Fuelly - Lies & Statistics?

[kyojitsu]

I was browsing on fuelly.com recently and noticed that the VFR800 is the 5th biggest group of motorcycles recorded on the site. There's 381 VFR800s of all generations and this of course means a pretty decent sample size for comparison. What's also interesting is the huge spread or variance in mpg figures - using UK units here - anything from 35 to 64mpg! That seems extraordinary - how can anyone be getting over 60mpg??!

My 5th gen has strugged to do any more than 150 miles to a tank and i'm averaging about 39.6mpg so far (UK). Based on other similar vintage bikes that's definitely in the lower quartile and it got me wondering:

Do VFR riders generally ride a bit more sedately and do longer trips hence the much better average economy? Or is my bike sick and in need of some attention? Or is it more likely I'm riding the nuts off my bike at every opportunity and therefore economy isn't too good? Or are some people just recording very optimistic figures?

It's got such a great engine I find it hard to ride the bike gently so how do some VFRs manage such great economy??

NB if you're thinking gas is really cheap why does he care it's because in the UK it's the equivalent of $10 a gallon!

[Switchblade]

I know a guy that has a 5th gen and he gets 150 miles on 41/2 gallons of gas BUT it haul a$$, a lot of mods and looks really good.

[Skids]

When you say "150 miles to a tank", do you mean to the flashing last bar or to empty?

If, as I assume, you mean to the flashing bar, that means you've used about 17 litres of petrol which equates to about 40mpg. That would be a bit on the low side for normal riding but easy to achieve if you use the upper end of the rev range regularly, or ride around in a lower gear/higher revs a lot.

If it is to empty, then you do have an issue cos that's 32mpg and the only time I achieved that was on a track day when I spent the whole day redlining it in every gear.

I used to get 200+ to a tank, but then I learned to ride it properly!

When was the last time it was serviced? Air Filter, plugs and balanced SV's?

[Switchblade]

On my 6th gen between 185-195 mine starts blinking red.

[Havagan]

My black bar starts blinking around 175-180 on my 6th gen. I've never taken it to the red blinky even after putting 190-195 miles on the tank.

Fat man, top case, Remus + PCIII.

[PirateRiderBen]

41MPG. Trip odometer told me I had gone 205 miles before the flashing bar. That is awesome in my opinion and one of the reasons I love my 98.

-PRB

[jaydj]

Funny, my latest tank went to about 195mi for average to spirited riding, up from 165-175 Ihad been getting per tank since late October. It is not a gradual change but literally changes in one tank. This seems to be the normal summer mileage again, and I have heard that there is a different winter and summer fuel mix that we get in the northeast. Those numbers are pretty consistent for my bike.

[Rush2112]

OP, keep in mind that some bikes have different sprocket ratios than stock and some may have speedo healers that will affect distance measurements... so a wide range of mpg may not be surprising. My best tank was with the uncorrected 8% overly optimistic speedo with stock sprocket ratios on a 400+ mile ride at 50 - 60 mph that gave me 56 or 58 mpg, I forget... and I was trying to max out my mpg. If it had been 100% gas and not 10% ethanol I probably would have been in the low 60s. Normal riding now with corrected speedo and sportier sprocket ratios nets me 38 - 44 mpg... YMMV

PS: the more times you heat cycle your engine during a tank the lower your mileage will be...

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk

[marriedman]

Fat guy here and I always get at least 175 miles until the flashing last bar on my 99. As soon as it flashes, I get gas. I am not pushing this bike!

Oh, one caveat to my statement. While down at the Gap / Tail of the Dragon, my average MPG plummeted. I didn't even bother calculating it.

[Switchblade]

Fat guy here and I always get at least 175 miles until the flashing last bar on my 99. As soon as it flashes, I get gas. I am not pushing this bike!

Oh, one caveat to my statement. While down at the Gap / Tail of the Dragon, my average MPG plummeted. I didn't even bother calculating it.

We seen you . It was me Griff Steve and Kimball .

[Mohawk]

Well I had a blat on my highly modified & PC3 fuel mapped 5th gen this morning, almost all motorway for work, 80 mile round trip, 11litres consumed, with average speed above 80mph, some of it much higher, so 80/11=7.27 per/L or 33mpg (UK gallons=4.546L, US=approx 3.8L). Flashing bar normally kicks in around 135miles on mine :(

[Skids]

Well I had a blat on my highly modified & PC3 fuel mapped 5th gen this morning, almost all motorway for work, 80 mile round trip, 11litres consumed, with average speed above 80mph, some of it much higher, so 80/11=7.27 per/L or 33mpg (UK gallons=4.546L, US=approx 3.8L). Flashing bar normally kicks in around 135miles on mine :(

Yikes!

