What gas mileage do you get?

Some of the #s I see here I am stuned at. My bike has main jets which are stock but the needles are lowered by one notch, which would make it run a bit on the lean side at mid range. The air screws are set to stock also. The carbs are the stock 26mm Kicks. On the average I cruse the express way at about 75Mph when I go to work and I run regular gas with the 8.5:1 compression the bike has. I have tryed to run premium and the milage is the same.

thanks, I think I'll look for a 550. It looks as though the guys with 650s and 750s aren't doing any better than the 1000s. seems odd...

of course the state of tune has a big affect also.

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My 77 650 gets 35-40. 42 is my highest and that included a lot of highway. I've studied this a little and have come to a few conclusions. Slide carbs are not as fuel efficient as CV carbs. It make sense if you understand the difference. Also, once you get the jetting right, there's not much magic to be had after that. I.e., there's no magical tuning or parts that will increase mileage. Pretty much all the manufacturers, even back in the 70's and 80's, knew how to adjust air/fuel ratios. They pretty much all get the same amount of energy out of a gallon of gas. Mileage is determined primarily by two things: weight for city mileage, and aerodynamics for highway mileage. I have a ZZR1200 (CV carbs) that gets better mileage than my KZ, so long as I don't twist the grip too much. HP CAN play a role, but, in looking at a bunch of bikes, I've found that a 500 lb bike with 100 HP will get about the same MPG as a 500 lb bike with 50 HP IF you ride them both the same. The problem is that high HP bikes like my ZZR accelerate so easily and so quickly, it's hard to ride it like I do my KZ. If you want mileage, get CV carbs and something light weight.

bemoore wrote:

If you want mileage, get CV carbs and something light weight.

My 550's with non CV TK22's get mid 50's . My ZR550 w/CV's gets a little over 40 .although older GPz550's w/CV's do get 50+ .

My 1980 750-4 gets around 35 - 40 mpg with a Kerker, K&N pods, Mikuni BS34 carbs and about the stock sprocket ratio.

wow, some of the numbers scare me, I only get between 32-35 on the 1000, although I did just change the gear on it but not that much, what kind of rpm are most you at running 70mph, wondering if thatis the issue

BSKZ650 wrote:

wow, some of the numbers scare me, I only get between 32-35 on the 1000, although I did just change the gear on it but not that much, what kind of rpm are most you at running 70mph, wondering if thatis the issue

I'm doing around 5000rpm@70mph and getting around 47mpg. My green-nut friend thinks that's terrible milage for a bike...But then he wants to put a starter motor on a bicycle as a locomotive source. (Yeah, I know the starter motor would burn out, quickly, but global warming is a faith based belief, and you shouldn't let logic, get in the way of a good "chicken little" senario)

With stock 16/42 gearing I'm doing about 5800 @ 70mph.

My 1982 KZ650 CSR with stock gearing and Mikuni BS32 carbs averaged about 53 MPG when traveling about 30% streets and 70% freeways at speeds up to 60 mph. With stock 13/33 gearing, the bike turned almost 5,000 RPM at 60 MPH. I also have a "Slipstreamer" windshield that is about 17" wide and 20" high. It goes from just above the headlight, up to about "nose" level.

I then changed the gearing, so the engine now turns about 3,900 at 60 MPH. The bike now gets about 58 MPG under the same conditions as above. :laugh: At sustained freeway speeds of 70 to 75 MPH, it averaged 56 MPG.

When the gas tank is filled almost to the neck, it will hold about 2.5 gallons before the petcock must be switched to the "reserve" setting. Beyond that, it holds .8 gallons until empty. We are planning a highway trip, and the maximum range will be about 140 miles ( 56 x 2.5 ) without getting into the reserve.

Incidently, does anybody have any information on whether the windshield helps or hurts fuel economy? Thanks.

Mileage will vary greatly even between the exact same model. We've seen a couple guys here claiming 15mpg which is pretty rough to imagine. I bought my 78 KZ650 new and got 60mpg every fillup until 2000 miles when the idiots at the dealer did the 2000 mile check. So much for 60, immediately down to 40 and never got it back where it was. Other motorcycles I had like GPZ550 would get 60 quite often, GPZ1100 would get 50 when it was new, was down to 35 or so by 20,000 miles. The 650 I ride now gets 35 or so usually. I'd think on average a 650 or 1000 will get anywhere from low 30s to low 40s for the most part. I figured 40mpg or 160 miles range on long trips, but it can vary from tank to tank depending on terain and wind. A nice tailwind can net you 10mpg extra, where a headwind can cut you 10.

but global warming is a faith based belief, and you shouldn't let logic, get in the way of a good "chicken little" scenario)

Sooooo true, ronjones, sooooo true.
Now I suppose we'll have all the Greens doing drive-by flame wars......or worse.....we could have algore show up on here !!!:ohmy: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: