Finally! I got a convergence of halfway decent weather and having my new bike in one piece (81 suzuki gs 250). I finally drove it to work today and it was a lot of fun.
I have done a fair bit of hypermiling/P&G/EOC in a stickshift car. And I have owned bikes of all sizes in a more rebellous past (no clue about hypermiling at the time). I have to say this is something of an adjustment.
The most obvious change is that this thing does not glide near as far as my cars, or my 75 le tour. Even if you dig all the way down to neutral while you crest a hill at 50. Hills that I would accelerate down while EOCing, I was decelerating on today. That will need some work, somehow. Lighter bearing grease, more psi, aero, more neutrals?
The other obvious thing is that the 6 speed gearbox is really close. I had no problem starting in second, shifting to 4th, then shifting to 6th as an experiment. It does about 5300RPM at 50mph with the stock 15/47 sprockets. I have a 37 tooth sprocket en route that should make the gears more useable, but as it is, I'm shifting at 4000 and stay in 6th gear down to 30mph. The new sprocket will make 4th feel like 6th does now.
And this bike isn't exactly a lightweight at about 300lbs, plus I rigged a 5 gallon tank off a 750 on there. But for a small handful of hundreds, it is definately a good value.
So given the bikes limitations, I do feel that timing the lights/obstructions becomes even more important. I cannot glide very well currently, so I have to make up for it somehow, i.e. dwl and avoiding coming to complete stops unless I can sit there with the engine off for a bit.
I considered all two/three wheeled options that I could think of for efficiency, bikes, recumbents, electric bikes, velomobiles, scooters, mopeds. I settled on a small motorcycle (and 250 is a bit overkill) because:
1. very affordable.
2. I can keep up with traffic, no problem.
3. there was no good bike route to my destination 20 miles away.
4. it had the range I needed
5. There is no question as to the legal status or speed/weight limitations
Anyway, I'm smiling
