Never checked my gas milage before now, 200 miles straight highway at 75 mph on a 2008 GS-500F with 6000 miles on it and got 51 miles per gallon.

Good?----Bad?----Average?

Quote from: ojstinson on August 02, 2012, 07:49:59 PM
Never checked my gas milage before now, 200 miles straight highway at 75 mph on a 2008 GS-500F with 6000 miles on it and got 51 miles per gallon.

Good?----Bad?----Average?

above average. pretty good. almost fuelly range. my goped was hitting 95 mpg. damn i miss that thing

That's good to hear, thanks. Never really cared much about milage before.

95mpg is pretty feakin good, the downside is having to stand for long periods of time, especially with the vibration and constant jolting.

For 200 miles of highway travel, 51 mpg sounds rather low in my experience.  At 75-80 mph (indicated), I average 60+ mpg on my 2007. My ride is completely stock with no mods. Have you re-jetted or have any other mods?

Nope, completely stock carb and sprockets and not even a headwind. How many miles on yours? Maybe mine isn't completely broken in yet.

I'd say yours is average or better than average.

I average 180 per tank (meaning when reserve kicks in) on my 09 F model. 8300 miles.  I am aggressive and have a k&n lunchbox and 20/65/142.5 jets.

Bone stock I got 210 miles per tank on highway driving the same way.

A lot of things alter fuel economy from what Suzuki claims on their website:

Tire pressure
Use of throttle (jackrabbit starts)
How long you use choke when cold
Excessive idling
Overall tune of engine like plugs, valves, etc.
Air cleaner quality.

#5219

I get over 60 highway. 50-55 city (lots of short jaunts of 1/2 mile or less).

It can take a few fill ups to get a good reading. Due to the filler tube, angle of bike, slope of ground, etc. it is easy to fill a quart more or less on a fill and that will throw off your mileage reading.

You have to track and average it over a few fills to get an accurate reading.

Makes sense, thanks guys for the info.

Consistency of fill is hard, but close enough and over many fills is the best way to know your mileage.

What I do is...

Put bike on center stand
Fill until it starts coming up the next
Slowly fill until next nearest 50c or $1 is reached.

It's not perfect cause if it fills neck at +10c then I'm adding and extra 40c of gas, whereas if it fills neck at +40c I'm only putting in 10c more gas. So that difference could give me say 10+ extra clicks before hitting reserve.

Also, by getting to know a Rough Average on your bike you will know if something is suddenly wrong.

I roughly get around 58mpg. Or I think of it as 23-25km per liter. If I suddenly drop to 18kml I'll know something is Very up and can look into it.

Michael

Quote from: ojstinson on August 02, 2012, 09:02:48 PM
That's good to hear, thanks. Never really cared much about milage before.

95mpg is pretty feakin good, the downside is having to stand for long periods of time, especially with the vibration and constant jolting.

with rubber tires, the vibes werent bad. seat was available which i rigged up. granbted max  speed was 33 lol. but shaZam! 95+ mpg was great. filled tank once every 2 weeks. tank was 1 litre. damn that thief. i want it back

Quote from: ojstinson on August 02, 2012, 09:02:48 PM
That's good to hear, thanks. Never really cared much about milage before.

95mpg is pretty feakin good, the downside is having to stand for long periods of time, especially with the vibration and constant jolting.

on one of these. went from stock 80 tooth rear sprocket to a 98 tooth. but pipe undid the slowdown, and actually gained acceleration. i want another one lol. keeping eyes open for more. even broken ones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=yN1H2lVmC0Y&NR=1

Quote from: ojstinson on August 03, 2012, 04:37:21 AM
Nope, completely stock carb and sprockets and not even a headwind. How many miles on yours? Maybe mine isn't completely broken in yet.

Kind-of broken-in. I have 57,000 miles.... 
I kissed any trade-in value good-bye a LONG time ago! 

Applecrew, did you buy it new---any major problems with the bike in that many miles?

Yes, I did buy it new. And to be honest, except for regular maintenance, she has not given me any problems and has been very reliable! Of course I go through tires, drive chains and oil, and I will have to replace the original battery VERY soon... but I can't complain about the expendables. Mechanically I have had no troubles.

With that said, there is one issue I have that I will be addressing this fall. I ride through the winter (as long as there is no ice or snow on the road). Where I live, for a good part of the winter the average temp is below 40 degrees. I frequently experience loss of power due to lean fuel mixture condition when traveling at freeway speeds in the cold weather - it can be an unpleasant experience when in traffic at 70 mph.  I will be rejetting the carbs in October to remedy the problem.

I hope you have lots of fun and many trouble-free miles ahead of you!

Sounds good Applecrew, two more quick questions---how many shim changes have you done, and are you an aggressive rider?-----meaning lots of hard acceleration and high RPMs.




Thanks.

Still on the original shims for the intake valves; the exhaust valves are using 2.40 and 2.45 shims. I was going through the exhaust shims at first, but have lately decided to open them up a bit. The exhaust valves now have a 0.1 mm clearance. Others on the forum have done similar to keep the valves and valve seats from eroding too quickly. I can tell you from experience that lean running will contribute to needing new shims (yet another reason for the re-jet. Valve clearances closed up quicker for me in the winter than in the summer!)

What kind of driver am I? I'm an average rider, and most of my riding is my daily 70 mile round-trip commute. I will ride aggressively from time-to-time, but it is not a habit. I really like to pick and choose the time and place. I love riding twisty roads, usually riding within my limits, but I will push it a bit on roads I know VERY well. I do tons of freeway riding, usually anywhere from 70-85 indicated.

For comparison... my k9 just ticked over 55,555 kilometers. I've had it since new. One Real shim change - two if you believe the first mechanic to do so, who was proven to be a liar by my current mechanic who found now shim change when he checked the valves. (Should have known something was up when that same mechanic tried to tell me the GS500 should not need the choke when cold starting.)

My only oddball thing was needing to change the left engine cover gasket. IT was fine right up until 42,000km when I had a flat tire fixed. Then a couple of days later it's leaking. I believe the Shop I used to fix the tire loosened the side cover bolts to try to generate more work for themselves. Otherwise, I am on my 2nd chain and 2nd front tire and 3rd rear tire. I also discovered my front wheel bearing was not 100% when this work was carried out so had them both changed - I don't like riding on "passable" stuff, I want good stuff cause my life may depend on it.

My commute Used to be 20km each way but it is now 80 - 100km each way depending where I start work. I rarely take it above 6,000rpm on my commute and maybe take it to 7,000 rpm in short burst of 10 minutes or so when in the twists.

My fuel consumption has remained consistent since I bought the bike. I have no rejetted or changed muffler or air flter. All stock.

Michael

Thanks guys for the info. I was hoping you would say you ran the dog sh--it out of your bikes for that many miles and never had to change a shim.

shim changes are easy

On my stock GS, I average 200 miles per tank with combined motorway-city riding.  My daily commute is about 65 miles, add to it a random trip to a local market/shop/etc. - and I get 3 days on one tank.  From these 200 miles, I'd say about 75 are motorway, 125 are city.