Manufacturer's Mileage For My Bike ...Compared To Real-Life Measurement

[Pegassus]

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Manufacturer's Mileage For My Bike Is Wrong

It's claimed that my motorcycle's mileage is 52 miles per gallon by Kawasaki.


I have run out of gas on purpose 2 times just to see exactly how many kilometers my tank gives me in a fill-up. Here are the numbers:



1. On the weekend I filled my bike right to the rim.... it gave me 356 kilometers (mostly highway) and my bike ran out of gas, had to switch to reserve.

2. On Monday filled up again to the rim and rode these past days highway (with about 10% city streets) and the bike ran out of gas exactly at 342 kilometers on the odometer.

3. So that's 350 kilometers for exactly 18L (the reserve must hold 4 litres because the owner's manual claims 22L tank).

4. Okay, 350 divided by 18L = 19.4 km per litre. So 4 litres in the reserve = 77 additional kilometers. 77km + 350km = 427 km.

5. 22L divided by 3.78 = 5.8 gallons ----- 427km = 265 miles

6. 265 miles divided by 5.8 gallons = 45.6 miles per gallon

7. My bike is nothing close to 52 miles per gallon in real-life conditions.



Maybe the missing 7 miles per gallon is because of 10% city street riding?

 

[silverbullet132]

Re: Manufacturer's Mileage For My Bike Is Wrong

Spark plugs, air filter, air quality/density, tire pressure, etc. List of possible reasons can go on for awhile.

 

[Kokla]

Re: Manufacturer's Mileage For My Bike Is Wrong

Also, they enlist riders who really know how to squeeze the mileage for what it's worth.

Unless you're a professional driver in the ideal conditions of their 'real life', it's unlikely you'll ever attain what they advertise.

 

[Hawk]

Re: Manufacturer's Mileage For My Bike Is Wrong

Consider borrowing a GPS unit to track the exact mileage and then you don't need to run the tank dry. Fill the tank, ride to half, refill when you want and record the mileage at that time. My 650 Nighthawk runs in the low 60's mpg but as Kokla said, riding style makes a huge difference.

 

[mikbusa]

Re: Manufacturer's Mileage For My Bike Is Wrong

Are you talking Imperial gallon or US gallon? There's a difference.

 

[giesen]

It's claimed that my motorcycle's mileage is 52 miles per gallon by Kawasaki.


I have run out of gas on purpose 2 times just to see exactly how many kilometers my tank gives me in a fill-up. Here are the numbers:



1. On the weekend I filled my bike right to the rim.... it gave me 356 kilometers (mostly highway) and my bike ran out of gas, had to switch to reserve.

2. On Monday filled up again to the rim and rode these past days highway (with about 10% city streets) and the bike ran out of gas exactly at 342 kilometers on the odometer.

3. So that's 350 kilometers for exactly 18L (the reserve must hold 4 litres because the owner's manual claims 22L tank).

4. Okay, 350 divided by 18L = 19.4 km per litre. So 4 litres in the reserve = 77 additional kilometers. 77km + 350km = 427 km.

5. 22L divided by 3.78 = 5.8 gallons ----- 427km = 265 miles

6. 265 miles divided by 5.8 gallons = 45.6 miles per gallon

7. My bike is nothing close to 52 miles per gallon in real-life conditions.



Maybe the missing 7 miles per gallon is because of 10% city street riding?

Are you really that naive? The fuel economy ratings are a useful tool for comparing between bikes, not for predicting what you'll get. I find on my bike if I ride it really easy (no hard acceleration, moderate speeds, etc) that I'll get 350 km out of a tank, but if I'm a little more aggressive, I get more like 230 km. It also makes a huge difference where you ride (city, country road, highway). There's too many variables that affect fuel economy, and the rating was never meant for that.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[mimico_polak]

+1 as above...the ratings provided are not reflective of real life application. They're driven around a set course at a set speed by professional drivers to maximize the fuel efficiency provided in the literature. Typically they can be off by 10-20% from advertised.

