Optimum speed for Best MPG??

[RedShift]

... I hope you all enjoyed this almost worthless theoretical exercise    

Not at all, Javier.  You merely show how complicated the problem is to solve.  

I have to smile when I read jake42's reply.  Each item he did would increase his bike's fuel consumption in favour of performance (though there's nothing wrong with that).  

I share Blazinjr's pain.  It won't get any better for either of us until April.  

Minimize wind resistance, rolling resistance, engine speed.  Maximize velocity, Air:Fuel mixture.

So if you want the best fuel conservation, consider some of these ideas:

• Pump up your tires into the 40 psi range,
• Go on a diet and loose weight,
• Crouch down against the tank,
• If you don't have a fairing -- get a small wind screen that cuts through the wind, but not large enough to block it,
• Get a taller front sprocket -- increases the rear wheel speed at the same engine speed,
• Ride down hill a lot -- but get towed up (or take an elevator),
• Replace your air filter when it gets dirty or every 2 years, whichever comes first.[/list:u]Note that I did not suggest "coasting" (pulling in the clutch or dropping the bike into Neutral).  I'm not in favour of that action mainly on safety reasons -- you never know when powering up will save your butt.  

[RedShift]

Oh, and on the topic of fuel capacity, 5.3 US Gallons is theoretical based on the container's volume dimensions.  I've never put more than 4.5 Gallons into my bike -- even filling above the neck.  Still, that's worth about 250 miles, a lot more than 90% of bikes can get between refills.  

[Blazinjr]

The most I ever put into my bike was 4.1 gallon.

The first time I had to put my bike on reserve was at about 218 miles?  At 227 miles I put in 3.72 gallons of gas.  Of the 227 miles about 180 was spent in 5th and 6th gears.

[Alphamazing]

Riding style counts far more than all of these considerations...

+1  

I regularly ring the f%$k out of mine, so that's how I have to compare gas mileage between tanks and mods.

[dionysus]

I recently went a tank full freeway at 70MPH, which got me 62MPG, Bump that to 85 (what everyone else is going), and its down to 52-54.

[aevans17]

I usually get about 55-56 miles per gallon on my bike, around town and little freeway. However, I'm 6' tall and weigh about 205 lbs w/o gear. I usually can only put in 3.3-3.7 gallons at fill-up. I usually fill up <10 miles after switching to reserve so I don't think my tank holds the full 5.3 gallons. If I wanted more miles per gallon I'd definitely have to loose weight, and maybe see if I could shrink myself. With full gear I'm sure I eat up about +5 miles per gallon just in weight and another +2 in increased wind resistance since my frame is big and sits up above the wind screen.

This thread makes me think of a line from the movie Tommy Boy,

"Does this shirt make me look fat."

"No, your face does!"

cause I feel like a fat guy on a little bike sometimes !!!!

[RVertigo]

that makes the optimum engine speed around 5000 rpm, or 100km/h (63mph) on a stock bike.

I hope you all enjoyed this almost worthless theoretical exercise  

SWEET!!!  Scientific evidence for my S.W.A.G.!    RULE!  :mrgreen:

[buzz]

50-62

Most of the time I loose a lot of mpg by traveling too fast on the interstate.