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Wow where do you live? The gas here goes bad in 2 weeks, yes thats right 2 weeks. If I dont use stabilizer my carbs are gummed up in about 20 days. I have seven motorcycles so it turns into quite the chore to have to clean the carbs once a month. If I'm not going to ride for awhile I drain the gas. Gas going bad is a real thing.

baldy110 wrote: Wow where do you live? The gas here goes bad in 2 weeks, yes thats right 2 weeks. If I dont use stabilizer my carbs are gummed up in about 20 days. I have seven motorcycles so it turns into quite the chore to have to clean the carbs once a month. If I'm not going to ride for awhile I drain the gas. Gas going bad is a real thing.

Minnesota. Maybe you need to buy your gas somewhere else? I don't drain carbs for the winter - ever

I usually get about 35mpg with my 1100 shaft.

I've experienced a LOT more pilot jets getting clogged with the E10 fuel. My (now departed) GS1000S used to sit quite a bit and the pilots would plug after a few months of inactivity. Stupid me. After beginning the regime of using marine Stabil the problem when away.

30 mpg is very poor for highway riding .
That's what I get when the riding hard so i'd seriously consider having a good look in the motor.
I get 50 mpg ( imp gall ) average at around 70 mph with my Z1R and it's not stock.

One thing to remember regarding E10. If you have a vehicle that you have been running E0 in forever, the E10 will clog fuel filters, jets and every other little hole in the system. The reason is that the Ethanol is a great fuel system cleaner and flushes all the accumulated crap out of the system fast. Anytime I've bought a vehicle from the southern states I've had to run through a few fuel filters until all the guck is cleaned out of the fuel system. There is also the minor concern that some really old fuel lines are not ethanol safe. If you have any of those then your fuel lines should have been replaced a long time ago.

One of my bikes is a KLR650 with a big clear plastic tank. I keep in outside under a car port. I notice if I don't cover it up from the sun the gas starts to smell bad in 10 days and it effects the performance of the bike. It will start detonating until i put fresh gas in. I now keep it covered and the gas lasts longer.
And my KZ900 gets 40 mpg at 80 mph.

Highway riding I get anything from 50Mpg (Australia gal=4.545ltrs) to a few times sitting on 100 to 110kph most I got was 62mpg, My riding is at times a drag otherwise steady throttle. I have MTC 1075 pistons, mild cams, porting , Marving pipe and ZRX 36 CV's with foam pods, gearing 3,600 at 100kph.
Our previous z900 was also very economical.

Do your carbs have enrichener circuits? That's where I'd start to look on the carbs. If not, then I'd probably start with ignition as others said.

I normally get about 40 mpg with my red Z1. The blue one is just broken in and it gets about 40 with a close ratio tranny that revs about 500 higher at highway speed. Both bikes are stock intake, carb settings and exhaust.

I avoid ethanol when I can. In BC you can get Shell 91 or Chevron 94 without ethanol. The higher octane level makes no difference to mileage. It's just a bit of a waste of anti-knock additives....at 8.5/1 the Z1 engine doesn't need high octane.

Almost everything else in BC has ethanol. Here is a link that will tell you which stations have it. Just change the province or state to suit you locale.

www.pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=ON

By Oldjeep: E10 drops your fuel mileage by about 5%. Carb operated motors need to be richened up a little bit when operating on E10. We've had E10 around here for over 25 years, never understood the whole "fuel gets old" nonsense - I store over 100 gallons of E10 per season in boats, snowmobiles, power equipment and seasonal cars. Never had a fuel related issue. Modern fuel comes with all sorts of stabilizers from the pump, so no snake oil needed.

Time isn't the only factor. Temperature & quantity also affect the fuel >> higher temps speed up fuel degradation & larger quantities last longer than small quantities. I see that you're in MN, so you're going to have cooler temps on average compared to someone in hotter climes.
Here in TX it's hot hot hot for as long as 5-6 months w a couple more months of warm weather & sometimes there are almost 9 mos of hot weather >> the small amount of fuel in the carbs can go bad in a couple of weeks during those months. I've experienced it numerous times over the years & the fuel will effuse a distinctive acrid odor.
....

The EPA also mandates different seasonal and regional additive blends. I have a friend who owned a repair shop and the last few years a major portion of their work has been rebuilding gummed up carbs. Some from sitting for only three weeks. This is something he saw none of thirty years ago when he opened his shop. I have experienced it myself.