Best cruising speed

[Dee Tee]

Not been further than the Isle Of Man for YEARS.I can,however,read a fuel gauge and would rather keep tank topped up more frequently than need be, especially on unknown territory,than be tripped up by a near empty tank.When i DO run out (seeing as i am tempting fate),i will savour the egg on my face.

 

[Brian ROSEN]

Petrol cnsumption

My wife has just bought a nice little Suzuki - 1300cc ----but it has 4 wheels (and in fact has 4 wheel drive.) She is mystified by the fuel consumption read out, which in town driving varies from 6 to 30. ( That is to say 6 lites per 100km to 30 litres per 100km.) If careful driving in town, albeit rather hilly, gives a 5 to 1 ratio is there any hope of any group of riders agreeing on petrol consumption?

 

[rdover]

I'm an MPG saddo

at ~75 mph on a long motorway run I get over 50mpg (11mpl) or 330 miles per tank with a tiny reserve

at ~85 mph I get about 10mpl/45mpg or 310 miles with reserve

in normal riding mode I get 9mpl/40mpg or fill up at 280 miles with some reserve

at 56mph I die of boredom

in GOGOGOGO/ lets make fun of the rice rockets mode I really do not give a shit as I'm unlikely to go further than 150 miles without stopping for a breather and some choccy at a picturesque filling station most of you soft southern pansies can't pronounce never mind have been likely to visit.


BTW this professionally calculated information attracts a minimum donation of £1 to www.roundthebend.org.uk

 

[Brian ROSEN]

The metric system

10 miles to a litre is a real mix up of systems!
Will England ever go metric? I noticed in Ireland that they are now marking distaces in kilometres and of course selling petrol by the litre - do they talk about kilometres per litre or, as is the 'official' method here - lires per 100 km?

 

[rdover]

10 miles to a litre is a real mix up of systems!

Yep! If you can't beat 'em, confuse 'em

 

[John Armstrong]

10 miles to a litre is a real mix up of systems!

What do you expect, litres is what we buy the stuff in, and miles is what we use for distance? If you know that 45mpg is about 10 miles per litre you're sorted whever you are Apart from the US, where they use the wine gallon to sell petrol

 

[Brian ROSEN]

"What do you expect" ??? Yes, exactly that. The UK is compelled to sell liquids by the litre rather than by the gallon - but we still talk of miles per gallon for pertol consumption. Until we convert distances to kilometres, as the Iirish have done, we have 'miles per litre.'
When I was young, a long time ago, I was required in my daily work to convert lbs/sq.inch to kgs/sq.cm; Cubic feet to litres; sq.feet to sq;metres; US gallons to Imperial gallons to cubic metres; feet to metres, etc; and to know when to use a metric , an AF or a Whitworth tool. (And all that with a slide rule or seven figure logs!)
Surely standardization should not be opposed?
Sorry to have run off thread a bit! Come to France and you will find that your litre of petrol will always cover more kilometres than miles! ( x 1.6 in fact as you know.)

 

[nedflanders]

Yep convert to metric, adopt the Euro and be done with it, the sooner the UK gets with the rest of Europe the sooner it will start to improve, thank god I'm emigrating, 20 years serving Queen and Country and I hope I'll never have to live there again

 

[MMC]

If you want fuel economy, buy a bleedin' Honda civic or something

I did. Cheers Colin!

Oh yeah, and I'll keep the twin-plugged Stage 1 airhead too...

 

[Python]

Fuel consumption differs bike to bike; rider to rider and speed/ rpm will have a bearing.

Suggest you take a spare fuel can strap it on the rear rack and ride; when you run out - take said can and add contents to empty fuel tank and hot foot it to the nearest Garage and top off.

Then you get a good average for your bike and will know roughly what you can do in future.

J

P.s. Never rely on the guage, mine is useful at full and empty and a lottery in the middle!!

 

[Aussie]

Yep convert to metric, adopt the Euro and be done with it, the sooner the UK gets with the rest of Europe the sooner it will start to improve, thank god I'm emigrating, 20 years serving Queen and Country and I hope I'll never have to live there again

Next thing you will want to drive on the left hand side and change gears with your left foot well your half way there

 

[Brian ROSEN]

That is confusing

"change gears with your left foot " ....what an interesting proposition. And have the foot brake pedal on the right?

 

[jkersh1]

Engine's most economical rpm is at point of max torque. Most economical speed will generally be at that rpm in top gear.

So for 1100/1150 is 5250 rpm, 1200 is 5500 rpm.

 

[Brian ROSEN]

Cruising speeds

I wrote (somewhere on this thread?) that the 'best' cruising speed was as fast as you could safely proceed. 5500 rpm on a 1200GS is about 90 mph and that sounds about right - it is not too much faster than the autoroute limit here and you will be more or less at the same speed as the traffic in the outer lane. However according to the roadtests in theory you will get about 35 - 40 mpg at this speed

 

[Dee Tee]

Having added a couple of Smart Arse replies here,i got to think back over years of Biking and i can Honestly say that i have never bothered checking MPG figures.Fill 'er up,Ride,Fill 'er up some more.