[bennelson]

Hi All,

I have had an ongoing e-mail conversation with my brother Wayne, who is off at college. My last e-mail to him was about motorcycle aerodynamics.

He currently drives a Chevy AstroVan and just had to drive from my hometown back up to school.

I thought his comments about it were interesting. They cover economics, drafting, aerodynamics, coasting and other subjects of interest to us.



Here are his comments:

"When driving back to Stout, i had my display set to MPG, and realized I was getting horrible gas mileage.
Then I noticed I was also going 73 mph. So I slowed to 68... and it went from 18 to 23. Then i slowed to 63 and it went to near 26. I set the cruise control, and touched nothing for 2 hours. Cars had no problem going around me, and i never had to slow for someone else.

I stopped and bought a Hardees six dollar burger meal, and at a trip of 250 miles figure the meal was basically free and still saved another $6 by slowing down. Free lunch accomplished.

Later I was able to slow to 56 on a county hwy. and didnt notice any savings... below 55 my fuel economy got worse.

At one point I did manage to draft a greyhound bus for a few miles.. I was getting 29 mpg at 76mph. Damn hard to catch it though, and at 20' kinda scary... the drafting was super obvious though. I slowed down microscopically to get back away, and the second I was too far back, I lost speed like crazy and mpg cut in half.

Also have been playing with hypermiling in Menomonie. A powerglide kinda game. First power up to a best guess speed, and then glide as far as you can. Not doing it for fuel economy, just for fun. My record so far is 0.6 miles coasting and gliding into my parking spot (its kinda downhill, but hey thats part of the game). So much better at guessing what other cars are going to do and when lights change... also how to hit a turn going just the right speed.

If I can find the right speed, 1.1 miles is possible in neutral."