For us Indians, Bajaj Chetak is more than just a scooter. It is an emotion as many people have lot of memories connected with this name. Bajaj does not sell Chetak with a petrol engine in the market anymore. It is quite rare to spot a Bajaj Chetak on our roads these days. There are many people who have maintained and restored Bajaj Chetak and many of them have even customised the scooter to their liking. Have you ever seen a Bajaj scooter with an engine mod? Well, here we have just that. This 1996 model Bajaj Chetak actually runs on a 400-cc diesel engine.
The video has been uploaded by Auto Fiction on their YouTube channel. In this video, vlogger talks to the person behind this creation. Sahib is the person behind this modification and he explains everything about the scooter in this video. The scooter seen here in the video started its life like any other Bajaj Chetak. The scooter belonged to Sahib’s parents and was given to them as a gift on their wedding. Sahib did not wanted to scrap the scooter and was planning for some modifications on it.
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His father runs a business where they manufacture lawn mowers and after a while Sahib came up with the idea to make a diesel Bajaj Chetak. He took an old engine that is used in a lawn mower and started figuring out ways to get it incorporated into the scooter. He built a custom metal plate which was then fixed on the foot board of the scooter. There were two sets of bushes installed on the plate and above that the diesel engine was placed using a metal plate. The engine gets an exhaust which gets a design inspired from Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen. The bend pipe of this scooter was taken from a Royal Enfield motorcycle.
The original fuel tank which was under seat is now where the air filter is located. The scooter uses a chain drive system and there are adjusters placed in between to ensure that the chain does not come off. The sprockets used in the scooter were all made by Sahib in the workshop and he can be heard saying in the video that the scooter generates a lot of torque. It took him a lot of time to find a good balance between power and torque. Initially, The engine was generating so much power that the chain was not able to handle it properly. It uses a pull cord mechanism to start the diesel engine and it has a typical diesel engine noise.
Like other scooters, this does not have any space to keep your stuff in the front. Sahib has also installed a set of custom made foot rests so that you and your leg stays away from the engine while riding. The diesel engine on the scooter is very efficient and sahib can be heard saying in the video that it returns around 80 km to a litre of diesel. He took inspiration from Army and painted the scooter Green.
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