Fuel Economy Suprise.

[araspitfire]

Just a report From a Non WC owner.

A friend and I did 5300 kms over a week, down to the Pyrenees and back via the French Alps. We left from The Hague, and found ourselves on Motorways for perhaps 1/3rd of the distance.. (lots of off-motorway distractions) We rode together, him in front most of the time. Me back a ways to try to avoid his wake.

My bike is a 2013 GSA 90th aniversary edition... I had gone for the narrow load, even though we were camping.. my two soft-bags that were strapped to the pillion seat. were not much wider than the top-box. I was carrying the side luggage.

His was the WC, fully optioned out, with Vario luggage, expanded, and he had a roll-bag that was as wide as his (contracted) luggage.. (and he was taller than me by quite a bit.

Anyways.. fuel stops at the motorways yielded very similar numbers... he only won by .3l at the most over ~16 litres.... For the distances where we were not on the motorway, he won by a more... about 1 litre over the 16...

I was expecting the WC to do much better, but perhaps the larger rider,with wider load behind him was enough to nullify the gains at the higher speeds....



Al...

 

[Packer]

I'm fairly confident that the WC will be more economical as long as you don't use all that lovely power.

 

[Hamslay]

I did a test-ride on the new GS last week. Riding my K1300S I reset the fuel computer and got 53mpg on the 2-hour ride to the dealer and back. Doing the same journey to home and back to the dealer on the GS, the fuel computer showed 49mpg. I realise this was a totally unscientific test, but I was taking it pretty careful on the test bike with a £1000 insurance excess. I didn't expect it to be worse than my K, which I was riding fairly hard.

Having said that, I still plan to trade. Mmmmm, cruise control.

 

[dave hendy]

I did a test-ride on the new GS last week. Riding my K1300S I reset the fuel computer and got 53mpg on the 2-hour ride to the dealer and back. Doing the same journey to home and back to the dealer on the GS, the fuel computer showed 49mpg. I realise this was a totally unscientific test, but I was taking it pretty careful on the test bike with a £1000 insurance excess. I didn't expect it to be worse than my K, which I was riding fairly hard.

Having said that, I still plan to trade. Mmmmm, cruise control.

Once you ride normally I can assure you coming from 3 x K1300R's the GS is more ecconomical

Trouble is you want to ride the GS more like a hooligan which doesn't help

 

[sven]

Once you ride normally I can assure you coming from 3 x K1300R's the GS is more ecconomical

Trouble is you want to ride the GS more like a hooligan which doesn't help

But the K1300S is much more aerodynamic, so it should be more economical than the R, especially at higher speeds.

 

[dave hendy]

But the K1300S is much more aerodynamic, so it should be more economical than the R, especially at higher speeds.

Very true, but the GS should still be better ridden the same

 

[Engineer]

My LC is significantly more frugal than my old twin-cam, in fact of the 3 1200s that I have had the twin cam was the worst, the 2005 next best and the LC the best.

 

[jonnyp]

Did 1750 miles on mine a few weeks ago down to Switzerland with a mate on a 1050 Tiger.

On previous trips with my 57 plate 1200 we would be fairly evenly match on fuel his Tiger always a little better.

This trip with the 1200WC I was a little shocked on the over 85mph consumption on motorways, over 200 miles he would have been 2ltrs up on me but on D roads and alpine routes and passes I was 1/2 to 2/3 of a ltr up on every fill up.

Sometimes seeing 250+ miles on the DTE display.

By the end of the trip I think we were about even.

Still the MPG ave is over 50 mph and that's impressive for a full loaded (15 stone me!) traveling at decent speeds.

I'm very happy with that.

 

[Engineer]

Did 1750 miles on mine a few weeks ago down to Switzerland with a mate on a 1050 Tiger.

On previous trips with my 57 plate 1200 we would be fairly evenly match on fuel his Tiger always a little better.

This trip with the 1200WC I was a little shocked on the over 85mph consumption on motorways, over 200 miles he would have been 2ltrs up on me but on D roads and alpine routes and passes I was 1/2 to 2/3 of a ltr up on every fill up.

Sometimes seeing 250+ miles on the DTE display.

By the end of the trip I think we were about even.

Still the MPG ave is over 50 mph and that's impressive for a full loaded (15 stone me!) traveling at decent speeds.

I'm very happy with that.

Didn't quite follow that - did you use more or less fuel than him?

PS. 50 mph is a speed not a fuel consumption figure

 

[jonnyp]

Didn't quite follow that - did you use more or less fuel than him?

