AFAIK the US .MIL doesnt use any motorcycles.  Why not?  

Correct me if I am wrong...

I remember seeing something about either an Army or Marine recon motorcycle. It was a single cylinder enduro that could run on a variety of fuels. Don't know much else, maybe someone can fill in the blanks.

Dude, you are SOOOOOOOOOOOO wrong!!

USMC uses a modified DIESEL Kawasaki KLR650.

Modified to run on diesel, it gets around 130mpg and will do just over 100 mph!

ETA: LINKY!!!!






Here's MINE!!

The Marines use a Kawasaki KLR650.

www.marcorsyscom.usmc.mil/sites/GTES/PM%20MT/military_motorcycle.asp

Have any of our deployed .mil guys seen any of them in Afghnastan or Iraq?

Quoted: Not yet. Soon though. Quoted: Dude, you are SOOOOOOOOOOOO wrong!! USMC uses a modified DIESEL Kawasaki KLR650. Modified to run on diesel, it gets around 130mpg and will do just over 100 mph! ETA: LINKY!!!!

The .mil has been using the KLR in either gas or diesel since 2000.  

Quoted: Dude, you are SOOOOOOOOOOOO wrong!! USMC uses a modified DIESEL Kawasaki KLR650. Modified to run on diesel, it gets around 130mpg and will do just over 100 mph! ETA: LINKY!!!!

I thought they used a Harley "dirt bike". It would run on diesel and the back area has hook on it for parachute drops.

M1030 M1 Diesel Kawasaki


http://motorcyclecity.com/Military-bikes/USMC-mc-training.jpg

You're right, I'm wrong.

Quoted: Quoted: Not yet. Soon though. Quoted: Dude, you are SOOOOOOOOOOOO wrong!! USMC uses a modified DIESEL Kawasaki KLR650. Modified to run on diesel, it gets around 130mpg and will do just over 100 mph! ETA: LINKY!!!! The .mil has been using the KLR in either gas or diesel since 2000.

www.marcorsyscom.usmc.mil/sites/GTES/PM%20MT/military_motorcycle.asp

Have any of our deployed .mil guys seen any of them in Afghnastan or Iraq?

Ron Woods of Woods-Rotax built one for the Marines as a test unit.
They went with the KLR650 due in part to the very sucsessful KLR250 tha Marines used before.

Quoted: I thought they used a Harley "dirt bike". It would run on diesel and the back area has hook on it for parachute drops.

I love Diesels (my daily driver is a modified 2000 VW Golf GLS TDI--Turbocharged Direct Injected Diesel).  I would love to get my hands on the USMC Diesel Bike

Another one, before I put the 45 Litre Givi hard cases on:

(ETA: This is a freakin HUGE bike!!! I'm 6'3" and look at the bike!!

)

Quoted: Ron Woods of Woods-Rotax built one for the Marines as a test unit. They went with the KLR650 due in part to the very sucsessful KLR250 tha Marines used before. Quoted: I thought they used a Harley "dirt bike". It would run on diesel and the back area has hook on it for parachute drops.

The Harley bike was an MT-500.

Yea.. the Army and Marines are implementing recon bikes that can use a myriad of fuels, so as not to leave a GI stranded. I think they can get >100 MPG, I saw it on the History Channel

I think the USMC riders are called combat couriers.  I'll see if I can't find the MOS.

Quoted: The Marines use a Kawasaki KLR650.

befor I got out Communication and Recon units were the only ones who used these.  

Sounds like some real "Mad Max" stuff... lol.

~As Cpl. Dillenger screams across the desert of Iraq on his USMC standard issue attack cycle, he encounters a group of armed insurgents. Cognizant of the threat they pose, he enters SRKAM (Super Recon Killer Attack Mode) in which his bike and himself are absorbed in a special camoflauging orb that is designed to disguise both their visual appearance and any disturbance they create in the air so as to prevent sound transfer. As he dismounts the bike, he disables SRKAM and slays his enemy with his WKMAG's (Wombat Killing Machine Attack Gun) 45 round bursts. As he lets out a great war-whoop, he beams with pride in the destruction of his enemies... all due to his USMC attack cycle~

LoL... sorry.. I had to

Dooh!!
I need to quit answering from memory after I have taken drugs....

