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Old 08-23-2016, 07:46 AM   #16 (permalink)
gregsfc
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Join Date: Dec 2013
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jkv357 View Post
Typically, that would not be the case.

Thinner oils will usually give better mileage. An oil with a low "W" rating usua

A 5W-30 synthetic cycle oil should give you better mileage than a 10W-40 or a even a 10W-30 of any type.
You're misunderstanding the point of my post...I'm not trying to claim that the Castrol semi-synthetic 40 weight oil from Cycle Gear is responsible for my higher mpg versus 10W30 Amsoil MCTQC-EA full synthetic, the latter of which should be one of the best with regards to mpg that is approved for my bike and I won't risk going beyond what is recommended partly because I'm not that engine smart. What I'm suggesting is that a tire change made such a huge positive impact, that my mpg went up in spite of the higher-viscosity engine oil change.

My point is that for me, oil viscosity changes would be one of those fine tuning changes to eek out slight increases that would be one of the last things I'd look at for mpg maximizing versus other, bigger things that can be done for great mpg; especially on mc's that are often like a brick trying to cut through the air. For instance, if someone is riding a stock bike with a huge, almost 90 degree windshield added, with a typical top box and/or saddle bags or boxes for luggage, then making an oil viscosity change may help, but there are things to do first that will drwarf those engine oil changes. My focus on a bike, if I were a hypermiler and/or an ecommoder would be doing things that lower drag and/or weight and/or gearing changes and after a lot of trial and error and thinking about making my bike slide through the air with less engine load and/or RPM while still being a very useful, stable, and safe bike, then I'd look at lowering viscosity as long as it's not going to hurt the power train to do so.

What I've done is to turn my commuter bike with a pillion seat into a solo rider by placing a rectangular box on the pillion portion of the seat long ways where my lower back is in contact with the front of the box, which I'm sure lowers the turbulence as compared to stock and definitely as compared to a sideways turned box that usually either have a big gap between the rider and the box or big boxes sticking out on the sides catching extra wind. I've chosen a windshield with care and gave much thought as to how it may affect drag, and I chose some tires by accident that produce superior mpg to stock. A gearing change would be my next "look at", but I'm already running only 3250 at 60 mph with stock gearing, so I've got to do some thinking about how that may change my shift patterns in the limited mph areas 30-45 mph. Another example of increasing, significantly, mpg on a motorcycle: I've got an extremely small noggin. Most X-small helmets still have huge shells and the only change is more padding inside. So I researched and found a very low profile helmet that is much, much smaller. Not only is it a much smaller object to catch wind towards the top of the profile, but I can see much better around me making active safety much better. And for the record, I had the same model helmet when I laid it over, and it did save my noggin, so it's a relatively safe helmet from a passive standpoint as well, even though I'd prefer a full-face, but my noggin size makes those choices limited for decent peripheral vision and to prevent unnecessary neck strain that most of those watermelon helmets cause.
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