old Honda and the new diesel engine.

Top end of this engine is approx 3500 engine rpm (which it does easily). We recently changed the jack shaft gear to a 12 tooth so it would slow down the top end so my son could drive it without putting my wife in a panic (12 tooth gear and 3500 engine rpm the top end is approx 68mph but this gearing has a very nice low/mid end ride). I use it this way and blast around town when the weather allows. The engine has loads of torque and with the 13 or 14 tooth gear it has a much better top end speed and you hardly notice the low end hit (it could possibly handle a bigger gear depending on where you drive but torque on this engine is a killer). Speaking of torque, we now have heavy duty bearings on a big jackshaft. The original ones we bought from the go-kart place couldn't handle the torque and failed quickly so we now have a 3/4" jack shaft and strong pillow block industrial bearings that are rated at 30hp and 5000 rpm. So far after lots of riding around town no problems.I have used mainly around town, local roads and local highways. I haven't taken any long rides on this bike because it is a hard tail, and, well, you know why.The Comet torque converter is an amazing thing and it accelerates well, not like a big gas bike, but as well as my wife's Buell Blast (at least up to 40mph). On the road it runs fine. Big hills are a little slow because the torque converter (as its set up) seems to "down shift" and the bike slows and rpm rises. The engine has loads of torque and I was planning on changing some "springs and pucks" in the torque converter itself (as explained in the manual) to change the torque curve to better handle big hills. Little hills are no problem.Remember it is a pull start but it does have compression release. Still, starting it is not for the timid. I can easily start it, but my son (14 years old) cannot. They offer an electric start for this engine and with the battery that is now on the bike you could add it without any real extra effort.

The drum brakes have been redone and wheels are from the donor CJ360. The speedo is on the front when and is also from the donor bike.The addition of the torque converter and jack shaft required right hand drive on the rear wheel. So, the front brake is in the normal place (right hand) and the rear brake is now on the LEFT foot (as seen in the photos) not the right foot as a normal bike would have. Since there is no shifting, I thought moving the brake to the left and keeping all braking components original CJ360 was a good idea. That way, finding parts is easy.

The bike has no generator. The optional electric starter (I think) serves dual purpose. As it is now, I charge the battery using a separate trickle charger when needed but it isn't needed too often because all it runs are the front and rear lights.Diesel engines are a little odd if you've never played with one. Unlike gas engines, there is no separate throttle and electrical system. So, unlike a gas engine where you can simply ground the spark to stop it, a diesel (at least this little one) stops when you shut off its fuel by throttling it way down. The torque converter doesn't engage at idle or when shutting down so this is not a big deal. Starting is a little odd too, because it requires some throttle to get it going. Not a problem once you get used to it, but it does take some getting used to.Oh, one last thing. Riding this odd bike will get you noticed. It make some odd sounds and you'll spend a lot of time explaining to others about bio-diesel and the whole 'green chopper' thing.

Yanmar Moto Guzzi

Many thanks to Mitchell Green from down Tampa, Florida way who sent me details of his great looking Moto Guzzi conversion. The bike dates from 1971 and has been fitted with a Yanmar 3GM30 Diesel engine which gets about 65 to the US gallon. Mitch tells me he will be improving the top speed of 74 mph and adding a gun mount in the near future.

I think you'll all agree that this is a very well proportioned motorcycle.

A look at the left side of this Moto Guzzi Diesel Conversion.

Suzuki GSX Yanmar

Here we see a machine constructed in 2006 by Richard Coles. Based around a Suzuki GSX 250E, this motorcycle has had its engine replaced with a 406cc Yanmar L100 (taper shaft). Gearbox is a 3 speed pre-unit affair with the shift lever fitted up by the tank. Read the build report on the main page of this site.

Another Diesel Motorcycle from the U.K.

Royal Enfield Yanmar

This machine has at its heart a 750cc V twin Yanmar engine. This picture was taken at 2004 Rally. The engine cover came off later but I only have that on video. I'll try and post when I can.

RE Yanmar 750. The 500 relates to what it was.