Motorcycle, inventor, and green-thinker Dave Amherst has built an LPG powered motorcycle that should be the envy of any DIY garage. Called the Greenfly, Amherst started with a 1970s-era Yamaha XT500 and modified the bike to run on compressed natural gas. The high octane rating, cheap running costs, and clean-burning nature of LPG are all plusses in the inventor’s book—enough so that the prospect of a potential bomb-like detonation if the tank is ruptured doesn’t really make him sweat. We should all be so brace.

The 500cc single-cylinder engine is tuned to deliver approximately 30 horsepower while returning about 70 miles per gallon—about a 20 mpg improvement over the standard, gasoline-burning motor. Additionally, Amherst has done a raft of custom metalwork on the bike, including a hanger for a full-size spare behind the front fork, quick-change hubs on the custom five-spoke alloys, and a massive touring pannier that can be swapped out for the removable pillion seat. The Greenfly is an exceptionally well-done piece of work from what we can see, and a standard bearer for green, DIY projects everywhere. Have a closer look at the bike in our gallery of images above.

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