City Vs highway FE

[Brad-TN]

My Kawasaki klx250 gets about mid 50's mpg in town and mid 60's mpg at 50 to 60 mph. Great bike !

[kawboyCAFE]

Originally Posted by Brad-TN

My Kawasaki klx250 gets about mid 50's mpg in town and mid 60's mpg at 50 to 60 mph. Great bike !

i thought a 250 thumper would get a little better than that. do you ride it hard, or is that just what it gets driving normal?

[alvaro84]

Originally Posted by kawboyCAFE

i thought a 250 thumper would get a little better than that. do you ride it hard, or is that just what it gets driving normal?

Our 250 twin definitely does better, so do your ones, if I remember well. A thumper shouldn't be worse IMHO

It depends on many things, though.

[kawboyCAFE]

Originally Posted by alvaro84

Our 250 twin definitely does better, so do your ones, if I remember well. A thumper shouldn't be worse....

thats what i was thinking. i figured the klx250 would get about 10-15 mpg better then my ninja 250r.

[Brad-TN]

Originally Posted by kawboyCAFE

thats what i was thinking. i figured the klx250 would get about 10-15 mpg better then my ninja 250r.

The KLX is a tall bike with an upright riding position and no windshield, so the aero-drag is substantial. Also, being a dual-sport, the gearing is for trail riding as well as street riding, so some compromise is made to keep RPM's up while going slow. I also changed the jetting for more fuel because the bike would rattle from lean pre-ignition in stock form. I ride for fun as well as for economy, so 65 mpg is a fairly good compromise in my opinion.

I do plan on putting a small windshield on it soon. I want to divert some air flow around me rather than doing " parachute" type aero' on my chest area.

[alvaro84]

Originally Posted by Brad-TN

I do plan on putting a small windshield on it soon. I want to divert some air flow around me rather than doing " parachute" type aero' on my chest area.

Windshield is an interesting thing, I also tried to set it to a different position to get better airflow around me, but it didn't help (but at least it looked stupid ). My position is upright too, but I may not be tall enough to function as a parachute: the turbulent airflow goes right on my helmet (at/above my shoulders and neck), making faster rides pretty noisy (another good motivation to go slower ). And Teresa's 'head' has a pretty bullet shape.