The words “diesel” and “motorcycle” aren’t often seen paired together, and when they are, the results are sometimes questionable. One company tried to change that. The EVA Products Track T-800CDI was supposed to be the best of both worlds. It was a big touring bike that got the fuel economy of a small motorcycle, and did so using the teensy turbodiesel engine from a city car. This was supposed to be the world’s most advanced diesel motorcycle with 560 miles of range, yet there’s a chance that you’ve never even heard of it.
The diesel motorcycle is a strange branch on the tree of motorbike history. You would think that the two are incompatible. Diesel engines tend to be heavy, shaky, with low redlines, and with low power compared to gasoline motorcycle engines. Motorcycles themselves also tend to be ridden by folks looking to have fun, and not necessarily to save money.
It should be no surprise, then, that diesel motorcycles have never really caught on. I have written an extensive history series on all kinds of diesel motorcycles, and you’ll note that none of them are in production today. Most of them sold barely enough copies to be considered production vehicles. If you have some spare time this weekend, I highly recommend reading my stories on the Boccardo 1200 Aéro Diesel, the Star Twin Thunder Star 1200 TDI. Both of these are fascinating engineering projects, but have largely faded into the pages of history. There are plenty of smaller diesel ventures throughout history, and of course, people who still make their own diesels today.
Yet, there were really only two diesel motorcycles that could be classified as being mass-produced, and those were the HDT M1030M1 combat bike, which was built to help streamline the U.S. military’s fueling schemes, and the Royal Enfield Diesel, which was built for riders who wanted to save money above literally everything else. Of those two, only the Royal Enfield sold more than 1,000 copies.
The Track T-800CDI is interesting in part because it came after so many of the diesel motorcycles of the past failed to have staying power.
But this motorcycle was supposed to be better. It would have real, usable power, incredible riding range on a single tank, and be an adventure touring machine. Basically, the T-800CDI is more or less like a BMW GS or a Triumph Tiger, but diesel.
An Evolution Of An Old Idea
The Track T-800CDI was the brainchild of Erik Vegt, the CEO of EVA Products of the Netherlands. Prior to building the T-800CDI, Erik was known for building desert rally motorcycles with large fuel tanks and reinforced suspensions.
In an old video on YouTube, Erik explains that he started the Track project in 2006 as the vehicle for a new way to look at mobility. Check it out:
Erik, who often rode off-road motorcycles across entire countries on long adventures, thought that he could improve where he said other motorcycles fail. In his eyes, motorcycle manual clutches and transmissions are unnecessary failure points on a long journey. Erik also said that squeezing his clutch lever wore out his hand, and he didn’t like not knowing if he was in the optimal gear for his off-roading situation. So, his bike would have a CVT like a scooter.
Then came fuel consumption. Erik said that high fuel economy wasn’t necessarily a goal, but to him, a diesel made sense due to the energy density of the fuel. Sure, a diesel bike won’t win any races, but you don’t need a million horsepower to get across a desert, anyway.
Erik set out to create not just the best motorcycle for crossing vast distances, but also to be a thoughtful machine. In the video, Erik remarks about how heavy a big bike is to pick up after you drop it, so his bike would be easy to pick up.
The entire development of the T-800CDI was like this. Erik says his choice to go diesel wasn’t just because of the energy density, but because he once asked the driver of a diesel truck how far his engine had gone, and was told that a million kilometers had rolled through the odometer – and yet, the engine still started and ran fine. To Erik, this was great. Sure, nobody was going to ride a motorcycle that far, but to have an engine reliable enough to drive that far was appealing to Erik.
Unfortunately, developing your own engine is crazy expensive, so Erik chose the next best thing. He reached out to DaimlerChrysler for the 799cc turbocharged three-cylinder diesel engine from the Smart Fortwo CDI. This engine is roughly the size of a motorcycle engine and is known for its longevity. With 45 HP and 78 lb-ft of torque on deck, it would make for a decent bike engine, too. Apparently, Daimler was happy to sell Erik engines.
For the transmission, Erik decided to go with a 9-pound scooter-style CVT, and connected that to a shaft drive. In his eyes, a scooter CVT is easier to fix in the desert than a proper manual transmission, and a shaft drive is nearly maintenance-free.
The crazy part about all of this is that EVA Products was not a big company. There was Erik and four other employees, and the Track T-800CDI was the company’s debut product.
