Vetter Fuel Economy Challenges; Hollister CA 7/6/18

[HHOTDI]

Das, it' be way more fun to pack/load the two little bikes and ride them! Reference a youtube vid i watched of a guy that rode his wr250 loaded with gear from Oklahoma all the way Deadhorse Alaska...and back!! The short vid series is called "Tiny Bike to Alaska". Check it out, you'll be encouraged!! My kids and i have watched all 8 or 9 of the vids in that series twice! The same guy has made several other trips on different bikes and makes vids of each trip. The Tiny bike is our fav for sure! GO FOR IT DAS!! GO FOR IT!! :{)

[Daschicken]

Originally Posted by HHOTDI

Das, it' be way more fun to pack/load the two little bikes and ride them! Reference a youtube vid i watched of a guy that rode his wr250 loaded with gear from Oklahoma all the way Deadhorse Alaska...and back!! The short vid series is called "Tiny Bike to Alaska". Check it out, you'll be encouraged!! My kids and i have watched all 8 or 9 of the vids in that series twice! The same guy has made several other trips on different bikes and makes vids of each trip. The Tiny bike is our fav for sure! GO FOR IT DAS!! GO FOR IT!! :{)

I was working friday and saturday, need to plan ahead for something like that anyways. Riding the little CBR and VFRs long distance is pretty brutal. The CBR 250R's handlebar positioning is actually just fine, and not very leaned over, the problem is the footpegs. They are pretty high up, and your knees are scrunched up which gets quite painful after only 100 miles or so without breaks.

Both VFR 400Rs are more leaned forward, and my 400 has even higher footpegs. If I was going to do a long highway trip like that on the CBR, I would want something like a 43T rear sprocket to drop those RPMs down. Crusing at 70 with its current 51T rear puts it at 8773 RPM, a 43T would drop it to 7397. My dad's VFR 400R has the stock gearing, putting it at 6980 RPM at 70. My VFR 400R with its taller rear tire and 5 teeth off the rear sprocket is at 6159. We would leave my 400 behind, as it isn't quite complete, and its less cool than the other bikes. When I first punched in the location I thought it was 1000 miles, but it is only around 650 miles, which we could probably do in one day, but that is still a lot of miles to put on those bikes.

I did ask my dad, and the Virginia ride will be a motorcycle group event(nothing big). There are a few more motorcycle events I will try to attend this year, pretty bummed I couldn't go to the smokey mountain crawl. Two wheels of Suches has some events that I could squeeze into, such as a "vintage and two stroke bike rally"(bring a mask!), and the "Blue Ridge 250 Rally". I'll try and plan ahead so I can make it to those. Plus there is the true grits 50cc rally, which would be a whole lot of fun to watch, and I could tape off the '2' in '250' and participate.

Edit: The Blue Ridge 250 Rally has nothing to do with 250cc bikes, its more of a touring/adventure ride. I would gladly ride a sport bike off road, just not the rare bikes. I'll wait for the SV650 for that.

[low&slow]

Sorry for the delay in writing this up.

I furiously worked to get my CBR250r ready for the Hollister Vetter Fuel Economy Challenge. Fortunately mounting the fiberglass nose and the tailsection went very smoothly. I did have to relocate the radiator to the front of the nose by installing longer hoses. Turn signals and tail and brake lights were moved and rewired. The tailsection framework was given to by Jeff Meskey who did a great job in putting it together. I only had to make one more mounting bracket to get it strongly attached to the main frame. I skinned the tailsection with coroplast sides and the rounded top with treated paper ( all recycled election signs). I reused my old side panels to finish off the full streamlining.

I only did a few short rides to test the new bodywork, one of them to display the bike at a carshow in Fremont. Everything seemed to work well except the seat was not very comfortable. Then Thursday arrived and Alan advised me that his streamliner had suffered an engine problem on his way down to the Vetter ranch. I agreed to meet him at this home after his streamliner was towed so we could ride down together. I met Alan at his home where he prepped his partially streamlined Ninja EX250r for the ride. I loaded a Zero bellypan that Morgan Vetter had ordered and Alan was asked to bring. Then we rode through the hot , congested late afternoon traffic of the Silicon Valley down to Carmel and the Vetter ranch. Thank goodness for lanesplitting.
Friday morning Alan and I rode to the Corbin factory after topping off the tanks. There we awaited the other contestants. We found we would be the only Vetter Challenge qualified competitors ( able to carry 4 fully loaded sacks of groceries). All the other 4 riders were on Zero electric motos. Later one of the Zero dropped out. It’s too bad more people weren’t able to attend and ride with us. Craig Vetter led our rider’s meeting and we departed shortly for the hot and somewhat windy ride to King City from Hollister. The course was all 2 lane backroads with lots of turns and elevation changes. Once we left the outskirts of Hollister it was virtually all wilderness.
We reached King City for our lunch/ electric recharge spot after about 56 miles. The only issues during the out leg was 2 of the Zeros falling back but then recovering and resuming the pace. We enjoyed a cool, refreshing break after about an hour and began the ride back to Hollister in the afternoon heat. One of the Zero dropped out after lunch and began his return trip home to SO Cal. On the return trip the only significant issues were some elevated battery temperatures on the 2 remaining Zeros. Alan and I topped off our tanks and we returned to the Corbin factory.

The results:
The fuel economy course was 133 miles. Top posted speed limit was 55 MPH.

Vic Valdes in a fully streamlined Honda CBR250r used 0.978 gallons @ $3.999 per gallon for 135.991 MPG, 2.9 cents/mile , 4 bag certified

Alan Smith in a stock looking (partially streamlined) Ninja EX250r used 1.218 gallons @ $3.999 per gallon for 109.195 MPG, 3.7 cents/mile. 4 bag certified

Brandon Miller on a stock looking ZERO used 12.6 Kwh, $0.25/Kwh, $3.15, 2.3 cents per mile.

Brian Rice on a ZERO used 14.19 Kwh, $0.25.Kwh, $3.54, 2.6 cents per mile.

Road tax was not factored in for the electric motorcycles this year. None of the ZERO motorcycles could carry the 4-bags of groceries requirement.

So, I won my 4th Vetter Challenge (but without much competition). Alan performed great with a partially streamlined moto that could still meet the 4 bag requirement. The electrics would have won if they could have carried the 4 bags due to the high gasoline prices. I have some more work to do on my CBR to match the results of previous EX250r based streamliner. The Hollister Rally continues to be a greast event with lots of cool motos and cool people. We had a great time despite limited competition. I did get interviewed by a local TV reporter but unfortunately no info on the fuel efficiency benefits of streamlining was included in the broadcast

Bikers roll into Hollister for 4th of July weekend, despite city not hosting annual biker rally

[HHOTDI]

Vic...That is Fantastic!! Congrats to you and Alan for all of your hard work and preparation and to you for the win!! I felt so badly that i could not make it down there, but we have just been way too busy at work for me to get any time off. I'll keep an eye out for future events and hopefully make one this year with my Honda NC700x!
Mike :{)

[HHOTDI]

Hey Vic, post some pictures when you can. It would be great to see some! :{)

[Grant-53]

Thanks for the work to make the events possible. Glad to hear Craig is able to ride again.