It did use a Rotax engine.

Military Might

When is a Harley-Davidson not really a Harley-Davidson? When it's an Armstrong, of course! The military motorcycle plot thickens on both sides of the Atlantic: Allan Johnson stirs the soup...

There's some rather interesting background history to the origins of the Armstrong MT500 and 350, which also explains how H-D got back into the military motorcycle field.

These bikes originated from the Italian SWM Tornado in the early 1980s, in an attempt to make a street-legal model to go with their competition line-up. It was also developed in a military version, but the firm was in financial trouble and, in the collapse, the design went to Armstrong-CCM.

CCM at that time (1982-83) were just taking over manufacture of the Can-Am line of competition motorcycles which had been built from 1973 to 1982 in Canada. This shift in production site was arranged by Jeff Smith (of earlier BSA fame), then with Can-Am. Can-Am had produced the 250cc Bombardier motorcycles used by various NATO forces. Engines in the Bombardiers, Can-Ams, the SWM and the Armstrong MT500 were all Rotax units made in the Bombardier-owned Austrian factory.

By 1984, the production of the Armstrong MT500 manual start model (I think about 2500 of these were eventually made) and some electric start versions for the Jordanian and Canadian military was well under way. The Canadian Army took only 90 of the electric start version, known to them as the Armstrong M50. These were in service until the early 1990s with the result that some bear H-D labels on the side covers instead of Armstrong ones.

In 1987, production of Can-Am motorcycles ceased at Armstrong and the military motorcycle business was sold off to H-D at around the same time. One of the factors in this is not so much that H-D wanted to be in the military motorcycle business, but the fact that they were using the Rotax engine in their dirt-track racing team effort. The idea of using a 'foreign' engine, even though very competitive, was no doubt a bit galling to them. H-D did have connections with the US military, having been saved from bankruptcy in the 1980s by the award of a munitions contract.

The MT350E is a development of the M50 and shows, in its use of the large front panniers, one of the current problems which the military face with vehicle design. That is the fact that infra-red technology is so developed now that engine heat becomes a giveaway at night. No doubt the move to a 350 engine is an effort to reduce heat radiation and the side panniers are a further attempt to block radiation. The Canadian Army has gone to Kawasaki KLR 250cc motorcycles for its general use and these are water-cooled and have the usual radiator shrouding to reduce side radiation profile.

One of the other problems with military motorcycles is the fact that they are one of the few military vehicles in most modern armies which do not run on diesel fuel. This has been a supply inconvenience for a long time and has limited the acceptability and role of motorcycles in many armies. This fuel type problem has been studied for many years, (there was a diesel Norton ES2 in the 1950s) but I understand that the Canadian army has been looking at a diesel version of their current bike. I wouldn't doubt that the British Army and NATO have been doing the same. (Diesel experiments with Enfields abound, too. RH).



H-D was a large producer of military motorcycles in WW2 with their WLA (American Army), WLC (Canadian Army) and US (South African Army) models being the best known. Not many were used by the British military, except some WLCs which were used by the RAF, but lots of WLCs and WLAs were sold surplus in Britain after the war, as were the 500 and 750cc Indians. The WLC differed in many respects from the American version, most notably in having an auxiliary hand clutch in addition to the rocking pedal foot clutch.

While the old WLC Harley would certainly let your feet touch the ground, I think the Harley-Davidson MT350E is probably the more practical choice -- in this day and age, anyway.

http://www.realclassic.co.uk/arms030307.html

www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/klr-2250.htm

They took those military diesels to Bonneville and set two records, one 85+ one 90+ for diesel bikes.

My Honda XR600 does maybe 110 (paced by CBR929) but it doesnt get that kind of mileage. So the trade off seems worth it.

When I was in a Scout Platoon in the 101st in the 1989-1990 we had KDX-250 Kawasakis, gas models.

