Jimbo1 wrote:
Seems like I have been spending a lot of time putting gas in my scoot. I have done about 200 miles the last two days on a couple of 1/2 day rides cruising two up with the misses. I would say it was probably 1/3 city and 2/3 highway miles. According to my calculations, I'm getting about 31 mpg. Seems kinda low. I'm a big guy 280 lbs and my wife is probably 140 lbs. The bikes seems to be running great. The bike is a '05 midnight silverado that is stock, except for the V&H longshots. Is 31 mpg to be expected?
JimYou don't list your bike in your profile as carb or fuel injected. If you are carburetored you might have a problem with your floats. I tip the scales at a portly 250lbs and the wife, well lets just say she is just the way I like her. A little heavy but really curvey. I drive hard and most of the time two up and have never gotten less than 39 mpg. When I get going from a standing start up to cruise speed is WOT all the time. This bike pulls like a tractor, but I'm more used to F-18 acceleration. To all of the Bourbon Trail Riders Club that was behind me, I'm sorry about the noise!

Jimbo1 wrote:
Seems like I have been spending a lot of time putting gas in my scoot. I have done about 200 miles the last two days on a couple of 1/2 day rides cruising two up with the misses. I would say it was probably 1/3 city and 2/3 highway miles. According to my calculations, I'm getting about 31 mpg. Seems kinda low. I'm a big guy 280 lbs and my wife is probably 140 lbs. The bikes seems to be running great. The bike is a '05 midnight silverado that is stock, except for the V&H longshots. Is 31 mpg to be expected?
Jim================================

He stated his bike is an 05 silverado so its carb'd,EFI come std on 08 & up R*'s.

Heres something to think about.

When i got my 06 silverado with bags empty and windscreen in lower postion for less wind resistance with only me on the bike @ 160lbs i got 43-45mpg riding very conservatively short shifting etc 1/3 city / 2/3 on the open road.

Then took same route under same cond rining more normal less conservative not short shifitng as much but nothing wild either and mpg went from 43-45 to 38-40 just from using a little more (not a ot more) throttle when taking off showing just how much using a little more throttle when taking off/getting up to speed affects/reduces mpg.

But i felt 100% open road riding like filling up on the interstate and running full tank of fuel on the interstate at maybe 65-70mph riding by myslef with bikes bags empty & windsreeen in lower position i could have got 46-47mpg or so.

Now With nothing being changed on the motor/carb etc with bags now filled on each side of bike for kore weight,windscreeen was moved to upper position for better wind protection,added additonal bags/carry cases to luggage rack that were loaded with fruit & veggies/potatoes from farm stands & wine from local vineyard & water bottles etc ,had wife on the back and with same conservative riding in same hilly area at same approx speeds bike went from 43-45mpg to 34-35mpg on avg and again i live in the hilly north east where i have to get into throttle more going up steep hily and mountains at times esp riding 2up with bike fully loaded and screen in upper postion.

Point is there are a tone of factors that can affect mpg (geography/hills/mountains/overall weight being pulled by motor/riding style/strong headwinds vs calm air when riding esp with windscreen thats worse in upper postion,cond of motor & its tune,etc)and the guys consistantly hitting 47-50 mpg are likely not riding 2 up,dont have as many bags fully loaded pulling all that additonal weight or additonal bags on a luggage rack filled up too,arent riding in steep mountains where ya have to get into throttle hard killing fuel mileage esp when riding 2 up with a headwind and maybe live where its very flat,they may not have a windscreen or have it in lower positon for less wind resistance,were running a conservative 65-70mph max ,some guys weigh 300lbs and other guys like me weight 160lbs,state of motor tune as far as cond of air filet,spark plugs,weight oil being run & carb setup ,running stock vs aftermarket dyn3000 ign module with different timing settings,different exhaust pipes for varying deg of breathing,dif air cleaners,all directly affecting mpg,dont conatntly blip the thortle at stop lights and when down shifting which saves a shot of fuel from accell pump on carb every time ya dony that vs wasting fuel blipping the throttle all the time ,short warm up with little to no choke vs guys that use too much choke and take too much warm up time sitting still loading up motor/plugs ,and the list goes on.

Thats why you have guys getting best of 35-40mpg on avg and others getting 45-50mpg on avg because there are just " way too many variables" that afect fuel mpg to compair person to person riding style,diff in bike to bike setups & weights being pulled,area ridden in most flat vs very hilly,etc.

With all that in mind your 31 mpg is a bit low but if you were not riding real conservative/using a little too much throttle when taking off/getting up to speed backing off the gas a bit when doing so and not blipping throttle when at stop lights and blipping it heavy when down shifting too,starting motor with little choke and getting choke off ASAP and getting undeway ASAP could collectively increase your 31mpg to 33-34mpg and maybe even 35mpg in best case if your a blipper kinda guy and reduce amount doing it.

I just got back from a 300mile round trip on interstate riding 70mph with now a 31t pulley = little more cruise rpm(approx 2750-2800rpm @ 70mph)-crusing 70mph with 31t pulley is like crusing 74-75mph with stock 32t pulley,riding 2up with all bags fully loaded,stiff head winds for complete trip,windscreen in upper postion,etc and avg 35mpg.

