Milage

[Wayne H]

Fuel mileage has gone from bad to worse...down to high twenty's low thirty's...Bike sounds great! Plenty of power, idles smooth, but sucks on mileage with no hard acceleration just normal riding.....Any ideas ??   

[IamGCW]

Tire pressure, air cleaner, try ethanol free gas, and are you lugging around extra weight in the saddle bags for starters.

Gil

[Thunderbolt]

Have you changed the air filter lately Wayne?  If you think that's o.k. take a look at the plugs and see if they are black and sooty.  Sounds like it might be running rich.

[Wayne H]

Air cleaner is K&N, relatively new. Plugs are new, replaced less than five hundred miles ago. Old plugs looked good! No black soot, not oily, nice rich tan probably did not need replacing....Still looking...I'll let you know if I find anything.....Thanks

[Skinhead]

Leaking?

[Thunderbolt]

Try this............take the K&N out and put in an OEM filter.  I think the numbers will go up.

[TJ]

Try this............take the K&N out and put in an OEM filter.  I think the numbers will go up.

 

[Tundra]

 My mileage varies greatly. 35mpg riding with Billyboy, up to 41mpg riding two up with Andrea. Hope you find the culprit Wayne, please share your findings. I'm curious to know about the K&N vs. stock filters.

[James III]

Tundra

"35mpg riding with Billyboy, up to 41mpg riding two up with Andrea"

Had to smile on that Doug! Billyboy and I ran 41-42 mpg heading north...
Wayne, have you run a can of sea foam through your tank? These carbs seem to respond well to a dose. I had a sticking vacuum piston/slider once that dropped my milage into the mid 20's, also had a leaking air cutoff valve at that time. Just more to check but I'd try the sea foam in a heavy dose.

James

[billyboy]

Try this............take the K&N out and put in an OEM filter.  I think the numbers will go up.

  10-4 on the K&N. Did you oil it? This seems to be a problem alot of the time. Keep it
   under 3,000 rpms and you'll get high 30's. At least I do, for about 5 min. 
   Good luck and let us know. 

[Wayne H]

I use Sea Foam quite regularly, but will give it another shot just in case...Ordered a new OEM filter a few minutes ago, should be here Monday....We'll see....Thanks

[Jess from VA]

Seafoam is good stuff, but I think Berryman's B12 is a better (more potent) carb cleaner.  Cheaper too.

[Wayne H]

Today was the first chance I've had to re-check the mileage stuff. I changed the air cleaner from K&N to OEM set the plug gap mid range of the recommendation (don't recall at present) I run a C/t on the rear and made sure both tires F/R were set at 40 psi.

My mileage improved by 1/2 mile per gallon , I attribute this to riding solo today as other checks were made riding two up.

Anyway, back to the drawing board....I'm open to all suggestions.

[Thunderbolt]

I sure thought that would help Wayne.  Do you know what the pilot jets are set at as far as number of turns out from the stop?  The OEM setting is at 1 3/4 turns out.  I set all that I have been through and cleaned up at 2 1/4 turns out.  But that is making it richer so probably makes the mileage go down actually not up.  Have you re adjusted them from original?

[James III]

Wayne, is your choke (enrichment valves) possibly sticking and not closing all the way through the choke lever cable?

James

[Wayne H]

Terry, I have not adjusted the jets since I got the bike back, and did not change them before I sold it, so my guess is they are still at factory settings.

James, I think the choke is working OK but definitely will check it.

Bike is running Super! Very smooth, plenty of power starts instantly and good idle. If it was sluggish or blowing black smoke or anything out of normal I would know where to look...I would say it has me pulling my hair out but....that was gone long ago... 

[HayHauler]

Has the bike been de-smoged?  If not, are there cracked and leaking vacuum lines?  I pulled my carbs to give them a good cleaning and found all sorts of leaks.  I took all of the smog equipment off and plugged all of the required holes.  No more backfires and went from mid-twenties to mid-thirties in the mpg range.  All with stock jets and stock exhaust, but the piggies have been cut.

Just my experience last July before Inzane.

Hay 
Jimmyt

[Wayne H]

Latest update: Removed Baker Built Air Wings from the bike added 6 ounces of Sea-foam to fuel tank and filled with mid-grade gas....Mileage increased by 7 miles per gallon. I like the air wings and will look at possibly modifying them someway and try again. In the meantime I'll run a couple of tanks of mid grade fuel to confirm this mileage increase...Thoughts???   

[John Schmidt]

Wayne, that sounds about right. When I added the HD fairing and I/S radiator pods 3-4 yrs. ago the first thing I noticed was the mileage drop. That, plus the I/S Baker Wings created even more wind resistance. Now, on the road I get in the low-mid 30's, whereas before I would constantly get in the upper 30's to low 40's. Probably my size 12s sticking out in the wind doesn't help either. I've considered removing the fairing and pods(but not my feet) so I can get better mileage. But since caretaker duties prevents me from traveling anyway, I don't really have any need to increase mileage by any large amount.

[Thunderbolt]

Wow 7 mpg better is a lot.  What is that about 20%?  Who would have thought the air wings would do that much.  Not that it is a permanent fix, but maybe try some non-ethanol fuel and see if that helps.  I think John said he made some comparisons with it and goes down with ethanol fuel. 

[John Schmidt]

Wow 7 mpg better is a lot.  What is that about 20%?  Who would have thought the air wings would do that much.  Not that it is a permanent fix, but maybe try some non-ethanol fuel and see if that helps.  I think John said he made some comparisons with it and goes down with ethanol fuel. 

Most definitely, regardless of what "they" say(whoever "they" are) it does affect mileage. Straight highway running, tank to tank, it made a difference of 2-3mpg depending on the lay of the land. A couple times even more, as much as 5 mpg if I ran non-liquored gas for more than a single tank. Heck, even in my SUV it happened that way. Going to Louisiana with Florida gas, running 70mph with the a/c on I was only averaging around 23.5mpg. Once out of Fla. I found some REAL gas and within 50 miles the computer showed as high as 27+ running the same speed. And, this was all on regular gas....won't run anything else, the Toyota Highlander doesn't need it.

[Wayne H]

John is definitely correct on the fuel without ethanol, When I ride out to our place in Oklahoma my mileage increases by about four miles per gallon after I reach western Alabama and points west....Always wondered why the "Corn Belt" didn't use this stuff and sent it all our way...