Hello from greece,
i own a gs 500f 2006 for 2 months. I read in other topics that everyone gets 50+ mpg (21 Km/liter ) i get around 35 mpg (15 km/l).
I have installed a KN drop in air filter .I haven't rejetted as in KN instructions it said that if you keep the restrictor (not sure for the name,i mean that plastic that you can remove from the filter) you dont need rejetting.
Maybe i need valves adjacement but i do not know how/if this affects consumption.
Any ideas about improving consumption because i run the bike for 100 Km per day ?
Quote from: adminious on March 17, 2009, 02:50:45 AM
Hello from greece,
Any ideas about improving consumption because i run the bike for 100 Km per day ?
Go back to the stock setup.
Never go above about 3.5krpm
Keep your tyres pumped up.
Oh yeah........loose about 5st.
I have a slightly better suggestion than Sledge here.
Usually high float causes fuel over flow into air box, a rich mix that causes power loss and makes you use more throttle to get the same power etc etc.
I suggest you check that out.
Cool.
Buddha.
No more than 3.5 RPM??That's to slow driving.On a highway with 6th gear its about 70Km/h (about 43 miles per hour).Cant drive so slow.
To have a 50mpg have i to drive so slow?For normal driving about 6000 rpm what is the normal mpg for the GS?
Budha what do you mean high float?I am no a mechanic,thats my first b ike and i am still learning...
Thanks you all for replying
I drive freeways a lot so in my case going +2 on the front sprocket gave me a jump from around 60 mpg to 70 mpg, and when I took it really slow I have seen as high as 85 mpg.
There are a number of things that might be up. I get by fine at 50-ish MPG without being quite so restrained as Sledge seems to think, but on the other hand I didn't bother to post in the "how fast have you gotten your GS up to" post, either. I do have stock intake and exhaust (well, exhaust "returned to equivalent of stock by addition of a soup can", anyway.)
It's possible that a previous owner swapped to a smaller front sprocket - that would hurt mileage. Open the sprocket cover and count the teeth. 16 front 39 back is standard.
Here's the float height page, to check on what Buddha mentioned
http://www.bbburma.net/FloatHeight.htm (http://www.bbburma.net/FloatHeight.htm)
Are the brakes binding? If you have a section of traffic free road (or parking lot) with a very gentle downhill, can you roll down it in nuetral, starting from a stop? Are your brakes hot every time you stop, even if you have not been doing much braking?
Here are some old mileage threads:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=40298.0 (http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=40298.0)
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=38965.0 (http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=38965.0)
I seem to recall someone that had terrible milage which did turn out to be valves way out of adjustment.
Quote from: adminious on March 17, 2009, 02:50:45 AM
Hello from greece,
i own a gs 500f 2006 for 2 months. I read in other topics that everyone gets 50+ mpg (21 Km/liter ) i get around 35 mpg (15 km/l).
I have installed a KN drop in air filter .I haven't rejetted as in KN instructions it said that if you keep the restrictor (not sure for the name,i mean that plastic that you can remove from the filter) you dont need rejetting.
Maybe i need valves adjacement but i do not know how/if this affects consumption.
Any ideas about improving consumption because i run the bike for 100 Km per day ?
I recently typed all my gas receipts from the last year into fuelly. When I first bought my GS, I got pretty bad mileage and have been doing better ever since without any changes to the bike's setup. I have done valves, but I haven't rejetted or changed the intake or exhaust. I figure it must have been my lack of smoothness when I first started riding. Concentrate on riding as smoothly as possible and avoiding doing things like revving way up when starting from a stop and see what that does to your mileage. You can check out all the data for my bike here: http://www.fuelly.com/driver/fredzyda/gs500e-2. As you can see, I don't get 50mpg all that often and I've even reported a couple of tanks of gas in the low 30's right when I started out. It sounds like your mileage might be a little low, but nothing that couldn't be explained by driving style...
Adminious?
Are your figures based on the imperial gallon used throughout Europe or the more `generous` US gallon?
Bare in mind that 1 imperial gallon = 1.2 US gallons so if you havent factored this in to your calculations you shouldnt be surprised to see US owners quoting 20% more mpg than the rest of the world gets.
Other way around, sledge - the imperial gallon is about 1.2 us gallon - and that means more miles per imperial gallon, which there is more of.
4.5 liters/imperial gallon 3.8 liters/US gallon
Quote from: fred on March 17, 2009, 08:32:05 AM
It sounds like your mileage might be a little low, but nothing that couldn't be explained by driving style...