 

[oomis]

Sigh.

Not that axle-sticks is going to listen, but for any other readers of the thread...
...the way to accurately measure fuel economy is to fill a bike up, go for a ride. Note the distance ridden, either by odometer or tripmeter reading, or by using a GPS. Then fill your bike up - not to the brim, but to where you would normally fill it up to. Do the math - divide the volume of gas (litres, gallons - whatever you like) by the distance driven (kms, miles, whatever) to get an accurate distance / volume reading.

If you actually want to eliminate some (not all) of the variation, do this 10 times. Discount the highest and lowest readings as outliers and average the remaining 8.

If you want to eliminate more of the variation, do this exclusively on the highway (for highway mileage) or city.

If you want YOUR fuel economy numbers, do this and ride as you would normally ride.

Note that these figures will be different than the figures from the manufacturer, because, well, YOU have some common sense.

Then throw out all that work, because being a fun loving motorcyclist who knows how to use a gas gauge (if you have one) or a reserve switch (if you have one) or at least an odometer, you really don't care that much about any of these things. Unless you're a long distance rider, in which case you don't need any of this advice because the first thing you did was sort all this stuff out.

If Saussages was smart, he'd not only figure out the range to reserve, but figure out how much range his reserve had.

 

[frekeyguy]

How old is your bike? Are you using stock jets? and OEM plugs and filter? stock exhaust?

There are several possibilities why you aren't getting optimal economy. For example my 03/04 636 was getting 170KMS per 13L of regular fuel.......which is horrible for a 600SS (it runs a full exhuast, aftermarket filter, and an auto tune). Issue was a bad batch of plugs, coupled with a dirty fuel filter that was causing it to surge on the HWY like crazy.

Now with a "tune up" she gets 220KMS while taking a beating on 91 Octane....and running at 140KM/H in the open. Slow down to 100km/H on the hwy, and she will get 235 easy. or about 230KM @ 100KM/H using 87.

 

[mimico_polak]

Then throw out all that work, because being a fun loving motorcyclist who knows how to use a gas gauge (if you have one) or a reserve switch (if you have one) or at least an odometer, you really don't care that much about any of these things. Unless you're a long distance rider, in which case you don't need any of this advice because the first thing you did was sort all this stuff out.

Best response right there! When I first started 'justifying' my 'need' for a bike it was to save fuel blah blah blah...that doesn't happen b/w all the other stuff you need and costs of ownership. I'll save some kms on my car, and maybe some maintenance...besides that I'm doing it for FUN...it's enjoyable and to me that is what matters now.

Have fun, enjoy the kms you do get and then re-fill and enjoy again.

 

[kiwi]

Checkup your bike on fuelly.com

You can see how others are doing in the real world. My best is 5.5L/100km
- highway, and average for commute is 6.7/100.

Big motors are thirsty. Oh, and temperature makes a difference too along with tyre condition and pressure .

 

[bgfa]

Re: Manufacturer's Mileage For My Bike Is Wrong

Clearly Kawasaki is ripping you off by selling you an inferior bike :angry5:
Call them and give them a piece of your mind. I'm sure they will welcome your input.

 

[Wasted]

Gasp!
A company made a promise based on information that, while technically true, can not be replicated in a real world environtment in order to sell their product???

For shame!!!

 

[the_falcon]

trollspray.jpg

 

[Flywheel]

Checkup your bike on fuelly.com

You can see how others are doing in the real world. My best is 5.5L/100km
- highway, and average for commute is 6.7/100.

Big motors are thirsty. Oh, and temperature makes a difference too along with tyre condition and pressure .

Bikes are pretty sensitive to wind/air resistance too, as they are not very aerodynamic. The open shape of a motorcycle, with added rider, is more of a sail than anything else and only gets worse as speed increases.

Headwinds and tailwinds can have noticeable effects on both speed and fuel economy as well.

 

[Pegassus]

Sigh.



If Saussages was smart, he'd not only figure out the range to reserve, but figure out how much range his reserve had.

