What's your best motorcycle MPG?

[Christ]

No!!!... Leave the bags there! Taper the rear edges of them so that they direct airflow back toward center, and if you can comfortably tilt the windshield back, do so. That will lower your perceived frontal area, making it less like driving a wall into the wind.

[Christ]

You want to envision a straight line back on both sides from your widest point on the front of your bike. You don't want anything sticking out past that point, and you want that point as thin as possible. Height isn't SO much of a concern on bikes, but it's still a way to reduce frontal area. If your fairing/windshield has things sticking out on it more than about 1/4", see if they can be removed/smoothed in.

Anyway, when you get your lines done, imagine them tapering in at a steady 10-12* from the widest point on the front of the bike, and try to keep the airflow straight as possible at that line.

If you need a pic, lemme know. While you're at it, Check out Vetter's site: Craig Vetter, designer and inventor of the Windjammer fairing,Triumph Hurricane Motorcycle and fuel economy motorcycles

Pay specific attention to his fairings and aerodynamics, but don't mind the freaky scooter he's driving now. He's a little eccentric by some measures, but I believe he's out for the best he can do. He's a very good study, though. You'll likely learn alot from him.

[breckrider]

Oh wow. I checked his site. This will give me something to do over the winter.

[Christ]

LOL - you can still buy the "Rifle" body cladding as well, if that's something you'd be interested in. The "average" person wouldn't be, but we're far from average here.

[breckrider]

I'm not sure I'm ready to bite THAT bullet yet. Perhaps I'll ease into the modifications.

[Christ]

Perhaps, You're better to "Ease" into it. Too many just jump in head first, and get disappointed when it doesn't work out how they imagined in their head, either visually, effectively, or both.


Nothing is worse than to spend a hundred hours chopping, glassing, etc... and find out you wasted it all.

[koihoshi]

70MPG on my Ninja 250

Can't say my Ducati gets as good.....

[saddlsor]

I've got a dr350 with aluminum saddlebags so it's a bit aerodynamic challenged. on a 7k trip last year it averaged 70mpg. around town it usually gets close to 60. I've gotten right at 80 without the bags on day trips but when traveling they're nice to have for all the storage. only changes are an extra tooth on the cs sprocket and a small shield. I also have a 1978 r80 bmw that gets in the mid 50's if you keep the speeds reasonable. running 70 on the interstate drops it to 45, but I don't do that much. it has a small shield also and I changed the rear drive from a r100 which dropped the rpm's 500 at 60mph. which makes it nicer to ride also.

[Dean in Milwaukee]

Here's a few from my past:

82 yamaha rx50 82 mpg
75 yamaha rd 350 30 to 54 mpg
78 yamaha xs750 triple with windjammer fairing 48 mpg
83 honda sabre 750 with "alien" hondaline fairing 59 mpg
97 suzuki bandit 1200 s, pipe, rejet, 49 mpg

The suzuki was used once at 90 mph cruising for one hour and got 40 mpg at that speed. The jetting was perfect!

Dean in Milwaukee

[piers.singer]

The best I've had out of my CB250 was just over 20 miles for every litre I used, works out about 92mpg(Imp)/76mpg(US).

Bless us Brits for selling our petrol in litres and marking our roads in miles when FE figures are published in MPG and l/100km...