Yet, somehow, he made it work. Erik even managed to convince a designer from Aprilia and Alfa Romeo to pen the motorcycle’s minimal bodywork. Suspension was handled by Dutch company White Power (which rebranded to WP Suspension), and the ergonomics of the bike were setup to fit taller men, or specifically, the six foot height of Erik. The company claimed that the motorcycle would achieve 112 mpg at 55 mph, or 140 mpg at mixed speeds during daily commutes. Range was quoted to be as high as 560 miles on one tank of diesel. The bike’s weight was 485 pounds, which is not bad for a diesel. It also had a top speed of 109 mph, which was not fast, but more than quick enough for an adventure bike.
While 140 mpg doesn’t sound all that amazing — mini street-legal bikes like the Honda Grom claim as high as 166 mpg — keep in mind that this is a motorcycle designed to fit a big guy and ride across entire countries. It’s impressive for the kind of bike that it is. A BMW GS would be lucky to get half the MPG that the Track T-800CDI claimed.
The Weird Diesel Adventure Bike
EVA Products finished the first Track T-800CDI prototype in 2006, and then took the first example on grueling off-road trips, where the bike had proven itself to be as reliable and as capable as Erik had hoped for. Then, in 2009, he started loaning some out to the motorcycle press before putting them on sale. Here’s what Chris Newbigging of Motorcycle News reported:
Bizarre
Starting the Track T800CDI gives an unusual experience – it clatters into life like a tractor giving rumbling vibration and the disgusting-smelling exhaust gases rising from the small forward-facing silencer in front of the right footpeg will be familiar to anyone who’s ever got stuck behind an old school bus. You can’t blip the throttle either – doing so will engage drive and send you shooting forward.Lazy
Open the throttle to pull away and the feeling is like a CVT scooter – the drive itself takes up smoothly but the rising revs are accompanied by rising vibration. The shaft drive has no anti-rising mechanism, so you can feel the torque reaction cause the back end to rise slightly. It’s not a problem, but it adds to the unusual feel.
Opening the throttle hard doesn’t give the rush of drive you’d get with a turbo charged car – acceleration is leisurely even though the engine responds quickly to throttle input. 45bhp still isn’t much despite the respectable torque.Crude
It doesn’t get better with speed – vibration subsides a little but it’s still enough to be intrusive, and the CVT means the engine is always at the same revs giving a monotous tractor-like noise, which even on MCN’s short test ride became tiresome. Even with an open mind there’s no getting away from the fact is just isn’t quick or refined enough to be compared with petrol rivals on riding enjoyment.
Chris ended his review by saying that the Track was well-designed and seriously tough. However, he doubted that the motorcycle would be a mainstream product because all of the attributes that make the Track an absolute tank take the fun out of motorcycling.
Motorcyclist Magazine was hopeful:
The flat exhaust note makes you think there isn’t much punch, but there is. Once underway, the distinctive three-cylinder lilt develops a rough edge, overlaid with the trademark whistle of its Garrett turbo. There’s no throttle lag: that responsive CVT transmission helps to spool up the turbocharger as soon as you twist the right grip. Acceleration is surprisingly strong from 50 to 70 mph, and the ride-by-wire electronic throttle provides optimum response for any given condition. This is an unbelievably easy motorcycle to ride, especially at slower speeds. The turning circle is tight for a long motorcycle with relatively rangy steering geometry.
WP suspension makes easy meat of speed bumps, and ride quality is excellent. With very little engine braking, it takes a determined squeeze of the front brake lever to reign in 496 pounds of diesel from its 109-mph top speed, but the back brake is useless. There was an occasional loud grinding noise when I backed off the throttle: not enough clearance between the CVT belt and its metal housing. And you notice some vibration through the pegs under hard acceleration. The engine occasionally seemed like it was about to stall when braking to a halt; presumably an ECU mapping issue.
Apart from those relatively minor niggles, the EVA Track is an impressive package. I really enjoyed the bike’s practical, real-world performance, coupled with ease of riding, economy and innovation. Audi has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times on 100 percent diesel SynFuel. It’s time for the motorcycle world to take notice, and the Track T-800CDI just might be the bike to make that happen.