Quoted: Dude, you are SOOOOOOOOOOOO wrong!! USMC uses a modified DIESEL Kawasaki KLR650. Modified to run on diesel, it gets around 130mpg and will do just over 100 mph! ETA: LINKY!!!! www.angelfire.com/mo/motormark/images/mvc_001s.jpg www.angelfire.com/mo/motormark/images/mvc_002s.jpg Here's MINE!! www.geocities.com/texas_trucker2003/klr.jpg

Army Rangers have them as well. They were the last hole in the fuel supply system.

We had dirt bikes in the Rangers.  I dunno what model or whatever they were.

I got to drive it once and I crashed it into the bushes and the Sergeant wouldn't let me back on and made me do push ups and mountain climbers for a long time.

Quoted: Another one, before I put the 45 Litre Givi hard cases on: (ETA: This is a freakin HUGE bike!!! I'm 6'3" and look at the bike!! ) www.geocities.com/texas_trucker2003/jasonbike2.jpg

Is that the diesel version? If it is, how much and who carries them? Planerench over.

Quoted: Quoted: Another one, before I put the 45 Litre Givi hard cases on: (ETA: This is a freakin HUGE bike!!! I'm 6'3" and look at the bike!! ) www.geocities.com/texas_trucker2003/jasonbike2.jpg Is that the diesel version? If it is, how much and who carries them? Planerench over.

Negative, Planerench.  Diesel version NOT AVAILABLE... stand by, I'll dig up the email from the manufacturer (I'M ON THE LIST!!!  )

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Another one, before I put the 45 Litre Givi hard cases on: (ETA: This is a freakin HUGE bike!!! I'm 6'3" and look at the bike!! ) www.geocities.com/texas_trucker2003/jasonbike2.jpg Is that the diesel version? If it is, how much and who carries them? Planerench over. Negative, Planerench.  Diesel version NOT AVAILABLE... stand by, I'll dig up the email from the manufacturer (I'M ON THE LIST!!!  )

I have been looking for more info on these for civilian purchase for about two years. Planerench out.

I can't find the email, it must have been sent to my old account.

Bottom line was, they need $10,000,000 investment to cover the engineering costs involved in making a US D,O.T. and E.P.A. legal street bike.

Here's the company's page:

F1 Engineering

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting on one of these.  Although the est. MSRP was quoted at $10,000 US.  

Quoted: I can't find the email, it must have been sent to my old account. Bottom line was, they need $10,000,000 investment to cover the engineering costs involved in making a US D,O.T. and E.P.A. legal street bike. Here's the company's page: F1 Engineering I wouldn't hold your breath waiting on one of these.  Although the est. MSRP was quoted at $10,000 US.

DOH!

The transistion to diesel is due to a NATO treaty from like 10 years ago or so...

It's my understanding is the treaty called for a single fuel standard, diesel won.

Quoted: I can't find the email, it must have been sent to my old account. Bottom line was, they need $10,000,000 investment to cover the engineering costs involved in making a US D,O.T. and E.P.A. legal street bike. Here's the company's page: F1 Engineering I wouldn't hold your breath waiting on one of these.  Although the est. MSRP was quoted at $10,000 US.

To hell with DOT and street legal.  Just make the bike already. Wanted one for years.

those things have always scared me

Quoted: To hell with DOT and street legal.  Just make the bike already. Wanted one for years.

If you can make me one, WITH A LEGAL STREET TITLE, I'll give you  $10,000 CASH  

Think about it, with one of these you get over 500 mile cruise range.  

Thats an IRON BUTT SADDLE SORE 1,000 ride WITH ONE FREAKIN STOP!!!!!!





Saddle Sore 1000

Uh, can you pull a horse trailer with one?

Well, looks like I was mistaken....

I have a cr250, guess I know what to get next.

ever tried shooting at someone with a rifle when you have both hands on the handlebars for clutch and throttle?

i remember seeing a show once about the new [dirt]bikes USMC was developing.  so they could run on unleaded, diesel, and even another hydrocarbon.  maybe kerosene.  pretty much, so they could throw in whatever sh*t lies around in a developing country and keep going.

pretty sweet idea.  i wonder if you could mix t hem though...

When I Was In The Army (mid 1970’s), Scouts sometimes had a motorcycle.  Don’t ask me what kind it was, I never saw them anywhere except the Post’s Newspaper.