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?
: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?