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Gas mileage: Whadya get and how do you do it?

donoman

donoman

Wookie
Joined
Apr 18, 2002
Location
Daly City
Moto(s)
make me bleed.
I get 36 MPG on my CBR1100XX no matter what I try. I've tried removing the luggage, riding in the racer position on the freeway, driving at <70mph, more air in the tires, and chain lube. I can't seem to get my MPG's above 40.

What tricks do you guys use to get better mileage?
The reason I ask is because my car actually gets better mileage than my bike nowadays and I'm starting to lose a major reason to risk life and limb commuting by motorcycle! (I have a Honda Insight and can do 75-80 mpg easily).
 
Only effective trick I can think of is just having a bike that gets better mileage. Honestly, I find the major advantage of commuting on a motorcycle is lane splitting. I'd commute on the bike even if it got worse mileage than my Jeep, because I really hate sitting in traffic.
 
Insight was one of the first hybrid cars. If you treat it right you can easily get over 100mpg. As for better mileage, smaller displacement?
 
Depending on how aggressively I ride, my Softail gets 40-50 mpg. My BMW M Coupe gets around 17-24. Fortunately, I have a 10-minute, no-highway commute, so even now I don't have big gas bills... Well, relatively speaking...:mad
 
The Insight has such low drag, and most bikes are so aerodynamically "dirty", you'll have a tough time matching it. The guy at Parabellum, Charlie Perethian (sp?), developed his claim to fame back in the day by putting fairings on small bikes (~200cc) and winning mileage contests. I read that he's doing some tests on the BMW G650 XCountry, and getting good results, though not sure it will match your Insight.

My boxer runs around 40 mpg. Sometimes less, occasionally more. The K1200LT I used to have averaged better than 45, sometimes 50. Back in the 80's I had three bikes that would do over 50 mpg pretty reliably, all Yamahas. An XT600, and SR500, and an XS650 that would do over 60 mpg. The 650 got such great mileage because speed limits were low, and it was miserable over 60 mph. A real paint mixer. None of them would be that great on our current California freeways because they were all relatively slow.

I'm not sure that just any smaller bike will improve your situation. I had a Triumph Speed 4 that NEVER got over 37 mpg during the time I had it. Based on what I've read, some smaller bikes seem to do well. The F650 and G650 BMW's seem to do well, and I've heard that the F800 does well too. Ask Roadstergal to compare the mileage she gets with her FZ6 to the F800 she had before. There are lots of reports of good mileage from SV and DL 650's, as well as the 650 Ninja. None that match your Insight, though. You may have to wait until those folks who build the diesel KLR's for the military offer a civilian version. Those are said to do 100 mpg!
 
41 on the fazer, nearly always, but as low as 36 and a couple 49's.
 
Change your gearing. On my 1990 FZR1000 I went down 2 in the rear and up 1 in the front. I regularly get 42mpg on my commute.
 
I'm getting about 50-60 with my KLR and 45 on my Suzuki. In my vehicles that get crappy mileage as long as they have less than 100k miles on it. I use Microlon. It's kind of pricey but you'd be surprised the kind of improvements you get out of the vehicle. Once I get the new FZ1 and get the engine broken in, you can be sure that will be getting treated with it :)

Just as a true life example of Microlon since most people haven't heard of it. I treated a street race car I had with it. The engine would idle at 800 rpm and I was getting about 6mpg on average. I treated it with Microlon and the idle went up to 2500rpm. That's how much friction was reduced. I kind of freaked when the idle just kept going up and up! And thank to the reduced friction my mileage went up to about 12ish. Keep in mind that was a straight line racer so mileage is relative but it gives you an idea. It also increased how well the engine responded and my run times :thumbup

Of course there's all kinds of other tuning that can be done that I'm sure all the other guys will recommend :thumbup
 
low 30s :(

replacing plugs soon, I guess I'll sync the carbs after the next valve adjustment too... could partly be that I have no speedometer and tend to ride faster than I should
 
donoman said:
I get 36 MPG on my CBR1100XX no matter what I try. I've tried removing the luggage, riding in the racer position on the freeway, driving at <70mph, more air in the tires, and chain lube. I can't seem to get my MPG's above 40.

What tricks do you guys use to get better mileage?
The reason I ask is because my car actually gets better mileage than my bike nowadays and I'm starting to lose a major reason to risk life and limb commuting by motorcycle! (I have a Honda Insight and can do 75-80 mpg easily).
Click to expand...


I think if you keep your speed down to under 60, and in top gear as often as possible, you'll improve your milage.
But is that how you really want to ride a CBR?
My experience is that as long as you aren't spending much time near redline, how you ride doesn't make a huge difference in fuel economy.
Where you ride does though. That's why milage estimates always have city/highway. I get 45 mpg in my Aprilia when I'm on a trip, and 35 when I'm riding to work, or playing on backroads (lots of time spent near redline!).
 
my 03 sv650 is over 40 mpg. I'm not sure if that's good or not. But one thing i do use for my cars and bikes and it does help is the lucas fuel system cleaner. when i forget to use it per tank the mileage is around 40 and when i do use it i get closer to 45. it's a detergent not a solvent, so it's similar to the redline sl1 (fuel system cleaner) but it's alot cheaper. I just use a little each time.
 
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well so far on thew 07 hayabusa im getting 35 but its not broken in yet and on the 03 fz1 im getting 37.5 mpg. i have to remove the soft bags and see if that helps maybe slowing down a bit also. I have ahabit of always blipping my throttle on downshifts im sure that costs me a few mpg also.
 
well so far on the 07 hayabusa im getting 35 but its not broken in yet havent had much time to ride and on the 03 fz1 im getting 37.5 mpg i expected to see at least 45mpg. I have to remove the soft bags and see if that helps maybe slowing down a bit also. I have a habit of always blipping my throttle on downshifts im sure that costs me a few mpg also.
 
Ahhhhhh, I have a large displacement twin; it's REALLY thirsty.

My Tuono gets about 31 mpg. When I get spirited, I get about 27 mpg or 28 mpg. This is still better than my car (averages 26 mpg), but my biggest benefits from commuting on the bike are traffic management, no bridge tolls and company sponsored incentive to leave the car at home (yes, motorcycle commuting is rewarded).
 
I get around 36 on my F4i and about 20 in my 330i.

I'm heavy on the throttle with both vehicles.
 
im at around 48 to 50 MGP in my bike. Hell for a 20 year old bike, running a little rich I'll take it!
 
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