Looks like the Thunderstar finally made it to production...
 

Those Europeans have all the luck.

Edit-Er, maybe not... But it's something.

This article's over a year old... Anything recent?

As for the bike, what's the point of an intercooler on an economy-minded diesel? Wouldn't the additional heat in the combustion chamber aide in efficient combustion?
Also, that bike is in serious need of engine cowling. Is that thing hanging off the front of the motor attached to the crankshaft? Wouldn't want to bump your pant leg against it with the engine running.

Welp, I'm pretty sure they're just making and selling 'em right now, so no. More heat may help out w/ efficiency but if the engine isn't designed for it it wouldn't help, and... a cooler intake charge helps out w/ peak torque and efficiency in a different respect. It seems like the riding position is behind the engine/trans, so, unless you just feel like wrapping your legs around the lower front of hte bike I don't think it'll be a problem.

too much heat will reduce the charge to less than turbo power. when you're talking the PSI range that diesels go into, it's a real concern.

Ford Vans never had intercoolers on the Power Strokes until the 6.0 Power Stroke, so an intercooler isn't required.

But if they are going to sell that bike to the common market place, it has to compete against the competition. Obviously, they are marketing it to adventure riders on BMW GS riders and other KTM riders, so it's going to have to compete with 900 and 1200cc bikes in that category.

And their website says 17,5k Euro...

Ouch!

A turbocharger isn't "required" either....
There's no substitute for cubic inches,but forced induction goes a long, long way towards that. And an intercooler allows keeping most of that boost gain.

Yeah, I guess it helps boost the air density going into the combustion chamber, but that would be primarily for the sake of power output, wouldn't it?
Most of my reading about turbo systems has been about their application to gasoline engines. In those cases, intercoolers boost charge density, but more importantly, reduce the likelyhood of preignition and/or detonation by keeping compressed air/fuel mixture well below gasoline's auto-ignition temperature.
Since diesels don't pre-mix the air and fuel, you can't get preignition or detonation. In that case, I would think that the hotter you can get the air in the cylinder, the more efficiently it would react with the fuel. That is... short of melting combustion chamber components. :)

My KLR650 riding co-worker says that Kawasaki itsself is to make a diesel KLR in '09. He reports that they are to have them in europe for '08, but I haven't seen evidence of this yet. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

If it's true, I finally have a good reason to unload (or at least augment) the Concours!

Kawi's really slow on making decisions. Bikes are pretty low on their list compared to jet engines and engineering bridges and buildings.