[kyojitsu]

Thanks everyone - all very interesting.

Hmm. Between US gals vs UK gals, riding style and general engine health I think the old girl could do with a service and starter valve sync so she's booked in at the end of the month.

I usually do brim to brim fuel calcs so when I say 150 miles that's allowing 15-20 miles of flashing bar and me guesstimating what's left. Usually it's around 17 litres or so that goes back in which I believe leaves me 3 litres until dry? So that's about 25 miles at my current rate meaning a max range of about 175 miles.

That's not quite right is it?

[JeffInFranklinTN]

I can get 200 miles plus on a tank and that's after the last black bar has started blinking (between 180-190 miles)

I would think your mileage should be much better than 25-35 miles per gallon. My average is 40-42 mpg. I do "wick" it up a little but I'm not a screaming knee dragger either. (no offense to you sceaming knee draggers)

[vfr350]

Well I had a blat on my highly modified & PC3 fuel mapped 5th gen this morning, almost all motorway for work, 80 mile round trip, 11litres consumed, with average speed above 80mph, some of it much higher, so 80/11=7.27 per/L or 33mpg (UK gallons=4.546L, US=approx 3.8L). Flashing bar normally kicks in around 135miles on mine :(

Do your self a favor, disco the PC3 for the same ride and watch your mileage rise. I know for a fact i go from low 40's to mid to upper 30's when running my PC.

[MaxSwell]

I'm 5'8" - 145 lb. with a stock 5th gen & a Givi Touring windscreen. W/O luggage I get 45+ mpg in cold weather, 50+ in warm weather. I do not drag knees. I find my last guage-bar blinks at 4 1/2 gals. remaining consistantly. I frequently got 250 + miles per tank but I mentally compute my remaining miles when the guage starts blinking so I ride close to maximum empty.

With luggage milage drops about 5 mpg; usually around 46+ mpg in the summer.

One of the best ways I've found to extend range is to tuck behind the windscreen. If I tuck and hold the throttle steady my speed increases at least 5 mph at indicated 70 mph. So I throttle back to maintain my speed. That has to effect milage; I figure it increases by about 7%.

I think my weight and aero-drag are big contributers to milage. YMMV

[PirateRiderBen]

MaxSwell, is that figure including the deer riding pillion, or is that just you?

[Skids]

Thanks everyone - all very interesting.

Hmm. Between US gals vs UK gals, riding style and general engine health I think the old girl could do with a service and starter valve sync so she's booked in at the end of the month.

I usually do brim to brim fuel calcs so when I say 150 miles that's allowing 15-20 miles of flashing bar and me guesstimating what's left. Usually it's around 17 litres or so that goes back in which I believe leaves me 3 litres until dry? So that's about 25 miles at my current rate meaning a max range of about 175 miles.

That's not quite right is it?

Booked in???

Service it yersel ya big Jessie.....if I can manage it, I'm sure you can, or bring it down here and I'll show you how to do it for free (excl parts )

Oh, and the 98 has a 21 litre tank (the Vtec has 22 litres). I usually find if I fill up as the last bar flashes on the 98, I put just under 17 litres in.

[MaxSwell]

MaxSwell, is that figure including the deer riding pillion, or is that just you?

LMAO. The deer offer to pay their way but when they come onboard the ride always ends right there.

[Mohawk]

Do your self a favor, disco the PC3 for the same ride and watch your mileage rise. I know for a fact i go from low 40's to mid to upper 30's when running my PC.

I'm going to play with re mapping it for economy when in cruise mode. The PC makes it much smoother, but burns to much fuel. I need to create multiple maps to suit different riding styles !

[vfrcapn]

I'm one of the 381 I guess, check my sig line for Fuelly stats. 38.8 mpg US. I have noticed over the years mileage seemed to remain somewhat level, just a slight decrease in the average with 25K Fuelly miles tracked.

[vfr350]

Sure our mileage will dip again once they start pouring more corn in our tanks.