I already know what's the range of my reserve using YOUR OWN advice, to extrapolate kilometers and multiply x's litres My reserve can go 77km before running dry.

..the way to accurately measure fuel economy is to fill a bike up, go for a ride. Note the distance ridden, either by odometer or tripmeter reading, or by using a GPS. Then fill your bike up - not to the brim, but to where you would normally fill it up to. Do the math - divide the volume of gas (litres, gallons - whatever you like) by the distance driven (kms, miles, whatever) to get an accurate distance / volume reading.

Do you remember this advice?

How old is your bike? Are you using stock jets? and OEM plugs and filter? stock exhaust?

Everything is stock, the bike is 2003. I'm not complaining about fuel consumption, I don't mind $26 dollars for hours of fun on my bike, I'm just bothered that manufacturer's should use real-world conditions to calculate the mileage of a bike, not controlled environments so they can LIE about it in magazines.

Bikes are pretty sensitive to wind/air resistance too, as they are not very aerodynamic. The open shape of a motorcycle, with added rider, is more of a sail than anything else and only gets worse as speed increases.

Headwinds and tailwinds can have noticeable effects on both speed and fuel economy as well.

These things are taken into account by Kawasaki at the time of the test no?

 

[frekeyguy]

Everything is stock, the bike is 2003. I'm not complaining about fuel consumption, I don't mind $26 dollars for hours of fun on my bike, I'm just bothered that manufacturer's should use real-world conditions to calculate the mileage of a bike, not controlled environments so they can LIE about it in magazines.

real world is not the same as TEST world.

TEST WORLD = everything is optimal.....

In the real world....you might be making more frequent stops, too much throttle, not coasting as much...etc.

 

[afong56]

Everything is stock, the bike is 2003. I'm not complaining about fuel consumption, I don't mind $26 dollars for hours of fun on my bike, I'm just bothered that manufacturer's should use real-world conditions to calculate the mileage of a bike, not controlled environments so they can LIE about it in magazines.

newsflash:

everyone who bothers to read and research about the vehicles they plan to buy knows this already. i thought everyone already understood that manufacturers' claims were not to be taken as accurate in real life?

wow, this is old news, like last century old.

 

[oomis]

I already know what's the range of my reserve using YOUR OWN advice, to extrapolate kilometers and multiply x's litres My reserve can go 77km before running dry.

No, you're not doing what I recommended. What you're doing is filling up and making an assumption based on what the manufacturer says the size of the tank is, and how big you're assuming the reserve is. You're probably "overfilling" your tank compared to Kawi's specs, if you're squeezing in every last drop of gas all the way up to the filler neck. You may have the distance measure correct, but the manner in which you're measuring gas volume consumed leaves room for variation and inconsistency.

You're not basing your calculation on actuals, they're based on assumptions and estimates. Now maybe they'll work out to be the same thing, but maybe not.

I'll boil it right down for you and make it really clear. You're doing it wrong.

Do you remember this advice?

I'm sorry, but WTF was your actual question here? You're asking for input, when you actually get it you're going to turn around and yank my chain for being specific? Awesome, - but to answer you - no, I don't. I put tens of thousands of kms on both my bikes ever year. I know what my range is. I know what my mileage is. I know what my range is. I know how accurate my gas gauge is. I know what my comfort level for being wrong is. I know how altitude, low tire pressure, highway vs city and loaded for touring vs. not affects my mileage. I grease my axle sticks every time I change my blinker fluid, so I'm good.

If you want the right answer, Peggy, follow the right advice. If you're just looking for any ol' number, well, you just carry on doing what you're doing.

 

[31Smokinjoe]

Re: Manufacturer's Mileage For My Bike Is Wrong

Are you talking Imperial gallon or US gallon? There's a difference.

He figured his mileage useing U.S. gallons 3.78 L if he was to use Imperial gallons (which is what Canadians would use if we still used gallons) he is getting 54.85 miles per gallon

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