I think the level of participation in this thread has all but secured it a spot in the top 25 threads list for this year, maybe even top 5.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ProDigit
Hypermiling on a small bike does very little, since it has no weight to keep it rolling.
Believe me, I've tried, I used to have a roketa m05 127, a 4 SPD manual motorcycle, which I geared from the 44 tooth rear sprocket to a 34 tooth the smallest I could equip it with, and the max I could get out of those air cooled bikes is 100-125MPG.
It got 96MPG on the highway doing 55-60mph, depending on the wind.
And 120 mpg doing 40mph at 3k rpm.
Any heavier gearing, and the bike would accelerate slower than a 50cc from a stop.
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I somewhat agree with this, bikes don't seem to get the massive fuel economy increases that cars do when hypermiled. I haven't been able to get much higher than normal numbers on my bikes, but seem to be above average. Most of the problem with that is I am riding with my dad for 99.9% of motorcycle trips, and he is not a hypermiler, so I have to adjust my riding style to keep up with him. When I am in the car and have to follow him, my highway mpg is pretty much limited to 40 best case. Normally I get 45+ on highways.
Back before a former coworker and motorcycle buddy died riding to work, I was permitted to ride to work on the bikes. My bike of choice at that time was a 1999 VFR 800 due to its replaceability, weight, and lack of desirability. My fuelly average shows 43.8 MPG for that bike. On the one tank I was able to get through doing ONLY work commutes on the bike, including plenty of full throttle acceleration, I got 44.1 MPG! To compare, my V6 accord doing only those work commutes(plus one longer city trip) got 32.9 MPG. If I had toned down the acceleration and did more engine on pulse and glide with the VFR 800 I probably could have passed 50 MPG all city! That bike takes a long ass time to warm up too, so if I had blocked off some of the radiators it could have gotten even better.
I think the lesson to be learned here is that bikes can EXCEL in mileage for lower speed trips, and that lots of accelerating and decelerating doesn't hurt bike mileage as much since they weigh a lot less, and then it gives the engine a chance to be more efficient for a change.
Back before the CBR 250RR article on wikipedia disappeared, I remember it saying that the 250RR was capable of 94 mpg at 60 km/h(37 mph) constant. A quick look on wikipedia on the CB250F hornet(similar engine) says it can do 153 mpg at 60 km/h. (Have seen that number say 80 mpg before, so....?) Honda Dream 50 can apparently do 200 MPG
at 30 km/h(19 mph). Your 40 mph mpg sounds pretty low, maybe the engine is running at too low an rpm? How much throttle are you using to maintain speed?