+1
I get lower mileage when I ride alone because I ride more aggressively and do highway driving. When I slow down and take back roads 2-up and with a pack, I get better mileage. adminious, you asked "To have a 50mpg have i to drive so slow?". In short, yes, the slower you go, the lower the wind resistance and the more efficient your ride will be. If you do highway riding at 60+ MPH all the time then, yes, you will get lower mileage than if you drive back roads at 30 MPH. Although your MPG do sound low, I have to agree with fred's comment that it can be explained by driving style.
Another point to be made: driving slow can mean one of two things: driving at lower speed or accelerating less quickly. Under heavy acceleration, your bike will burn tons of fuel and I'm willing to bet that getting up to speed more slowly makes more of a difference than the actual speed you're going. Clutch technique might be making a difference as well, if you're slipping the clutch a lot while revving the bike really high every time you start, you might be wasting a lot of gas as well.
Sledge, imperial pints are larger, which is why imperial gallons are larger. An imperial pint is 20 ounces while a us pint is only 16. It is all about beer, the US adopted the British wine pint while the British eventually decided to get rid of their multiple definitions of pint and went with the one for beer...
Even at those speeds I have almost always gotten over 50mpg on highway commuting. 58mpg on city commuting. This is before any changes.
This is riding fairly hard--accelerating quickly and getting on the brakes pretty good.
Now that I have a K&N drop-in, Micron slip-on exhaust, and gone up one size on all three jets I have gotten as low as 42-44mpg on 80+mph highway runs. However, I regularly get 50-52mpg on mixed driving.
Your driving style *might* be able to account for that...but, you probably need to check your carbs, valves, and brakes like suggested. I would suspect something's awry with those numbers.
Quote from: jt_234 on March 17, 2009, 11:18:12 AM
Your driving style *might* be able to account for that...but, you probably need to check your carbs, valves, and brakes like suggested. I would suspect something's awry with those numbers.
Wouldn't the easy thing be to check the plugs first? They should give you a pretty good idea of what your mixture is doing. If they are all black, you are running crazy rich and should investigate further...
Quote from: fred on March 17, 2009, 12:57:06 PM
Wouldn't the easy thing be to check the plugs first? They should give you a pretty good idea of what your mixture is doing. If they are all black, you are running crazy rich and should investigate further...
Yeah, that's probably the best place to start. Examining my plugs wasn't very educational, they didn't show anything that I could see, but there may have been some subtle things I didn't catch.
How are the bikes set up in Greece? Ours supposedly come out of the box pretty lean to meet US emissions standards.
I'd say it's all about riding style and frequency. I do notice that frequent short trips can reduce your mileage considerably. On weeks with short commutes less than 10 miles each way I would only get around 55 mpg but longer ones return me to my usual 70 mpg. But riding style most definitely impacts it. The way I accelerate is usually to shift early, around 3.5k but to get quick acceleration I open up the throttle a lot often times going full throttle but shifting that early like when merging on the freeway. Less throttling restriction that way and lower rpms will help mileage quite a bit instead of letting the engine scream to 7k while only giving it 1/8th throttle on every takeoff. That's probably the least efficient way to drive yet it seems to be the way most people ride. Try riding a whole tank conservatively, as conservatively as possible and damned if you don't get 50+ mpg.
I think my mixture is lean especially now with the K&N.I should check valves,clean carbs and i will check again. i suspect thats there is the problem.
My driving style is normal for "greek stadars" on highway i drive at around 140 Kmh without big accelarations. I think that there is a problem in the bike
Don't forget to take a look at your plugs, they may give you an answer before you tear into things. There should be a plug guide with pics around here somewhere. If not, every Chiltons, Haynes, and Clymer manual I've ever seen has had a section on plugs.
Good luck.
Yes i will look them first.Thanks for the answers..
Adminious our measurements kinda match.
Traveling from Thessaloniki to Chalkis at about 130Km/h I got around 18Km/l... that is stock
After some mods (exhaust / K&N Lunchbox) and driving more aggressively at about 140 - 150Km/h I got around 14Km/l.
lamoun i was travelling Thessaloniki Athens ,
Yes they match, i am at about 18km/l but everyone here is more even with mods...so i wil check the carbs and the valves.