PS. 50 mph is a speed not a fuel consumption figure

Picky F'er...... 50 mpG then....

And as I said..... Over the trip we were about even!!! And by that I meant, about the same, as in.... we used about the same amount of fuel.

 

[Engineer]

Picky F'er...... 50 mpG then....

And as I said..... Over the trip we were about even!!! And by that I meant, about the same, as in.... we used about the same amount of fuel.

OK I understand that, the GS was better on fast motorway and worse on the mountain roads?

 

[sven]

Very true, but the GS should still be better ridden the same

I was just making a comparison between a K1300S and a K1300R - it could be that an S is more economical than a GS but an R is less economical

My K1200S averaged 47mpg, but it dropped to 35mpg at a steady 85-90 on the Autoroute back from Annecy to Zeebrugge. My 2009 GS averaged 51mpg and my RT averages 54mpg despite being thrashed a lot more than the GS.

 

[jonnyp]

OK I understand that, the GS was better on fast motorway and worse on the mountain roads?

Other way round.....

 

[BBB61]

BMW's own fuel figures always showed that the K1200S was more economical than the 1200GS at steady speeds but in reality I always found my GS was much more economical than the K.

There was someone on here a few years back who wouldn't accept that the 1200GS was more efficient than the 1150GS and used BMW's figures to prove his point. Even when owners who had gone from 1150's to 1200's had reported better fuel efficiency he would dismiss their reports as "you must have had a bad 1150 and got a good 1200"

 

[geesexr]

My LC is significantly more frugal than my old twin-cam, in fact of the 3 1200s that I have had the twin cam was the worst, the 2005 next best and the LC the best.

Agreed. The LC is my fourth 1200 GS, my 06 used to average 49 mpg, my 59 single cammer managed 52 mpg ave after visiting Hill Top for remapping. the Rallye ave around 52 mpg but the LC is averaging 58 mpg on a weekend ride I would'nt exactly say I hang around. Fuel consumption has improved the more miles I've put on (8500miles). A trip around France of 2000 miles and it returned an average 60mpg with all luggage on but absolutely no motorways, that's checking it properly not using the bike computer.
The economy improves on road mode and using cruise control helps.

 

[Colm Cummins]

K1300s

I did a test-ride on the new GS last week. Riding my K1300S I reset the fuel computer and got 53mpg on the 2-hour ride to the dealer and back. Doing the same journey to home and back to the dealer on the GS, the fuel computer showed 49mpg. I realise this was a totally unscientific test, but I was taking it pretty careful on the test bike with a £1000 insurance excess. I didn't expect it to be worse than my K, which I was riding fairly hard.

Having said that, I still plan to trade. Mmmmm, cruise control. [/QUO

How much were you offered as trade in? May be interested.

 

[Colm Cummins]

I did a test-ride on the new GS last week. Riding my K1300S I reset the fuel computer and got 53mpg on the 2-hour ride to the dealer and back. Doing the same journey to home and back to the dealer on the GS, the fuel computer showed 49mpg. I realise this was a totally unscientific test, but I was taking it pretty careful on the test bike with a £1000 insurance excess. I didn't expect it to be worse than my K, which I was riding fairly hard.

Having said that, I still plan to trade. Mmmmm, cruise control.

If you subscribe (£12.00) you can receive and send private messages. Also gets you access to 'for sale and wanted'.

 

[Hamslay]

How much were you offered as trade in? May be interested.

The dealer discounted the GS with accessories fom £14.5K to £13.5K, but offered just £6.5K for my 2010 K13S with 20,000 miles and new MOT, warranty etc. I think I'll try to sell the K privately as the bike has Remus Hexacone, panniers, Helibars etc. etc.

 

[zoltan]

Two up + luggage I had as low as 34mpg (autoband) to 64mpg (Slovakia),I only used the super unleaded 100 Octane fuel,over 3000 miles I had 49mpg. Almost as good as my old 1200RT.
Back on normal fuel in the UK the fuel economy is the same.

 

[dave hendy]

Two up + luggage I had as low as 34mpg (autoband) to 64mpg (Slovakia),I only used the super unleaded 100 Octane fuel,over 3000 miles I had 49mpg. Almost as good as my old 1200RT.
Back on normal fuel in the UK the fuel economy is the same.

Didn't check my economy today but we did 140 mph (Speedo) on the German motorway 2-up with pannniers tank bag and 52L top box, the bike wasn't flat out and it was quite stable! Not bad with no steering damper.........

Best we did on my 07 GS was 125 mph with similar luggage.

Impressive

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