Finished up the first proper tank fill. I am still proclaiming my figures as estimates (as this thing is hard to get mileage measurements from), but it looks like I went 248.9 km (154.65 miles) and burnt away 5.83-6 litres (1.54-1.58 gallons). Total looks to be 97.87 or 100 MPG. Reason for the difference in range is that I don’t know exactly how much is left in the tank.
That’s great! I spent the first part of the tank ripping around the streets testing out the bike, the second part of the tank rushing at 85 km/h (9500 RPM) to work, and the last third cruising the highways late at night. I wasn’t fully trying to hypermile the tank and didn’t have my bodywork for the last half.
As for the lack of aero-mods, I noticed the bike is louder without. There’s a good bit of whistling going on. It seems I couldn’t quite get over 86 km/h and the engine was really screaming.
The handling is just fine. The appeal of this seating position versus lower feet-forward bikes is that I can lean forward and stand up. Ive managed to hop over some potholes and ruts in the road, fully lifting the bike off the ground a bit. Shifting forward allows nimble handling; I’d say as nimble as the original seating position. I’ve noticed that sitting so low in a flat seat means I need to lean more to make the sharper turns. More input needed to make the same adjustment; it’s like balancing a broom handle versus balancing a hammer. This could be a problem if I was on a race track as the tread wants to run out in sharp high-speed turns, but it’s a 50cc scooter so no biggie.
Anyhow, those are my observations. I’ve revised some of the bodywork and I’ll update results on that soon.