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Got that scary feeling yesterday

2K views 21 replies 13 participants last post by  GAVZDAD 
#1 ·
Looked at my trip meter and reached down to switch to my reserve and realized I was already on my reserve tank.
:surprise:.

My bike use to average about 40mpg, so around 140 miles I'd start looking for a gas station and never hit the reserve. However, since I rebuilt it with different pipes, larger saddlebags, larger trunk, and an 1800 final drive, my mileage has dropped down to about 31/32 mpg. She has plenty of power throughout the powerband, no sputtering or hesitation, just a significant loss of mpg. I cleaned the carb when I rebuilt it, and everything seems to be dialed in correctly and the plugs had a little soot on them but still looked good, but I ran some Techron fuel system cleaner in it yesterday just to be on the safe side. But my mpg is still holding in and around 32 mpg. (Full disclosure: I've been running 70-75 on the superslabs trying to calculate mileage for the last 5 or 6 tank fills/ VTX 1300 4.8 gallon tank, 1 gallon reserve.)

Nevertheless, yesterday afternoon I decided to ride up to VA from NC to see if there would be any improvement after the Techron. So anyway, I look down and I'm at 136 miles on the tripmeter without having hit the reserve and feeling like the bike is returning to normal since I had been having to switch to the reserve at 120 miles. So I reach down to switch to reserve and "Shucks (I cleaned this up for the kiddies-lol)" I'm already in reserve and a good 10 miles from the last exit and gas station. So I switched the reserve tank off in hopes that I had been getting better gas mileage, nope bike immediately started sputtering so I switched the reserve back on and prayed, "God let me make it to a gas station before I run out of gas". Having traveled down Hwy 85 on many occasions I knew exits and gas stations are few and far between. So I prayed until I finally made it to an exit and and checked my GPS for the closest gas station. The GPS says the closest gas station is 6 miles away in Alberta, VA, a small town of 306 people and the gas station closes at 9, and its already well after 8. So now I'm thinking, "I don't have a clue whether I have 6 miles of gas left in the bike's tank and if I run out of gas there's no need to walk because the gas station will be long closed before I ever make it. Then I thought, "Since I turned off the highway to go to the gas station there's nothing out here, I mean nothing no land marks, houses, just wide open country." I could not have given anyone directions how to find me if I had to make a call. "Yeah can you bring 5 gallons of gas to highway such and such by the .... rolling hills?" I didn't like those prospect at all. The prayers became more intense. After a few more of country where I counted about 5 houses sitting way back off the road I made it in to downtown Alberta, happy to at least see some buildings even if everything was closed. Made a right turn on Main St. and about 1/2 a mile up the road I saw a well-lit Exxon sign. :grin2: 146 miles and it took 4.6 gallons to fill the tank on the side-stand. God is good!!! And Prayer works!. That's about 31.8 mpg. Afterwards, I jumped back on the highway and headed home...another good ride that got a lot scary for a while :smile2:

So a couple of things come to mind:
1. Did putting an 1800 final drive on a 1300 decrease my mpg from 40 to 32?
2. Did the combination of new heavier saddlebags, trunk, pipes, and 1800 final result in a significant decrease in mpg?
3. The Idle id spot on 880-900rpm, so could my A/F be too rich and I am burning a lot more fuel and losing mpg?
4. Is the ethanol in the gas causing me to lose mpg?
5. What the heck is going on with my mpg?

Finally, since I'm doing the USA 4 Corners Ride this summer, can you say auxiliary fuel tank?
 
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#4 ·
(Full disclosure: I've been running 70-75 on the superslabs trying to calculate mileage for the last 5 or 6 tank fills/ VTX 1300 4.8 gallon tank, 1 gallon reserve.)
Don't know how accurate your speedo is but I suggest you keep it right at 68 mph and you will see improvement.

For folks that are insecure concerning gas mileage, I believe it always a good idea to keep a separate reserve in your bag using a container specially made to hold fuel.

God does indeed answer prayers regardless how minor the request may be but just remember, sometimes, He does not! 0:)
 
#5 ·
Speedo is spot on, GPS calibrated aftermarket speedo. I'll drop down to 65 and see if there is a change. Just hard to imagine an 8mpg drop w/o thinking there has to be some sort of problem. But I also keep reading 32mpg is in the 1800 range and with the bike now having an 1800 final on it it could be the final drive.
 
#6 ·
there is 300 rpm's between final drives.... yours it UP...

NO.. gas mileage did not change that much.... most likely Rider using the extra acceleration..
Second.. Gas Brand,,, additives local gas station added... (done all the time)...
10 percent is just for one additive.. benzene' and other stuff does not have to be reported.. so possible 75 percent gas.