When Erik took the bike on tours of Europe, he remarked that riders of limited mobility loved the lack of shifting. He also joked about the times when gas station attendants freaked out because they thought he was pumping a gasoline bike full of diesel.
On The Wrong Track
However, when it came time to put the bike on the market, things fell apart. The Track T-800CDI was first put on sale in Holland. However, per Erik’s own words, the only way his company was to survive was if it spread out across Europe, the developing world, and then to North America. The starting price of the Track T-800CDI was £15,000 in 2009, or what was roughly $23,000 at the exchange rates in 2009. According to Classic Driver, the price for the T-800CDI was €18,750 in 2011.
This put the Track at a disadvantage. A 2009 BMW GS was £11,250, and was built by a known company with a lot of history. EVA Products was asking buyers to pay more money to take a chance on an unknown brand and a weird concept.
Erik saw the T-800CDI as only the beginning. He projected that diesel was only going to get cleaner and more widespread. The Track bikes were supposed to advance with the times, getting lighter and accepting even more fuels, like natural gas. When talking about the future, Erik was sure that some of the big motorcycle names would work on hydrogen or electric, but that there almost had to be a place for diesel. After all, it’s not like you’re going to ride an electric motorcycle across any desert.
Unfortunately, these statements were made only a couple of years before Dieselgate took hold and changed the trajectory of diesel forever. Did diesel motorcycles even have a future before Dieselgate? Honestly, I doubt it. But Dieselgate certainly did not help.
Erik’s global expansion never came, and the motorcycle was sold in Holland until 2013. EVA Products went under shortly after. It’s believed that around 50 examples were built, and of those, few are on the road today. According to European motoring magazine Auto Motor Klassiek, EVA Products needed to sell at least 100 units a year, and, sadly, the company couldn’t do it. Amazingly, I know of one of these that made it to America, and it is still running today.
Thus, the dream of the diesel motorcycle, at least for the perhaps dozens of people who have such a dream, remains elusive. Nearly every single diesel motorcycle that has been pitched or has gone into production was a niche product that eventually failed. Even the mass-produced ones didn’t have staying power, either.
Still, I just love stories like this. The world would be a much duller place if there weren’t people like Erik trying out crazy ideas to see if they would work. So, the Track T-800CDI might have been a failure, but I’m glad it existed and, admittedly, it’s one of my white whales.
Then there’s always Die Moto: https://michaelsturtz.com/die-moto/ which used a BMW M47 2.0L turbodiesel to set a land speed record.
I thought White Power was a rebrand of the old White Brothers performance parts company. It’s tough when your name becomes problematic.
I’m pretty sure a Dutch company like WP only changed its name because of the effect on the international markets, since over there they still have a national tradition where they just walk around in blackface (St. Nicholas) and nobody seems to think it’s problematic at all.
To my recollection, it has always been a dirty whiteface. So the association with the modern term blackface is not a given.
On the other hand, it is definitely not true that nobody thinks it’s problematic. And I am all for the free speech in these countries.
So yes, WP changed their name after it became a problem on international markets. And here in EU, people still think White Power can be both a despicable people’s movement AND a great parts supplier.
There are many examples like this. This is a great anthropologic topic on its own.
The review about the smell of the exhaust shows it must have just been before Smart started putting common-rail diesels in.
They usually smell slightly of nitric gas, but not the sulphur, coal smoke you get with old fashioned diesels with mechanical injectors…
I always loved the smell of almost fully burnt jet fuel when my TV station’s Bell JetRanger started up. It was almost sweet. My father had three OTR diesel tractors as I grew up. An Autocar (briefly) and engine unknown to me, an IH with a Detroit Diesel 318 8V71 and a Kenworth with a 350 Cummins. None of them had really any emissions minimizing equipment. He also had a couple of diesel commercial salmon fishing boats and an IH crawler tractor on the farm. Their exhausts all smelled similar. Some sulfur, but some sweet aromatics as well.
I had an ’01 Jetta TDI and its exhaust always smelled acrid in comparison. I don’t know whether it was its emissions gear or the fuel had changed. But I always felt sorry for people around me. But not enough to not put 165,000 miles on it before selling it to someone else.
I still like the iron butt rally rider who put a Renault diesel engine in a K bike. That Diesel engine bolted right up to the transmission and into the bike, the problem was the constant high revs blew it up
Great article. Thank you!