Take away the stiff headwinds and drop back from 70mph 65mph and i bet the 35mpg on avg mpg would increase to 37-38mpg or so on avg. When i would temp go thur very wooded areas with less headwind i had to reduce throttle quite a lot ,but when got back out into open area with more headwind i had to apply consederably more throttle to maintain speed which reduces fuel mileage.

BTW,i find it a hard to belive the statement in another part of this thread that with a 1700cc R* when that poster stated he goes WOT every time he's going thru the gears getting up to speed from a stop & is getting a minimum of 39mpg.

I would bet my last $1 that if we randomly took 10 R*'s from this forum that are running well in good cond and used WOT every time on all of those 10 bikes when going thru the gears getting up to cruise speed that any of them would consistantly be getting a minimum of 39mpg or even more.

IMHO That just isnt gonna happen with a carb'd R* if you use WOT every time going thru the gears when getting up to speed,thats one of the worst things you can do to kill/reduce fuel mileage.

Could maybe be he's filling the fuel tank with bike on sidestand on an angle where fuel tank can take on more fuel then refilling the fuel tank when sitting on the bike with it sitting straight up where fuel tank can't take on as much fuel making it look like your getting better mpg then ya really are.

But that would not be the case if he did the mod to slice open the down tube in filler neck of fuel tank that would allow it to be totally filled when sitting straight up vs on sidestand at an angle.

Thats my $.02 on that comming from the experiences i have had with my R* ,working on & tuning a few other R*'s,from reading litterally 100's of posts here in RSC over past few yrs on MPG these bikes are getting in all sorts of cond along with my past 40+ yrs wrenching /tuning/rebuidling-restoring riding-driving bikes & muscle cars.

Scott

Jimbo1 wrote:
Seems like I have been spending a lot of time putting gas in my scoot. I have done about 200 miles the last two days on a couple of 1/2 day rides cruising two up with the misses. I would say it was probably 1/3 city and 2/3 highway miles. According to my calculations, I'm getting about 31 mpg. Seems kinda low. I'm a big guy 280 lbs and my wife is probably 140 lbs. The bikes seems to be running great. The bike is a '05 midnight silverado that is stock, except for the V&H longshots. Is 31 mpg to be expected?
Jim
That's purty much what I was getting hauling butt over 65 mph. I rejetted the carb and now get anywhere from 42 to 50 mpg

Mikuni uses 65mph on as much as a flat road as possible and on a calm day with no excessive winds. That being said, properly jetted whether a stock carb or the 42HSR carb, there is no reason not to get a minimum of 40mpg and as good as 50mpg. there is no right or wrong in jetting unless you are to the extreme of being too lean or being too rich. There is a window of jetting between jetted for performance or economy, but even jetted for performance, you should still get 40mpg at 60, 65mph

Erbman02 wrote:
Mikuni uses 65mph on as much as a flat road as possible and on a calm day with no excessive winds. That being said, properly jetted whether a stock carb or the 42HSR carb, there is no reason not to get a minimum of 40mpg and as good as 50mpg. there is no right or wrong in jetting unless you are to the extreme of being too lean or being too rich. There is a window of jetting between jetted for performance or economy, but even jetted for performance, you should still get 40mpg at 60, 65mph
===============

ERBman is right on the money as usual/LOL!!!

40mpg at 60-65mph is a good minimum these bikes should get when properly tuned when crusing on the open road when ya fillup esp when your ride right onto the interstate with no city driving post filling up.

If your much below 40mpg like mentioned above then the motor at the very least needs a tune up with new plugs and or air filter cleaning along with oil change to maybe being setyup too rich needing carb to be dialed in better thru pms adj,needle clip adj,maybe even main jet though main jet doesnt affect light throttle position/cruise mixture as much as needle clip & pms adj does,main jet is more of from 3/4 to full/WOT mixture adj.

Interstate only crusing at lower 60-65mph speed with no headwind on flat road riding 1 person with bike lightly loaded down is when guys are getting 48-50 mpg .

Just going from 65mph to 70mph could reduce fuel mileage by 1-1.5mpg in somce cases esp with headwind.

75 mph will reduce fuel mileage even more due to more wind resistance at faster cruise speed and also more/higher throttle position pulling needle more/higher to give motor the additional fuel it needs under more load/higher throttle postition at higher cruise speed.

Scott

Jona dose that answer your question about JETTING

I am consistantly getting 35 mpgs on my 06. I am always heavy on the throttle at take off. The only mod i have is cobra longshots, I never jetted my carb. Would that improve either performance or mpg?

AMAHAY wrote:
I am consistantly getting 35 mpgs on my 06. I am always heavy on the throttle at take off. The only mod i have is cobra longshots, I never jetted my carb. Would that improve either performance or mpg?

You need to test for specifics for mpg's. And that is doing a proper cruise test, as mundane as it is, riding 100 plus miles and holding the throttle steady, will tell you what you can actually get mpg wise.

Thanks, I'll try that sometime.

Man, talk about getting some replies! It seems from careful reading, that a guy that has a roadstar with a carb, and a heavy throttle hand, sould expect from, say, low 30's to high 30's mpg in daily use. I think I would probably get about 40-45 mpg babying the shit out of it running about 70 mph on the highway. I am gathering that I am not that far from the norm. I am due for an oil change in about 2000 miles. At that time I'll do a tune up, change the air filter, and check the jetting. In the mean time I will ride the bejesus out of this thing. Thanks for the info folks.
Jim