I know when I run Sheets brand.. I loose 10 mpg.. lots of benzene.. I do not go there anymore..
.
 
#7 ·
My speedo is off about 4or5 below indicated speed.

I know why my mileage sucks... my 1800 has a zone and it is 80+.

It's like it is singing me a tune around that speed and then it hits a bad note when that little amber light comes on at about 120 miles on a tank of gas. :frown:
 
#8 ·
From the 1800 perspective, I can tell you that changing to a 1300 final drive did nothing noticeable to my mileage. I strongly suspect that changing the final on a 1300 would do about the same. I wouldn't gauge anything based on what an 1800 gets for mileage. They are way different bikes / engines. One is carbed, the other injected. Enough different that the comparison is meaningless.

Based on your description of events, I'd say the pipes are probably not going to change mileage for the worse. I also suspect the final drive would not (at least not that significantly). that leaves what was done in the carb. Is it possible the needle valve is leaking? Maybe the float got mis-adjusted. Somehow 20% more fuel is getting into the engine than before (not insignificant). On a long highway trip the tendencies of quick acceleration and mileage killing riding styles tend to get minimized. I'd say the logical place to start is the carb.

Now, I've never owned a VTX1300 so this is just a dialog on what makes sense to me. I've had many carburated bikes though.
 
#11 ·
So a couple of things come to mind:
1. Did putting an 1800 final drive on a 1300 decrease my mpg from 40 to 32?
2. Did the combination of new heavier saddlebags, trunk, pipes, and 1800 final result in a significant decrease in mpg?
3. The Idle id spot on 880-900rpm, so could my A/F be too rich and I am burning a lot more fuel and losing mpg?
4. Is the ethanol in the gas causing me to lose mpg?
5. What the heck is going on with my mpg?
To answer your questions:
1. Somewhat
2. A little bit
3. Possibly
4. Probably not.
5. It's most likely a combination of ALL of these factors, together. When I first got my bike, I would regularly hit reserve between 130-135 miles, depending mostly upon the heaviness of my throttle hand. When I installed pipes, it went to closer to 125-130 miles. When I installed a big windshield, it went down more like 120-125 miles before reserve. When I installed a spike air cleaner and rejetted the carb, it's now closer to 110-115 miles before reserve. EACH one of those factors caused a SLIGHT drop in mileage, but TOGETHER, they added up to quite a BIG difference.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Glad you made it without any incidents. PLEASE tell us that you remembered to put the petcock back off of reserve!!!
 
#13 · (Edited)
Check the enricher cables, make sure it is tightly closing. I dont know why you want to do the 4 corners with a 1800 final, hell the 1300 is twisting 3400+ at 70. Heck I want to turn 3200 at 70 ...lol. Your right hand is more then likely the problem.......good luck on that........

I added a 2.5 gal tank to the luggage rack. I get 2.3 gal of usage from the tank and an additional 95 miles. Based on recent rides I should get about 230-240 before reserve. So half as many fill ups per 1000 miles. I get 38-39 with bags and such at 70-72 mph.
 
#14 ·
When I was doing the rebuild I couldn't find a chrome 1300 final so figured I would give the 1800 final a try. The 4 Corners wasn't even on my mind. Now that I finally have the bike back on the road it seems like I'm constantly looking out for the next fuel...about every 120 miles. Whereas it use to be I think about stopping around 140 but could push it to 160 if I controlled my right hand.
 
#15 ·
Look on the bright side, you could be getting ~50 mpg on some gutless and underpowered cliche domestic motorcycle - but NO! You are one of the rare smart riders that value performance and power, giving you thousands of miles of fun for thousands of dollars less - to help pay for more fuel!
 
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#17 · (Edited)
I've got a similar setup on my 1300. Big fiberglass saddlebags, fiberglass touring trunk, lots of accessories. My VTX 1300 (Spokes) easily weighs 80lbs to 100lbs over stock, although the handling isn't that badly impaired (or perhaps I'm used to moving such a tank. I never understood when people say the VTX 1800 is too heavy to ride). I also ride almost always with my girlfriend, so that's another 125lbs on the bike. My girl and I also wear full gear, so add an extra 10lbs of motorcycle gear for each one of us.

