What fuel mileage does your Motorcycle get?

[Dodsfall]

I ride an XL 1200R and get a solid 49 MPG on my daily commute, mostly interstate highway.

[louturks]

My Virago 250 is getting 82 mpg

[grappler]

gixxer 600 gets about 50-55.

[chipps61]

V-Star 650 Silverado at 40mpg first 300 miles.

[cdillon23]

I ride a 2007 Honda Shadow Spirit 750. It gets 50 mpg in the city.

[primalmu]

I'm getting 65 MPG on my GZ250 if I ride it hard. Otherwise, I've been up to 70 MPG.

[Bullzaye]

'02 Triumph Sprint ST= 48-51 MPG
'98 BMW R1200C = 45-48 MPG
'01 Kawasaki KLR650 = 55-62 MPG
'00 Kawasaki ZR-7 = 33-38 MPG

These figures are while riding a mix of city & rush-hour highway with top speeds varying from 55-80 MPH.

Tim

[SimonTuffGuy]

My S40 ranges anywhere from 55 to 65, depending on where and how I'm riding.

[Wazzu_Rider]

I'm getting about 40-45 on my '07 R6

[Ramazith]

2005 Suzuki C50 Boulevard. 5 speed shaft. All stock.

46-54 mpg based on two fill ups. The lower fill up after puttering around in town. The higher on the highway doing 55-70 mph. I average 60-65 mph going to and from work.
The dealer said mid to high 40s mpg. I was there today, told him what I was getting and he said some people report the same.

[pintslayer]

Between 49-53 MPG, depending on the number of wheelies I do.

KLR650.

[lennort]

83 cb55sc: 48-55. I'm pretty happy with it.

[YamahaFan]

I get around 60mpg half city half highway. I think I can get it to around 70 if I redo the engine or take it easy

[benstead]

Yesterday I actually set out to see how good of gas mileage I could get in ultra ideal conditions...tucking and drafting with my 97 GSXR600. Still only got about 50MPG. Was expecting more.

[cardinal]

For the 1300 miles I have put on my 2007 Suzuki C 50, I have averaged 49 mpg. 22 miles each way to work, 10 miles at about 40 mph, 3 at 45, 5 at 50 and 4 at 65.

[nkfd13]

man I must have something wrong I have only been getting 35-40 mpg on my 98 ACE 1100

[Steve.]

GL1800 gets around 37 mpg.

My GS500e, back when I had it, would typically get 55 mpg, though the mileage was better before I learned how to ride it well :-)

[Ringo]

Hell my Wife's Geo (40 -45) gets better mileage then my Kawasaki Z1000 35 -40.

[T-Will]

Quick question, what's the best way to measure your gas mileage? When I fill up, I pull the hose guard back so I can see how much gas is in the tank, and I never top it off, so how do you measure the number of gallons you've used over a certain distance?

In my car I try to go to the same pump and set it to auto, when it clicks off that's when it's done filling and I take the reading of gallons put in.

[Dodsfall]

Originally Posted by T-Will

What's the best way to measure your gas mileage?

Fill your tank full. (Up to the top of the nozzle restrictor)
Reset your trip odometer, or write down your miles.
Ride ride ride. Ride some more. (Until nearly empty)
Fill your tank again to the same spot.
Note the number of gallons it took to fill.
Divide the miles ridden by the number of gallons it took to fill the tank. The answer is your MPG.

[greyboyfan]

On a good day, I get 34 mpg. on my VTX 1800.

[cmonSTART]

I get around 45 mpg on my '77 Goldwing. Pretty good considering all..

[shoreC50T]

2006 Suzuki Boulevard C50T -

If I ride her hard - 45 MPG

If I'm gentle ride her easy - 50 - 52 MPG

[hansen_jw]

My '07 SV650S gets 49mpg city (~30mph stop and go) and 59mpg on the highway.

[Pantera]

I'm getting about 55mpg on my 08 Honda Shadow Spirit 750, still in the break-in period.

[Rich22]

07 Vstar 650 averaging about 46 mpg

[59caddy]

Originally Posted by nkfd13

man I must have something wrong I have only been getting 35-40 mpg on my 98 ACE 1100

my 99 aero 1100 has been getting me about 35mpg

i was expecting more as well

[cardinal]

Originally Posted by T-Will

Quick question, what's the best way to measure your gas mileage? When I fill up, I pull the hose guard back so I can see how much gas is in the tank, and I never top it off, so how do you measure the number of gallons you've used over a certain distance?

In my car I try to go to the same pump and set it to auto, when it clicks off that's when it's done filling and I take the reading of gallons put in.

On the C 50, the book says to fill it until the fuel touches the bottom of the filler neck. That puts it about 1.5 in below the cap and gives me a good consistant reference point.

[Ramazith]

That's good to know, Cardinal. My C50 didn't come with a book but, that's how I fill it.

My mileage I posted it using regular 87 octane. For two tanks now, it seems to do just fine.

A guy at work rides a 90s model Honda Shadow ACE. He gets 35-40 mpg.

