LOW GAS MILEAGE

[ohiojack]

Followup on my continual low gas mileage. My trip to the fall ride in Penn. showed a couple of things. One, at a low cruise speed, about 55 mph, my mileage was around 45 mpg. But as I increase speed to 70-75 turnpike speed, my mileage drops to 35 mpg. I pulled my carbs again to double check. My main jets is 108, there is no shims under my needles. My idle jets was set at a turn and a half out, except for one that was bottomed, turned all the way in. I reset all idle jets at 2 turns out. By the way my plugs, airfilter and gas filter was all changed. The carbs was synched this last July. My needle number's was n36G. The only thing I have to check is my float levels. My tailpipe's are black on both sides . I may be getting a parts bike in the near future. Maybe I'll change out my carbs completely. ohiojack

[vxiirider]

I was surprised this week-end when I compared my miles on the odometer with the miles registered on my Garmin GPS. The odometer showed 135 miles and the GPS said that I only drove 120. I knew that there was an error in the OEM speedometers but 11% , that seems a bit much. If it's true then our fuel mileage computations are off by as much as 11% also.

[Me Again]

I was surprised this week-end when I compared my miles on the odometer with the miles registered on my Garmin GPS. The odometer showed 135 miles and the GPS said that I only drove 120. I knew that there was an error in the OEM speedometers but 11% , that seems a bit much. If it's true then our fuel mileage computations are off by as much as 11% also.

I'm guessing that at some point your speedo gear was changed so instead of the speedo being 10%
off your odometer is now 10% off. Just going to take a little longer to make the 100000 mile club.

[bikerking.biz]

Followup on my continual low gas mileage. My trip to the fall ride in Penn. showed a couple of things. One, at a low cruise speed, about 55 mph, my mileage was around 45 mpg. But as I increase speed to 70-75 turnpike speed, my mileage drops to 35 mpg. I pulled my carbs again to double check. My main jets is 108, there is no shims under my needles. My idle jets was set at a turn and a half out, except for one that was bottomed, turned all the way in. I reset all idle jets at 2 turns out. By the way my plugs, airfilter and gas filter was all changed. The carbs was synched this last July. My needle number's was n36G. The only thing I have to check is my float levels. My tailpipe's are black on both sides . I may be getting a parts bike in the near future. Maybe I'll change out my carbs completely. ohiojack

Check the all the rubber fuel hoses. Mine acted like that, and it turned out to be a very small leak at higher speeds- not enough to see, but I'm guessing at higher speeds it would evaporate. I installed new hoses, and the mileage came back (naturally).

[voyager55]

Sounds normal. When you get near 70mph & above, bike sucks gas

Followup on my continual low gas mileage. My trip to the fall ride in Penn. showed a couple of things. One, at a low cruise speed, about 55 mph, my mileage was around 45 mpg. But as I increase speed to 70-75 turnpike speed, my mileage drops to 35 mpg. I pulled my carbs again to double check. My main jets is 108, there is no shims under my needles. My idle jets was set at a turn and a half out, except for one that was bottomed, turned all the way in. I reset all idle jets at 2 turns out. By the way my plugs, airfilter and gas filter was all changed. The carbs was synched this last July. My needle number's was n36G. The only thing I have to check is my float levels. My tailpipe's are black on both sides . I may be getting a parts bike in the near future. Maybe I'll change out my carbs completely. ohiojack

[chevyman1]

I was surprised this week-end when I compared my miles on the odometer with the miles registered on my Garmin GPS. The odometer showed 135 miles and the GPS said that I only drove 120. I knew that there was an error in the OEM speedometers but 11% , that seems a bit much. If it's true then our fuel mileage computations are off by as much as 11% also.

If the speedometer was corrected meaning slowed down the odometer would be off the opposite way.
My speedometer was reading 10 mph fast I changed the drive gear 2 teeth now it reads about 3 mph fast but the odometer is slow by about 17% , when I go 100 miles on the odometer I actually am going 117 miles.

[ohiojack]

Also a followup, I also polished my slides. They had a shiny spot on one side. I took some fine grit sandpaper and shined up both sides. Put the bike back together with a kawasaki air filter, new fuel line. I fired up my bike and topped off the tank, and ran 100.2 miles on 2.0 gals. of gas. Finally over 50 mpg!! My average speed was right at 60-65 mph. Thanks for all your help. I'm guessing that the slides was sticking?? Hopefully this info will help others. ohiojack

[cushman eagle]

Also a followup, I also polished my slides. They had a shiny spot on one side. I took some fine grit sandpaper and shined up both sides. Put the bike back together with a kawasaki air filter, new fuel line. I fired up my bike and topped off the tank, and ran 100.2 miles on 2.0 gals. of gas. Finally over 50 mpg!! My average speed was right at 60-65 mph. Thanks for all your help. I'm guessing that the slides was sticking?? Hopefully this info will help others. ohiojack

Great ,glad to hear that. Now you are up to the mileage you should be getting.

[bikerking.biz]

Also a followup, I also polished my slides. They had a shiny spot on one side. I took some fine grit sandpaper and shined up both sides. Put the bike back together with a kawasaki air filter, new fuel line. I fired up my bike and topped off the tank, and ran 100.2 miles on 2.0 gals. of gas. Finally over 50 mpg!! My average speed was right at 60-65 mph. Thanks for all your help. I'm guessing that the slides was sticking?? Hopefully this info will help others. ohiojack

I would think if the slides were sticking, you would have noticed a running or performance problem. I've seen mine polished on the one side presumably because they just touched there more often, and it didn't cause a problem. I think your new air filter and fuel line had way more to do with the better mileage. Have fun!