[kyojitsu]

I'm 5'8" - 145 lb. with a stock 5th gen & a Givi Touring windscreen. W/O luggage I get 45+ mpg in cold weather, 50+ in warm weather. I do not drag knees. I find my last guage-bar blinks at 4 1/2 gals. remaining consistantly. I frequently got 250 + miles per tank but I mentally compute my remaining miles when the guage starts blinking so I ride close to maximum empty.

With luggage milage drops about 5 mpg; usually around 46+ mpg in the summer.

One of the best ways I've found to extend range is to tuck behind the windscreen. If I tuck and hold the throttle steady my speed increases at least 5 mph at indicated 70 mph. So I throttle back to maintain my speed. That has to effect milage; I figure it increases by about 7%.

I think my weight and aero-drag are big contributers to milage. YMMV

I'm sure you're right about weight and drag - makes engineering sense doesn't it? I'm 6' 2" and nearer 200lbs so my bike is dragging around 55 lb more and I'm poking out in the airflow much more. Is there a correlation between great mileage and rider weight and height? Probably.

Thanks everyone - all very interesting.

Hmm. Between US gals vs UK gals, riding style and general engine health I think the old girl could do with a service and starter valve sync so she's booked in at the end of the month.

I usually do brim to brim fuel calcs so when I say 150 miles that's allowing 15-20 miles of flashing bar and me guesstimating what's left. Usually it's around 17 litres or so that goes back in which I believe leaves me 3 litres until dry? So that's about 25 miles at my current rate meaning a max range of about 175 miles.

That's not quite right is it?

Booked in???

Service it yersel ya big Jessie.....if I can manage it, I'm sure you can, or bring it down here and I'll show you how to do it for free (excl parts )

Oh, and the 98 has a 21 litre tank (the Vtec has 22 litres). I usually find if I fill up as the last bar flashes on the 98, I put just under 17 litres in.

Ha ha! I knew as soon as I posted that I would get grief for "using a professional". Let me put the case for the defence:

I'm fine with servicing my own bike (although I'm a bit scared of brakes in case I screw it up and kill myself). However this is a new bike to me with a 3 month warranty from a dealer I'm not sure I entirely trust. They claim to have PDI'd the bike but I'm pretty sure they didn't (but can't prove it).

Anyway - the starter valve sync thing is entirely new to me, I'd have to buy vacuum gauges and a service kit and by the time I'd done that for not much more there's a local guy I trust who's an ex Honda trained technician who'll do the service and sync for not much more. He knows VFRs really well and he'll do a much better job than I will plus he'll be able to identify any other faults I can nail the selling dealer on. Finally I've got a 2 year old and my wife's 6 months pregnant again so the hours available to bike tinker are very limited right now. So I "booked it in"!

I rest my case, members of the jury.

[Skids]

Booked in???

Service it yersel ya big Jessie.....if I can manage it, I'm sure you can, or bring it down here and I'll show you how to do it for free (excl parts )

Oh, and the 98 has a 21 litre tank (the Vtec has 22 litres). I usually find if I fill up as the last bar flashes on the 98, I put just under 17 litres in.

Ha ha! I knew as soon as I posted that I would get grief for "using a professional". Let me put the case for the defence:

I'm fine with servicing my own bike (although I'm a bit scared of brakes in case I screw it up and kill myself). However this is a new bike to me with a 3 month warranty from a dealer I'm not sure I entirely trust. They claim to have PDI'd the bike but I'm pretty sure they didn't (but can't prove it).

Anyway - the starter valve sync thing is entirely new to me, I'd have to buy vacuum gauges and a service kit and by the time I'd done that for not much more there's a local guy I trust who's an ex Honda trained technician who'll do the service and sync for not much more. He knows VFRs really well and he'll do a much better job than I will plus he'll be able to identify any other faults I can nail the selling dealer on. Finally I've got a 2 year old and my wife's 6 months pregnant again so the hours available to bike tinker are very limited right now. So I "booked it in"!

I rest my case, members of the jury.

Fair enough old chap!

However, whilst not claiming to be "a mechanic" and certainly not in the same league as your m8, I'm more than happy to help out if I can; I've been servicing both my bikes for a few years now and am aware of my limitations and happily get professionals to do the jobs I can't but regular services & SV balancing I can do so the offer is always there if you need it (plus I have a Halfords Trade card so can get significant discount on oil, plugs etc).

And I do proper coffee too!

[kyojitsu]

Cheers Skids - much appreciated!