You know you're an ecomodder if/when...

[Fat Charlie]

Miles spent testing is just as legitimate as miles spent doing anything else. Driving myself to somewhere I want to go isn't any better or worse than driving myself because there's something I want to do while driving.

Testing may not "pay off" in that you aren't getting anything "useful" out of that driving and it affects your overall average, but it's data collection. If you want to collect data, the driving is just as useful as any other trip that you want to make. My mods are either too expensive to A-B-A (tire size/type/pressure) or so self evident that testing would be silly (instrumentation/driving style). If I ever build the Aerolegacy (I don't think so!) then I think I'll just point to my logs and credit any gain in that time frame to the mods.

[2000neon]

YKYAEI you think an Aerolegacy would be one of the coolest cars of all time! Aero form + practicality/ function.

[wmjinman]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Miles spent testing is just as legitimate as miles spent doing anything else. Driving myself to somewhere I want to go isn't any better or worse than driving myself because there's something I want to do while driving.

Testing may not "pay off" in that you aren't getting anything "useful" out of that driving and it affects your overall average, but it's data collection. If you want to collect data, the driving is just as useful as any other trip that you want to make.

You know, I've been thinking about what you said, and it reminds me of something the president of an amateur experimental rocket club once told me. I was all dissappointed because of a recent failure to launch. And he said, "Around here, you should not look at it so much as "success" or "failure", but more as "results". Since then, I've always thought that was a good way to look at lots of things. As long as we pay attention and learn something, whatever happens becomes a "lesson" - we learned the "results". Even my driving around after my errands to increase my average mpg for the tank was a lesson; it showed me how fast (or slowly) the average mpg rose with steady "best mileage" hypermiling AFTER a few miles of "bad" mpg due to stop-and-go city driving with lots of stops & parking.

In the long run, it may very well cause me to use less gas, because I will "know what I'm doing" during those city errands, thus maybe minimize them, or "bundle" them all for a trip on the 50cc scooter, etc.......

[Arragonis]

Just wanted to remember the post that triggered the "extra miles for testing" debate

Originally Posted by wmjinman

If you finish up some around-town errands, you don't like the "Current" trip mpg on your ScanGauge and decide to head out on an "easy" stretch of road for a few miles at your "maximum mpg speed" to "up" your average for the trip.

Just sayin

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

Just wanted to remember the post that triggered the "extra miles for testing" debate



Just sayin

That's not testing at all... it's just burning more fuel to artificially inflate numbers, which is what started the whole thing.

[wmjinman]

Originally Posted by Christ

That's not testing at all... it's just burning more fuel to artificially inflate numbers, which is what started the whole thing.

So are you saying nothing is learned during that process?

I think I learned how long it takes for a few miles of bad mpg to be brought back up. And the final "lesson" might be just how bad a "bad" episode of driving can hurt the whole tank average. (with the result of trying to minimize those "bad" episodes)

I admit my original thought was just as accused - to burn more fuel to get a better average. But it seems history is full of valuable things being learned by accident - or as byproducts of something else.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by wmjinman

So are you saying nothing is learned during that process?

I think I learned how long it takes for a few miles of bad mpg to be brought back up. And the final "lesson" might be just how bad a "bad" episode of driving can hurt the whole tank average. (with the result of trying to minimize those "bad" episodes)

I admit my original thought was just as accused - to burn more fuel to get a better average. But it seems history is full of valuable things being learned by accident - or as byproducts of something else.

You want me to be honest? It seems like you are playing on someone else's post because you found a way to redeem yourself.

And it's not necessary. Roll with the punches and move on.

WE ALL do wasteful things from time to time. Nobody is "picking on you", so there's no need to defend yourself.

Moving along...

[wmjinman]

Originally Posted by Christ

You want me to be honest? It seems like you are playing on someone else's post because you found a way to redeem yourself.

And it's not necessary. Roll with the punches and move on.

WE ALL do wasteful things from time to time. Nobody is "picking on you", so there's no need to defend yourself.

Moving along...

Ok, ok. I was trying to "cheat", and learned something along the way....

I just found it interesting what I learned.... less than 10 miles of stop & go city driving will cause a 20 or 30 mile average to be way below "highway careful cruising" even if you try to make up for it by "hypermiling". If I hadn't tried to cheat, who knows when, or if, I would have ever learned that. I'm new here and excited. Maybe everyone else here already knew all this...

[bestclimb]

Speaking of errands down town

YMBAEMI you take your bike and a trailer down town to do your errands.

Unfortunately the extra drag from the bike and trailer negated the fuel saved from not running around town. Just the rack does not seem to make much difference. If I had more stops to make and/or the drive into town was shorter this trick would pay off. Will still do it though as the physical activity is needed and there is access to decent riding trails.

[wmjinman]

Just brought my "new" Yamaha XF50 scooter home!!! Mother-in-law (to be) wanted to "get rid of it" when her husband died about a month ago... So I'm trading her help around the house for it. I'm really excited!! I hear 100 mpg is not difficult with one of these!!

You may be a hypermiler/ecomodder if: When driving your new scooter home at 30-something mph, and noticing the brisk breeze chilling your legs, etc, your thoughts are:

1) Wonder how easy/hard it will be to make a kick-ass fairing/aero-shell that will both keep the wind off AND improve the aero drag to where I can get well over 100 - maybe even 150 - mpg routinely. and,

2) Wonder if there's a better "max mpg speed", like 25 - - or 20, even.

3) Really wish I could hook up a ScanGauge to find out!!