Why I Haven't Posted - And how I'm getting ∞ MPG!!!

[PrintError]

Figure I might as well answer that "We miss you" email I get constantly from EcoModder.

Well, on May 22nd 2008, I had been on and off riding my bike to work (about 75% on) and decided to buy a new bike.

My wife briefly scoffed at spending a thousand bucks on a bicycle, but I promised her I'd get my money's worth.

Well, 16 months later, I haven't driven to work since! Over 220 workdays (I work 4-day weeks to reduce commuting) in a row, through rain, sleet, and snow.

Since then, I'm averaging about 2 months per tank of gas in my vehicles. They're all getting annual oil changes now instead of 5000 mile oil changes. Tire and other maintenance has been virtually non existent.

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Bonus: As an experiment, I used the hypermiling techniques I read here in my racecar heading to the track. It's a heavily modified (for racing) 1990 Mazda Miata on super grippy (aka very very not LRR) tires and much of the weight stripped out.

On the highway to the track, 65 miles of smooth sailing with few stops and a 60mph average, I pulled off 38mpg.

A full day of on-track racing at full speed returned me roughly 9mpg.

And hypermiling on the ride home - which is more downhill than the ride out - gave me a satisfactory 42mpg!

Fun times

[Frank Lee]

Good job

[PrintError]

Well, I keep getting the "we never hear from you!" reminder emails, so I figured I'd give an update.

Not only is the no-car commuting streak intact, but I even made the local news with it, and I'm healthy as an ox to boot!
"WTOP.com - The power of the office pool: Cyclist on three year commuting streak"
wtop (dot) com/?nid=120&sid=2278903
(it won't let me post a direct link, sorry)

But on top of that, not really hypermiling but driving very easy and relaxed when I do drive—which is the complete opposite of the Northern Virginia driving style—has netted me consistently excellent mileage results in all three of my cars. I've actually maintained a consistent refueling schedule of about 3-5 months per tank of gas per car. In fact, I've been to the pumps exactly twice in 2011.

1993 BMW 318is 1.8L 5MT: 30 city/34-36 highway consistently (refueled every 3-4 months at most)
1990 Miata 1.6L 5MT racecar: 34 city/10 track (refueled every 4-5 months)
1996 Tacoma 2.4L 4AT: 28 city/32 highway!!! (refueled every 3-4 months, I'm WAY over EPA estimates for this old pickup!)

[piers.singer]

As we all know, the best way to save petrol is to stop driving. Well done!

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

∞MPG = MILES / 0 gal.

Some BEV drivers use the same logic to claim ∞MPG as well.

I think it is better to do a MPGe comparison instead ... weather it be pollution based , energy based, or cost based ... use level or complete product life cycle .... although energy based is my preference... and use level is much easier.

The additional exercise from pedaling will burn additional food calories of energy , and cost additional $ for the food to get those food calories... more than what would be spent being more stationary.

Grabbing some easy numbers from Wikipedia and such to get a basic idea... better sources may yield some better numbers.

A food Calorie is = to a scientific kilo-calorie = ~1.163 wh per food calorie

The Human body is not 100% efficient ... and peaks out around ~27% at converting chemical food energy into mechanical energy.

If we averaging closer to about ~20% ... ~500 food calories consumed per hour of bicycling at an average speed of ~12 mph ... of course YMMV different routes methods speeds and rider metabolisms etc ... This is about ~117 Watts of mechanical power or ~117 wh per hour mechanical.

500 food calories = ~581 wh of chemical energy consumed per hour to travel 12 miles at the 12 MPH rate... or ~48 wh of chemical energy per mile.

At ~36kwh of chemical energy per gallon of gasoline ... this 12 MPH speed works out to about equal to ~750 MPGe from a use level energy input perspective... YMMV of course.

Still phenomenal ... and while the use level does not include some of the life cycle costs end effects ... including the upstream energy costs of getting those food calories etc ... there are also other life cycle benefits to the regular exercise the bicycling gives and the $ that is saved on avoiding automotive expenses.

[cgbjake]

Here is a Hybrid of what's being discussed. I appreciate the numbers you gave, way above my knowledge level to figure out but totally understand it. But if you don't feel like totally pedaling but don't want to visit the gas station very often, maybe something like this is for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dFFaHq4Yw4

The trike is pretty much stock, meaning you could remove the engine and it would be back to normal. It's just below the legal stuff and I've used a NuVinci Drive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVPjhmTThPo

as a jack shaft to slow down the RPM's and also give me infinite gearing. Low gear is a max of 12 mph and high gear is a theoretical 46 mph (too fast for a bike). But after all that, I get about 137 mpg...Hybrid!