You have to remember that the Burgman was originally designed for and sold for the Asian and Euopean markets. There they don't always have the wide open roads we do in the USA, plus the 650 didn't have overdrive till 05. So 40-50 mpg was the norm. Since then they have become popular here and with the intro of the OD it is possible to get 50+ mpg. However, the volume of sales in the USA still pales to the sales overseas, so they may have thought it cost prudent to just leave it alone. Would it be nice to have it read higher? Yes it would but I'm to busy watching out for the idiot drivers to be constantly watching that meter. I have learned with the 650 what style of driving gives me the best mpg and that's the way I tend to drive most of the time. :wink:

My 0.02 worth.

 

Why in the heck would Suzuki cap the mpg gage at 50? I commute daily on my bike ~100 miles and would love to be able to maximize my mileage by careful monitoring. Yet when it stops counting at 50 that's impossible.

Impossible eh?

Ever hear of a piece of paper and pencil?

Or, a calculator?

:|

 

Ever hear of a piece of paper and pencil? Or, a calculator?

I'm more than willing to share my fairly exhaustive Excel spreadsheet for calculating Burgman (or other vehicle) MPG with anyone who wants it. It also calculates other statistics like miles/day, etc. Email me at don@stanwyck.com if you want me to send it to you.

 

PAPER !!! PENCIL!!!
????
What the heck are they, and how does one go about using them??? :lol:

I check my MPG against the onboard computer using my calculator, and I always get more then the bike says.

 

I agree with the OP. Sorry to the rest of you, but the OP is trying "to maximize my mileage by careful monitoring", and figuring it out after 175 miles has gone by doesn't constitute "careful". I think the OP whats to use the mileage gauge on the fly, and would like a feature to work if it is included with the bike.

 

Has anyone tried flipping the display over to km/l (metric) to see if that has the same cap? I know that was something I read on one of the cars displays that limited at 50 mpg, they would switch to the metric display, and it removed that limit... It would mean converting the speed limit to km/hr in your head, but if it was just for "learning" the sweet spot driving for MPG, it might be ok for a while....

Just a thought...

 

Somehow every time I drag out that paper and pencil while wearing gloves and going 75 I crash into stuff I like the idea of trying to trick it by switching over to metric. That level of math conversion I can do in my head.

I switched to the super tall Clearview windshield and my mileage instantly dropped 3-4mpg. Kinda sucks, but still a reasonable price to pay for riding in comfort. Especially on those 29 deg mornings!

 

The point isn't that someone could use paper and pencil, or that the bike is made originally for Europe, or any of that stuff.

The point is that there is no logical reason for them to cut off that display at 50.0 mpg. Nobody really knows why the choose to do that, and Suzuki won't tell.
Apparently we can't handle the truth?
The funny thing is that they actually had to use more code in the program to cap the display. I work in the IT industry, and this makes
absolutely no sense. Not capping the display costs them not one penny, and it probably cost them a couple dollars extra to write that silly code.
I bet the programmer who got that assignment was thinking "WTF?" when they saw the requirement.
The intentional speedo error is another puzzling thing.