Re: mileage
camrakid said:
I'm surprised to hear that it is thirsty after 70. Many of the highways are 70 and many people drive that to +5 over. I would think at a constant speed it wouldn't make much difference the speed.
While idling at traffic lights, and jackrabbit starts are the biggest wasters of fuel, high speed riding -- even at a steady speed -- uses more than riding steady at lower speeds (as long as it's fast enough to get into the highest gear).
The reason is that aerodynamic drag increases at the square of the speed. So increasing from 50MPH to 60MPH has some effect on drag, but increasing from 60 - 70 has a much bigger effect even though it's still a 10MPH increase. Going from 70 - 80 has a
hug
e effect on drag, but it's still just a 10MPH increase. It's an exponential, rather than linear, increase in drag.
Bikes with big windshields and luggage boxes have higher drag to start with, so the increase at high speeds really adds up quickly.
My best run range-wise was 201 miles on 3.88 gallons -- mostly at 70 - 75MPH, the last 50 miles (when I realized I had missed a planned fuel stop) at 55 - 60MPH. 201 / 3.88 = 51.8MPG.
On the same trip I went 200.1 on 3.63, for 55.12MPG. I did most of that at 60 - 65MPH, going for range versus speed.
Normally I wouldn't advise going anywhere past 180 miles without filling up, but these two cases (one accidental, one on purpose) were exceptions.
My worst mileage was during the first week I had it, when all my riding was around town in the lower "gear" ranges: 36MPG. Thankfully it got better in a hurry after break-in.
I still have the stock screen and no luggage.