Last week I featured a diesel-powered Royal Enfield Bullet, and I have to admit, I’ve bit on a little bit of a diesel kick ever since. Giant torque and mpg figures can’t be wrong, can they? No, they can’t – especially when they’re powered by bacon!
I’ll get to the bacon in a minute. On my quest to learn more about diesel motorcycles, I eventually discovered the Dutch firm EVAproducts and their subsidiary TRACK, makers of the T-800CDI, which as far as I can tell is the world’s most advanced diesel-engined bike. It’s an adventure bike with 45 horsepower, 78 pound feet of torque, and a claimed 140mpg (though it seems that reviewers have been getting closer to 80-90).
Great, you’re wondering…but what does this have to do with bacon? Hormel hired Charlie Smithson to turn the T-800 into a cafe racer, and then they hired Bio-Blend Fuels to turn a whole bunch of bacon grease into diesel fuel. The kicker? The price of the fuel was just $3.50/gallon, a solid 75 cents cheaper than the average diesel price in the US. The even better kicker? The damn thing smells like bacon when the engine is running.
Anyway, Hormel is making a documentary called “Driven by Bacon” as this thing made its way from Wisconsin to San Diego, California. You can recap the journey here at DrivenByBacon.
Photos from Hormel’s Facebook page.