I don't know why anyone is talking about riding style and riding slower and all that. :cookoo: A stock(ish) GS should get 50-55 almost regardless of riding style. On the street mine certianly does, regardless of what I was doing, and I practice many random acts of acceleration. On TRACK, mine gets 30MPG. So if this guy is getting 35 and isn't just constantly full throttle/brakes/full throttle with a normal cruising speed of 100MPH, then something is wrong with the bike.
Quote from: ecpreston on March 19, 2009, 07:26:48 AM
I don't know why anyone is talking about riding style and riding slower and all that. :cookoo: A stock(ish) GS should get 50-55 almost regardless of riding style.
Why would anyone talk about riding slower?
QuoteWhile each vehicle reaches its optimal fuel economy at a different speed (or range of speeds), gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/driveHabits.shtml
QuoteFor 50 miles we drove with the cruise control set at 65 mph. Then, for another 50-mile stretch we drove with cruise set at 75 mph. We repeated this test going in the opposite direction. It is amazing how obvious the difference in gas mileage was. Just think what would have happened if we had slowed down to 60 mph.
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/106842/article.html#test2
QuoteStay within posted speed limits. Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 miles per hour.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt064.shtm
Quote...as you go above 38 mph in most cars, you lose mileage. For every 5 mph above 55, he says you can lose as much as 10 percent of your fuel economy. So slowing down can save you gas.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301403_2.html
QuoteThe drag force at 70 mph is about double that at 50 mph, so keeping speed down can increase your mileage considerably.
http://www.whybike.com/motorcycle16.htm
QuoteWind resistance increases as a square of the speed at which you're traveling. So, for example, at 70 mph, wind resistance is double what it is at 50 mph (70 squared is almost twice as much as 50 squared). That's murder on your mileage.
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/motorcycle-gas-mileage.html
:whisper: It's simple physics; the faster you are moving the more energy needs to be expended to fight wind resistance.
ya somthings up i ride mine i would say avg and get about 60 and when i really let her be a red headed step child i get about 45
Quote from: Esteban on March 19, 2009, 11:03:19 AMIt's simple physics; the faster you are moving the more energy needs to be expended to fight wind resistance.
:icon_lol: ok thanks, I wasn't aware of that. :icon_rolleyes:
My point was 35 MPG is REALLY REALLY LOW for the street, even if he rides like an asshat everywhere.
An Imperial gallon is 5 quarts. American gallon is 4.
If you want better mileage use 6th gear as much as you can. I ride 60-70 mph all the time and I average about 60 mpg, and I have pipes and filter changed. You don't have to poke to get good mileage, but you can't rev the hell out of it, stay in lower gears all the time, or ride the brakes.
Quote from: bill14224 on March 20, 2009, 09:35:41 AM
An Imperial gallon is 5 quarts. American gallon is 4.
If you want better mileage use 6th gear as much as you can. I ride 60-70 mph all the time and I average about 60 mpg, and I have pipes and filter changed. You don't have to poke to get good mileage, but you can't rev the hell out of it, stay in lower gears all the time, or ride the brakes.
No, the Imperial pint is bigger. Both quarts are still made of two pints and are both a quarter of a gallon... If it were a fifth of a gallon, it'd be called a fifth, just like the bottles of whisky...
8 imperial pints or 4 imperial quarts in an imperial gallon but there are that many variations on pints and gallons its no surprise that everyone is getting confused :dunno_black:
You have to give the French something for dividing everything by factors of ten and inventing the metric system, its far easier to work with. A litre is a fecking litre and it doesnt matter which side of the Atlantic you are on :D
I am so confused :dunno_white: Google to the rescue!
Ok, so if adminious is using Imperial gallons in his, then he is getting:
35 (miles / Imperial gallon) = 29.1435844 miles / US gallons
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=35+miles%2FImperial+gallon+in+miles%2FUS+gallons
That would be pretty damn bad and I would agree that it's some other malady. However, he is using US gallons in his calculation:
15 (kilometers / liter) = 35.2821875 miles / US gallon
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=15+kilometers%2Fliter+in+miles%2FUS+gallon
I used to get about 15 MPG......
WFO with roundslides..... god it was fun
Kenny?
I used to get about 7-8ppn, that pints per night. I struggle to get 2 or 3 ppn now.......but thats youth for ya.
