The bike itself is very impressive and elegantly designed. I could immediately see the amount of design and revisions that must have gone into the machine. Beside the door was the first revision of the bike which Erik built himself and a big stack of engines. Now that the design is refined, Erik has companies making various sub-components such as the frame.
The bike started first time from cold with no problems. In a short space of time it was warmed up and fully ready to ride. I was impressed by how little vibration there was from the bike – no more than there would be from my TDM 850. Moving away from idle there was even less vibration, and on the road it was no different to riding any petrol driven machine, except perhaps that it was a lot more torquey
There was also a complete absence of any visible smoke. I quite liked the engine sound too, combining the weird off-beat 3 cylinder layout with the faint turbo whistle, although not overly loud.I have always ridden manual gearbox machines, so the CVT was a bit of a shock to me. That said I can appreciate the reasons behind the decision to go for CVT for weight, flexibility and efficiency. Within around 10 minutes of riding the bike I was getting more used to the CVT and it did not detract from the experience at all. In fact, the absence of a clutch and gearshift leaver left me free to concentrate on the riding experience. The hardest part I found getting used to the CVT was to do feet up U-turns, but even after 10 minutes I was getting a feel for it. I had always been fairly biased against CVT before I rode the bike, but I now think I could get used to it as it works well in this application and makes a lot of sense.
The bike accelerates from standstill very smoothly and progressively. In the short space of quiet roads we had to play on I was able to achieve an indicated 95km/h or so (60 mph) with still plenty of pull left. This is even more impressive given that the bike was de-tuned to around 70% for running in a new engine. I have no doubt that the 115mph (185km/h) claimed on the EVA website is possible.
In the short space of road on which I rode the bike it was difficult to tell how well it would handle, although I did get the chance to feel it in a few corners. It is surprisingly light with wide bars (possibly lighter than my TDM?) and thus easy to control. The combination of WP shocks and Excel rims with nice road biased tyres probably helps also! I had always wondered if the throttle response on a diesel bike would be too slow and thus not be able to hold the bike up in the middle of a corner when required, but the combination of fast throttle response and the CVT seemed to work well here also. It is completely possible to feather the power on as required.
For me this was a milestone – I had finally had the chance to ride a real diesel bike. Up until now my own project has only been in my head ever since I read about the HDT military project which so far seems to be vapourware. To see a physical manifestation of a project similar to my own ideas for engine was encouraging. The internet is a great thing if it can bring two people of like minds from different countries together!
As well as this I had a good long chat with the guys and got lots of useful info. Erik is very friendly and helpful and I can see that he is passionate about what he is doing here. This for me was refreshing in a world where most of us work to pay the bills. Erik talks a lot about “possibilities” which I found inspiring. I came away from the day feeling very bright about the future for my own project.
Although the bike I rode was essentially a prototype and thus has a few cosmetic aspects to be worked out, I can see the potential for the future. I think EVA have a promising product and hope that they will get some well deserved success from it. Finally I’d like to thank Erik, not only for the components which I bought but also for the opportunity to ride his machine and talk about technical aspects of the design which, to me, was worth the plane fare alone.
Neil
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