Optimal speed for lowest consumption of gas?

[Hondagirl]

Probably i am supposed to know this already but I don't. So I figured you guys n gals would be the people to ask

Am riding to the West coast tomorrow (on my Honda XR Motard 400)behind a removal truck (moving house) and I don't know the route but it takes about 4 hours slow roads apparantly and it's around 120 kms.

I don't want us to have to stop for gas till we get there if poss and my bike does 120 kms full tank which I will start at. What sort of speed would get me the best mileage? The truck I'm following will drive slow (or to my speed) as it has heavy stuff -very small truck- and my precious dog in it. Any tips welcome.

Thank you.

[VermilionX]

your bike doesn't have a tachometer?

basically you wanna keep your rpms low, shift early, don't accelerate hard.

[Wrider]

Yup, shift low, accelerate slowly, keep the RPMs low. Your best speed for fuel efficiency is about 200 RPM above where your engine starts bogging down in top gear.

[Marvin]

There's a fine line in the right size and the power of the engine matched to the size and weight of the bike.
Like if you had a small, underpowered engine mounted into a big heavy bike you'll have to run that engine at its max for it to pull around the weight of the bike and gas mileage would suffer, but if you had the right size engine where you wouldn't have to run it around all day at full throttle you would get good gas mileage, take the 500-650cc sport bikes for an example, in my opinion these are the perfect size with the engine power matched perfectly with the size of the bike with plenty of reserve power thats never needed, my Yamaha FZ6 gets 10 mpg better than my Yamaha Tmax cause the Tmax is around the same weight but its a less powerfull engine.
The top engineering masterpiece is the Kawasaki 250 Ninja, that engine will perform as good as any large cruiser bike, but its mounted on a light weight frame and it will get between 62-75 mpg, if you want good gas mileage with solid performance thats the bike to get!

[Hondagirl]

Thanks for the tips

Vermilion X ~ no tachometer, only speedometer, yours and Wrider's advice I will bear in mind. Try and accelerate very slow and shift early thanks for the speed advice good to know ~ Wrider.

Marvin~ yeah. the strain factor is something I'd thought about as I know the roads are going to be mixed (as in some windy, some long and straight, uphill, down, with traffic and without etc) so there will be a lot of shift maneuver and throttle won't be steady.

I like the Kawasaki Ninja, very popular bike here, sounds like it gets better mileage than my Motard

Looks like clear skies here with highs of 60F tomorrow heading west with rain at the destination in the afternoon. Hope to make it before that rain.

[sapaul]

Please put your safety above gas mileage though, riding slowly can cause fatigue. If you need to , go ahead and blow away the cobwebs and give yourself a rest stop and wait for the truck.

hope all goes well

[Marvin]

My personal #1 rule on any motorcycle or scooter is it has to have radial tires,,,, not bias-ply! To me its the tires on the bike that makes the bike ride and handle, to me bias ply tires are dangerous on wet roads, for the longest time my dream bike was the Suzuki V Strom, but always in the past they came with bias ply tires, (new ones switched to radials) and thats the only reason I didn't buy one and thats one of the main reasons I purchaced a Yamaha Tmax cause it came with radials...it drives me crazy how new people that were never on any motorcycle before wants a cruiser bike with bias ply tires on it cause these bikes are the toughest to handle and ride and that makes it rougher for a beginner to ride, thats why I always recommend the 600-650cc sport bikes as a beginner bike such as the Suzuki SV650S, or the Kawasaki 650 Ninja, Yamaha FZ6-FZ8 cause these bikes are very easy to ride and handle and with radial tires they get great traction on wet roads. My newest dream bike is the Honda Interceptor, took one for a test ride once,, at low throttle it feels like a slow 250cc bike but at high throttle the engine comes alive like a monster that rips your arms out trying to hold on!

[dr_bar]

So you're saying I should park my bike for good because there are no radials that can be found to fit it?

The M/C manufacturer recommends that radials not be used on my bike. I won't mention that fact that all the Bias Ply tires I've bought for my two heavy weight cruisers have performed above and beyond in wet conditions. Oops, I just mentioned it...

If you want to black list tires, don't do it because of the structure, do it becuse of the shitty compounds some of them are made of. Also be more specific in your application, some tires have softer compounds, others are harder, both can be bias or radial. Tires with softer compounds have more grip than ones with harder compounds, yet the life of the softer tire will be shorter due to faster wear...

People should buy the tire that fits the intended application...

[Wrider]

My personal #1 rule on any motorcycle or scooter is it has to have radial tires,,,, not bias-ply! To me its the tires on the bike that makes the bike ride and handle, to me bias ply tires are dangerous on wet roads, for the longest time my dream bike was the Suzuki V Strom, but always in the past they came with bias ply tires, (new ones switched to radials) and thats the only reason I didn't buy one and thats one of the main reasons I purchaced a Yamaha Tmax cause it came with radials...it drives me crazy how new people that were never on any motorcycle before wants a cruiser bike with bias ply tires on it cause these bikes are the toughest to handle and ride and that makes it rougher for a beginner to ride, thats why I always recommend the 600-650cc sport bikes as a beginner bike such as the Suzuki SV650S, or the Kawasaki 650 Ninja, Yamaha FZ6-FZ8 cause these bikes are very easy to ride and handle and with radial tires they get great traction on wet roads. My newest dream bike is the Honda Interceptor, took one for a test ride once,, at low throttle it feels like a slow 250cc bike but at high throttle the engine comes alive like a monster that rips your arms out trying to hold on!

Sooner or later you'll learn that you need to shut up and learn rather than pretend you know anything about bikes.
Besides I thought your scooter was the end all be all of motorcycling. Why would you ever need to go back to a clutched 1200 cc motorcycle when you have your t-minimum?

[Marvin]

Wrider? I love the attention I get with the Yamaha Tmax,,, scooters are very popular right now, everybody wants one, and I own the one that everybody wants and is excited about, everybody has watched and read the reviews on the high powered maxi scooters and in every review the Yamaha Tmax always come out on top,,,, I just love to brag that I own one even when its almost impossible for everybody to buy one, Its fun owning a Tmax when so few were sold in the U.S. and being one of the so few that owns one..

you see? the bike you own is B-O-R-I-N-G cause everybody else ones the same bike, it gets no attention cause everybody is used to seeing the same bike all the time, it doesn't excite people looking at the same model of bike over and over again.... but what I own is very rare, you don't see many of what I own and ,,, yes it does attract attention!