Why did he think Dutch people would want a diesel motorcycle for desert crossings? Holland is about as far away from a desert as one can get.
A mechanically controlled CVT, as this sounds like, is good for keeping a small 2S in its narrow powerband. But a 4S (Otto or Diesel) really needs a computer controlled CVT like the Burgman 650.
And White Power renamed to WP many years ago.
interesting read. i have owned 1 motorcycle, an 80 honda cx 500 custom. as i read through the specs on this diesel, was thinking it was pretty similar in spec to my CX. 45 hp and well over 400lbs. with only a few other short rides on a few diff bikes, that weight & hp felt just fine to my non- lightning reflexes. CX did have a high center of balance, something this diesel tried to minimize.
I see this as a double grail for Mercedes since it’s a weird motorcycle powered by a Smart. It would be like an air cooled VW enthusiast having an Amazonas
White Power became WP something like 30 years ago. Not sure when that motorcycle was made but something tells me no suspension on it was still called White Power – more likely innocent locals still call it that way 🙂
I’m sorry the Dutch company was named what?
The company is now owned by KTM, and they make all of KTM’s suspension components (and I think some other components, like radiators). They call themselves “WP” now, however.
The name was originally because they used white springs/paint on their components.
Another great Mercedes article. I had no idea these existed and frankly I can’t imagine riding 500 miles without stopping, but it’s a cool concept. The one thing I am confused about though is that you refer to it as one of your white whales. Moby Dick happens to be one of my all time favorite books, and while Ahab was obsessed with the whale, he wanted to hunt it down and kill it. I think that would be a terrible thing to do to this motorcycle.
Mercedes ability to find motorized vehicles that most people didn’t know existed needs to have a classification or a name and a regular appearance. Always amazing that these vehicles exist.
Reminds me of the time I was cutting an oak tree and got to use a borrowed chainsaw that, get this, ran on diesel. That summabitch could cut through the vault doors at Fort Knox and not sweat a bit.
Many years ago when I was a kid, a neighbor of mine who was into model aircraft showed me a tiny compression-ignition engine (had a little glow plug) that I could hold in my hand, and I was blown away. That thing was an order of magnitude smaller than a chainsaw engine.
Somewhat vaguely familiar, I remember avoiding reading about this bike years ago.
I cannot miss a Mercedes Streeter article, so I finally suckered into reading about this.
They sold 50 of them that’s the amazing part.
I always thought that whole diesel adventure / dual sport category were fishing for government / military contracts. They always seem to be too strange and expensive to catch on for the general population. I’ve heard rumors dongfang made a diesel dual sport for the Chinese military.
The Ukrainians are using a Chinese 300 Enduro and they seem to be the ones shaping warfare now so probably another nail in the coffin for the diesel motorcycle.
At first I just assumed he adapted the Smart engine to a Guzzi drivetrain. Now that might be kind of fun to do, assuming you can roughly double the RPMs somewhere along the way.
What happened to the design Hero had for a diesel cargo scooter from a few years back… god let it only be a few and not near 20…
I occasionally try to see what happened with that thing and never really find much.
So this bike, with a Diesel Smart engine, was $15-18k Euro. I’m sure our intrepid author can tell us how much a Diesel Smart *car* would have cost in the same era, and I’m guessing it was less than this.
It never fails to amaze me how a dozen people could fail at something, yet the 13th guy comes along and expects to succeed.
You can have a full car for cheaper than an africa twin or rocket 3… the guy had a clear vision and knowledge about his concept, coupled to the lack of economies of scale at that point and i think it was pretty good
A Honda Africa Twin is $14,799. The cheapest car still in production and sold in the USA is the Nissan Versa at $20,499.
(Nissan is no longer making the base S trim of the Versa)
I didn’t even bother to mention how much the car was because the bike was thousands more expensive than its targeted competition. I mean, BMWs already aren’t cheap, and this was thousands more expensive!
I love that 6ft is considered big or tall for motorcycles.
I can hardly think of a more unfortunate company name.
“Why should I change my name? He’s the one who sucks!”
Company was named for the characteristic white-painted spring on their coilovers. They’re called WP Suspension these days.
Haha! Love the Office Space reference! I need to watch that again!
The company that made the catback for my FRS was called ISIS. They changed that to ISR Performance for obvious reason a couple years later.