Altogether, my mileage isn't particularly good with my VTX 1300 Spokes (2007 model). The highest I've gone right before hitting the reserve is 145 miles and that was non-stop highway riding at 70 mph speedo-indicated (i.e. non-corrected). We were touring and were loaded to the gills, carrying around 50lbs extras of clothing etc The riding did involve long uphill stretches, which the bike handled absolutely fine without having to downshift. In fact, the bike surprised me at how well it handled the huge amount of additional weight. I never felt that I lacked power, although the bike's speedometer could climb faster when accelerating from 90 mph and over through long uphill stretches. Then, again, I had over 150lbs of additional cargo on the bike and, up to 90 mph, she would accelerate fast. Very surprised but it's a Honda; those guys knew what they were doing when they came around with the 1300's engine.

My usual riding with street/back roads (where I spend most of my time) and highway is around 35 MPG with my 100lbs of extra weight and my girlfriend as passenger. I always hit reserve between 130 miles to 140 miles without fail (except when touring as mentioned above). At that time, I know I have 20 miles to go, although I could stretch that to 30 miles probably.

It's interesting to me to finally find someone who gets my kind of mileage. It has always amazed me how people report over 40 MPG and even 50 MPG, but then, when you look at their setup, they don't have the heavy setup that we have.

I'm convinced the extra weight is what's dropping my mileage. I also have a big windscreen. Likewise, we don't get ethanol in our fuel over here (LOL what's that all 'bout?) and I fill up my bike on the stand with 87 octane (Euro equivalent of 95 unleaded, bike runs better with lower octane than with premium-octane gasoline). Most I've gotten in the fuel tank is 4.22 US gallons (or 16 liters). That was when I hit reserve and only did an extra 5 miles before filling up. So it makes sense I was only able to get 4.22 US gallons in since I was down to reserve and it's 0.8 gallons from which I had probably consumed 0.2 gallons (for a 4.82 total that makes the tank).

My bike is untuned as far as intake/carb/pipes go. I'm getting Big Shots installed in two weeks, and I've read that Big Shots alone can increase mileage a little. Maybe it's the performance increase in effectiveness from the quiet baffles (bike uses less fuel to launch bike as backpressure/torque is increased without increasing fuel delivery).

If you look at all the bikes from that era (early 2000s), they all had similar or smaller tanks. The Vulcan 1500, Suzuki Intruder/Marauder 1400/1500, Yamaha's V-Star line, Harley Davidson's cruisers etc Heck, even Honda's initial 1800 C only had 17 liters on the tank. Only bike from that era with a larger tank is the Vulcan 1600 with a 5.5 US gallon tank, but then, they had their Nomad version specifically for touring. The VTX 1300 is more powerful than the Vulcan 1500 and is just as powerful as the Vulcan 1600, if not slightly faster in 0 to 60 times.

I think the fact that the VTX 1300 is a long-stroke undersquare engine also doesn't help with mileage. The Vulcan 1600 is the opposite, being an oversquare engine with only a 95 mms stroke (VTX 1300's is 104.5 mms), and the Vulcan is very happy reving in the highway as is usually the case with oversquare engines. The VTX 1300 is torquier in town and launching, but the Vulcan 1600 (which is the main competitor IMO to the VTX 1300 along with the 1300 V-Star, not the 1100cc V-star though) is happier on the highway, and hence the larger tank.

I think that a 5.3 US gallon tank for the VTX 1300 would have been awesome. The tank is already big enough, yet surprisingly only holds 4.82 US gallons. Compared to my other bike's 5.3 US gallon tank, they're about the same size. I do think that there's some useless space in the tank of the VTX 1300 that's limiting it to 4.82 US gallons. If you look at the Vulcan 1600's tank, it's longer than the VTX's but the VTX's is wider; the 1600 is almost one inch larger in wheelbase which allows for a longer tank.

All in all, I'm OK with the range I get. Let's hope that the Big Shots with quiet baffles do improve my mileage a little bit. Can't blame the bike as I'm putting a lot of weight on her and she rides flawlessly. And, yes, the single-disc front brake handles great with all that weight (remember, it's a 32-cm disc which is huge).
 
#19 ·
OMG... I couldn't hang in there long enough for the punch line. I stopped reading the post way before I even knew what it was about. "Scary" in the headline had me glued for like 4 sentences... until I lost the scary connection. Maybe I have A.D.D. or something. Hope you fellas sort this out for the O.P..
 
#20 ·
 
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#22 ·
I've only ever ran out of gas one time in my life. A couple months after getting my first "real bike", a 1977 KZ650 back when I was 16, I ran out of gas about 100 yards from a gas station while setting at a red light. I pushed it to the station, but what made it worse, besides all the people who I know we're pointing and laughing, is that there was a large group of guys on motorcycles at the gas station filling up as I was pushing it in. They ribbed me a little, had their fun, then asked me to ride with them. I ended up going on a 4 hour ride with them. Cool guys. It's funny how things work out, because looking back, that was one of the best days in my life.
 
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