mpg question

[twitch]

thanks to all who gave me their good bad and ugly opinions on the FJR. I really do appreciate it. I do have another question, though. In reading reviews and such the FJR seems to average 35- 40 mpg. I know it all depends on how it is ridden. If I mountain crawl all day hitting around 40 on my RoadStar I can get as much 55mpg. In the real world of city riding, traffic, stop lights and signs I can usually squeeze out around 40 mpg. How do y'all's numbers compare to the tests? Is this number pretty accurate?

 

[FarWestFastEddie]

I just turned on the odo, I am averaging 39 MPG, includes highway, mountains and daily commute in town, So, numbers really break down the same, its just that I ride the FJR, and we both know that is a damn straight finer ride than a Roadstar... and a helluve lot more fun too!

FWFE

 

[blkredlinedrvr]

Same on my 04. Usually about 38 in mixed riding. Worst Mileage I ever had was a track day on the FJR and pulled down 30 MPG. Best mileage I get is taking it easy and I get about 40 to 41. Infact my fillup today a 41.2 MPG or something like that. My "average" MPG based on a year+ of keeping a fuel log on my cell phone shows 38.5 MPG. The 6 months this year that I have punched into fuelly show 38.3MPG average.

 

[Jim in Phoenix]

Most tanks average 45 MPG for me and that is mostly rides in the mountains around Phoenix. Riding up the "Devil's Highway" last fall I got 51 MPG. YMMV.

 

[SacramentoMike]

40-ish is a "ballpark" number for me, overall riding. I could do better, I guess, if I rode differently, but I just can't help myself. Hey, I had a Honda Elite 150 scooter that got almost a hundred miles per gallon. Much prefer my 40 on an FJR though, even at four bucks a gallon!

 

[dannymax]

Low 40's, as already said, I could probably do better but....all that handling and power AND 40+ mpg?? I'm more than good with that.

I really only pay attention to the mpg figure for troubleshooting purposes....if it goes from 44 to 34 overnight there may be a budding problem, otherwise, I ride!

 

[FJRMGM]

I don't believe I've ever gotten below 40 mpg on my '05. Usually 44-47 mpg. Saturday I got 51 mpg on a ride...

I think it helps that I am only 150 lbs and 5'8" so I am tucked in well.

 

[lharrell79]

07 FJR with touring screen. My average with both bags and a Yammy topbox is 43-45 mpg (mixed hwy and stop/go). Without all the bags, and just a backpack, i'm getting 45-47 mpg. This is in TX with avg temps around 100F. In the winter, I usually see a 10% drop accross the board. I've been told it's the additives in the fuel.

My experience with steady highway riding goes like this:

75mph = 45mpg

70mph = 47mpg

65mph = 49mpg

60mph = 51mpg

55mph = 52mpg

Riding 2up, I see about a 2mpg drop. Add some crap to the bags, and another mpg drops. Mind you, these are all speedo indicated speeds.

HTH, Lucas

 

[blkredlinedrvr]

The newer gens seem to get better mileage. Over on fuelly.com all of the first gen FJRs seem to be getting high 30s low 40s.

 

[phroenips]

You're also in Aurora...we get a little better fuel economy at higher altitudes. In the 21k miles I've put on my FJR so far (only about 6-8k of that is out of state), I've averaged 43.76mpg (and median is 43.97mpg). Minimum was 31.97mpg, max was 52.65mpg. I have nursed it when I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to the next gas station, reigned it back to about 60mph on the interstate, and according to the bike's computer, I was getting somewhere around 50-55mpg.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Recently did a 59 mpg tank commuting just to do it. I'm normally around or just under 50 mpg.

 

[SkooterG]

Recently did a 59 mpg tank commuting just to do it. I'm normally around or just under 50 mpg.

Wow! That's excellent!

I have gotten over 50mph on many an occasion, but never 59.

 

[Eric L]

With a PCV and a Givi 46L topcase I get 41 mixed, 43-44 highway. The fuel map is enriched for initial smoothness, leaned out for highway.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Recently did a 59 mpg tank commuting just to do it. I'm normally around or just under 50 mpg.

Wow! That's excellent!

I have gotten over 50mph on many an occasion, but never 59.

Highly NOT recommended, it was a pain in the ass to mainly keep a rock solid throttle at 50-55 mph, but note the 2 bars yet to go...

Just did it to see what I could get. The next tank was a normal 49 mpg.

 

[ER RN]

Via GPS 41 around town and 45-47 highway. My speedo and odo are approx 9% off ergo the MPG displayed is off too. :dribble:

 

[olsonm3915]

FWIW, I just returned from a 4200 mile trip from MN to New Denver, British Columbia and back (via Yellowstone NP) and here's my MPG figures.

Fillups=28, miles = 4274.00, gals = 87.43, average MPG = 48.88

I was riding with two less experienced riders on EX500s and we were taking it really easy. Fastest speeds we encountered were 70-75 on the rare occasions when we used the interstates, but mostly we were on 2-lane highways doing 60-65.

My wife's EX500:

Fillups=27, miles = 4004.50, gals = 72.15, average MPG = 55.50

 

[mcatrophy]

I can demonstrate the difference between inner city, short journey commutes and longer distance touring.

This graph shows my mpg plotted against mileage:

Note these are UK gallons, so multiply the values by 5/6 to get US figures.

Below 40 is all commuting, 50 and above is a combination of fairly high speed motorways, cruising at more normal (?) speeds and some mountainous stuff.

To bring home the point, the graph below plots against date, you can see the closer together points are high figures, the stretched out are lower.

Note these are linked live to my (anal) updates, the full fuel history for my present ('10) FJR is here, and for my previous ('06) here.

With my riding patterns I could never expect a realistic 300 miles out of a tank (my logs do include predicted range at each fill for the real mpg achieved).

 

[SkooterG]

Highly NOT recommended, it was a pain in the ass to mainly keep a rock solid throttle at 50-55 mph, but note the 2 bars yet to go...

I am fortunate in that most of my highest fuel mileage experiences have been due to riding in high elevations (7000'-11000') where there has been some incredible scenerey and awesome roads.

 

[RED]

thanks to all who gave me their good bad and ugly opinions on the FJR. I really do appreciate it. I do have another question, though. In reading reviews and such the FJR seems to average 35- 40 mpg. I know it all depends on how it is ridden. If I mountain crawl all day hitting around 40 on my RoadStar I can get as much 55mpg. In the real world of city riding, traffic, stop lights and signs I can usually squeeze out around 40 mpg. How do y'all's numbers compare to the tests? Is this number pretty accurate?

I personally have never gotten anything below 41 mpg per tank. Cruising at 65-70mph with no head wind, Ill get 47-49 mpg. If a strong head wind or cross wind comes into play, Ill be looking at 42 mpg. 90% of my shifts are at or before 3,000 rpms. 40 mpg on pure city miles is a safe bet.