:icon_lol:
getting old sux
and the only thing that will impress the cuties....is a big WAD in your pants...bad thing is it better be $$$$$ (a roll of cash)
I'm talking about the Imperial gallon Canada and Britain used before they adopted the metric system. I live 10 minutes from Canada, and believe me, it was 5 quarts vs. 4, meaning an Imperial gallon was 5 U.S. quarts. Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I should have been. Yes, an Imperial quart would be bigger, but that wasn't what I was talking about. I was trying to convey that an Imperial gallon is 25% larger than a U.S. gallon.
Quote from: sledge on March 20, 2009, 02:32:03 PM
8 imperial pints or 4 imperial quarts in an imperial gallon but there are that many variations on pints and gallons its no surprise that everyone is getting confused :dunno_black:
You have to give the French something for dividing everything by factors of ten and inventing the metric system, its far easier to work with. A litre is a fecking litre and it doesnt matter which side of the Atlantic you are on :D
That may be true, but only until someone else creates their own measurement of volume and calls it a liter too. Even worse if it is almost the same size as the liter, but not quite... I think I'm going to define the Fred Standard Liter as the average volume of a US quart, an Imperial quart and a liter. For you metric folk 1 fsl = 1.02762531L, for the people in the US 1 fsl = 1.08587955 US quarts and for the Canadians, 1 fsl = 0.904183494 Imperial quarts. For keeping track of my fuel consumption, I'm going to define the Fred Standard Meter as half my height so 1 fsm = 0.9271 meters. For those of you keeping track, that means my GS has a fuel consumption of 6.2 liters/100km. For everyone using the French metric system, that's 5.6 L/100km. For those of you using other units, you're on your own.
You are going to get bad economy if you travel over 100-110 kph. At that speed I get 22-23 km/l. That is with a standard bike except for 17 tooth front sprocket (makes very small difference). I generally change gear at about 4000rpm unless I'm in a hurry.
Bikes generally are very economical at modest speed as they are light and have a small frontal area. Aerodynamically they are oh my goodness (even faired bikes) compared to a car and so if you go much over 100kph they use much more fuel. If you want better economy:
1. Make sure engine is tuned (good compression, valve gap, carb float height, clean air filter, plugs etc.)
2. Ride more conservatively (Less than 100 kph, change gear at 4,000 or less, accelerate slower).
3. Correct tyre pressure (or 10% more).
4. 17 or 18 tooth front sprocket.
Economy always looks better if you measure speed in furlongs per fortnight.
Enough about units of measurement. It can't explain why his mileage is so bad. Greece uses the metric system anyway so he's converting to American units to make it easy for us to help him.
35 mpg for a GS SUCKS, unless you're on the racetrack, or running a small front sprocket and big rear sprocket and you ride around at 8000 rpm all the time. You're not complaining about the bike running poorly so something must be dragging. Bad wheel bearings could do it, but they would howl, scream, and die soon so that's probably not it. Is the rear brake caliper dragging? Put your bike in neutral, put it up on the centerstand, and make sure the rear wheel turns freely. Are you riding with your right foot on the brake? That'll do it! :nono:
This is for "themole". Never over-inflate your tires! :nono: It will cause your tires to wear in the center even faster, and it's dangerous. 33psi in front and 36-41psi rear is all you need.
Fred, if you'd like to see your mileage climb 8-10 mpg, ditch the lunchbox, put your stock air box back in, and change your main jets to about 127.5.
Quote from: bill14224 on March 22, 2009, 07:18:29 AM
This is for "themole". Never over-inflate your tires! :nono: It will cause your tires to wear in the center even faster, and it's dangerous. 33psi in front and 36-41psi rear is all you need.
Fred, if you'd like to see your mileage climb 8-10 mpg, ditch the lunchbox, put your stock air box back in, and change your main jets to about 127.5.
Yeah, the stock airbox is way long gone. The previous owner didn't even put the lunchbox on, so it has been there for a good 20,000 miles at a minimum. My project bike has a stock airbox, and it was only after I got that bike that I realized what a true pain in the neck the thing is. It is such a pain to get it on and off the bike all the time, doubly so when you keep having to pull the carbs like I do on my project. Once I get the second bike running, I plan on riding them back to back for a few weeks of commuting and seeing how big the difference really is... Right now I'd settle for one running GS though. I just got the parts I need to rebuild my daily rider's front caliper (after a week of waiting for the dealer to get them in stock!), but since it's Monday, I'm working my usual 14 hour day and won't have time to even start on that project until tomorrow after work. Still stuck on the KLR 250 in the mean time... I have yet to find the perfect staircase to ride it down...