Another guy at work, our ranks are swelling, says that cruisers over 1000-1100+ cc don't get as good mpg as cruisers 600-1000, especially not as good as cruisers 600-900. I don't know how correct that is and imagine there's more to it than just displacement.

[Dodsfall]

Originally Posted by Ramazith

Another guy at work, our ranks are swelling, says that cruisers over 1000-1100+ cc don't get as good mpg as cruisers 600-1000, especially not as good as cruisers 600-900. I don't know how correct that is and imagine there's more to it than just displacement.

Looking at the numbers here, I'm getting pretty good mileage (49 HWY) with a 1200 CC compaired to some of the smaller CC bikes. I don't run any exhaust or engine mods however. Maybe that's part of it.

I do get quite a bit less doing stop-and-go riding. (42 MPG in town)

Harley Davidson rates the mileage for my bike at 57 MPG highway. I think they get that figure riding indoors on a treadmill.

[hansen_jw]

Here's a tip for slightly increase your fuel efficiency. Where I live in Wisconsin we usually have three grades of gas: 87, 89ish, and 91ish. The 87 usually costs about the same as the 89 and sometimes it's a few cents more. The reason is that the 89 has up to 10% ethanol, which has the same effect as increasing octane. Ethanol is cheaper because it's subsidized by the government so much. Anyways, if you get the 87 that doesn't have ethanol it actually gives you slightly more power and slightly better fuel efficiency than the stuff with ethanol. I think ethanol has about 20-30% less energy than regular gasoline, so if 10% of your gasoline is ethanol, that means 2-3% less energy. In my Dodge Neon I can tell about 1mpg difference between the two. Usually 32mpg with ethanol, 33mpg without (highway).

By the way, I'm not sure that all gas stations put ethanol in the 89 but not 87, but some gas stations actually have it specifically marked. I go to those ones.

Cheers!

[Dodsfall]

They have to mark the fuel that has ethanol in it. You can see which ones have it right at the pump.

You will get slightly less mileage with ethanol blend, but it's generally a very small difference with a 10% blend. Most gas stations use ethanol in all grades of gas these days.

E85 (85% ethanol) causes a significant decrease in gas mileage, about 15-20% less. It generally runs about $1.00 a gallon cheaper however. The vehicle must have the proper modifications to use this fuel however. I don't know of any motorcycles that can use this fuel.

[hansen_jw]

Here's a quickie article on it.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021937/posts

Yeah, 3%, or about 1mpg on my Neon, doesn't seem like a lot, but that costs an extra $57 a year. That's assuming I drive 15000 miles at 32mpg instead of at 33mpg. The figure would go slightly up if I used combined highway/city mileage.

Auto makers go through all kinds of trouble for an extra 3% fuel efficiency, so here's an easy way to do it for no trouble at all.

[artyboy]

I get about 45-55 mpg depending on how I drive my Virago 750.

[kitty kat]

FZS600S, I get anywhere between 55 & 65 MPG and that is mixed riding, motorways & twisties.

[Wayward_Traveller]

So far on my FJR1300 I am averaging right around 44mpg.
That is with mixed city and highway.
But it's still pretty new, I expect it to go up a bit as it breaks in.
Sure is nice having a bike that tells me my mpg though, so spoiled compared to my old GS500 that didn't even have a gas gauge.
But it got between 50-60.

[HarveyCreek]

With my C50 its a pretty wide range all depending on how I ride. With strictly highway riding generally results in around 55 MPG. Combined highway and city I get 49, and the rare times it strictly the city, its around 42. Though when I took the Team Oregon Rider Skills Practice class with it, I only got 32 mpg for the half day class. (I filled before and after the class as I was curious).

{BEGIN RANT}
Here in Oregon all gasoline sold to the public must have 10% ethanol. I've had two old chain saws, a weed whip, and small two cycle rototiller all have the plastic fuel lines dissolve on me in the last 3 months.
Well, at least for Motorcycles, they let me pump it myself instead of having to wait (and wait) for an attendant when I'm in my truck. It seems with the higher gas prices more people are filling up and driving off, so they're trying to save money by providing even less service. I guess since you have to wait, they're hoping you'll go inside and load up on beer to drown you sorrows.
{END RANT}

[primalmu]

Originally Posted by Wayward_Traveller

Sure is nice having a bike that tells me my mpg though, so spoiled compared to my old GS500 that didn't even have a gas gauge.

I actually kind of like not having a fuel gauge (and a tach). Its kind of like being more of a part of the machine rather than just an observer. Of course, not having a fuel gauge doesn't really bother me because ever since I started driving a car I used my trip odometer in leu of the fuel gauge.

[OldRusty]

My 82 Honda 450 gets around 50mpg on country roads. I'm sure it will do a little better on the highway.

[lmychajluk]

~57mpg overall on my '08 Suzuki SV650 (naked) over the first 1000 miles or so.

If you assume that's 1000 miles that I would've normally put on my truck at 15mpg, the money I would've spent on gas has already paid off the insurance for the year on the bike.