With gas prices over $3 per gallon, I am considering getting a motorcycle that gets better gas mileage than my car. Every car is required to have fuel efficiency ratings posted and they are typically common knowledge. I have been unable to find anything that tells me what kind of gas mileage motorcycles get. The ones I am most interested in are the 750 cc Hondas and (if I stretch) a Honda Valkyrie. Any ideas?
I dont actually pay that close attention to my mileage (I ride a kaw ZX6R) but I think it varies between 30 and 40 MPG depending on the type of riding I do. for example if I am on the track then I use a lot more than when I am on the highwy commuting to school verses the twistie roads. After you calulate tires, insurance and maintenance you may not be saving a lot unless you ride the bike exclusively which is difficult to do. Not that I am talking you out of it, it is worth it just because riding a bike is like no other experience and we only live once so if you gotta commute then why not enjoy it! I am all for it but maybe look at the 600's instead of the bigger bikes. If fuel efficeinecy is really truly your goal then look at (shudder the thought) a scooter, they are popular and VERY efficient as by their design. If you do stick with a motorcycle then I stand by the Jap inports, you cant go wrong with Yami, Kawi, Honda or Suzuki.
I've never checked my sportster but all my road trips are on my Yamaha Roadstar 1600cc. With me (225 lbs), my wife, and all our baggage, I average about 42 mpg at an average speed of 70 mph. Smaller bikes, 600-800cc, can get close to 50 mpg or more. Some small scooters get 150-180 mpg, or more, but only go about 30-40 mph, if you're lucky--------and you don't get ran over. Then you have to consider insurance, maintenance, and, depending on where you live, you're probably going to be able to ride only about 6 months out of the year. It all boils down to how much you want to ride, what you want to ride, and what you feel you can afford to ride. To me, a biker is a biker, no matter what he rides. It is a commitment, a love, a special bond that only bikers know. I've been a biker since the late '50's, and as long as I can twist a throttle, I'll be a biker. Ha,ha, I'm rambling. All I can tell you is follow your gut feeling. Get what ever you're comfortable with and, after your first season, you'll be hooked. Good luck, ltcbob400
50cc'ers can approach 150 & 200 mpg, if carefully driven. 90-100 would be a better estimate.
250ccs will get you 60-80 mpg, depending on how you ride.
500ccs, 30 - 60 mpg, bike type and your style determine the rest.
750s average 45 - 50, but a somewhat hard ridden sport 750 yields 30-40 as a daily driver.
Get back to a cruiser like a 1200 GoldWing, still yields 35-45, depending. (It's tuned a little more like a car.*)
If you graph these, it's a couple of curves, with you somewhere between. But in theory, riding up a hill (work=hp) takes the same gas (power) for a 250 as for a 750. The difference is mainly the extra weight, which if graphed, also rises slowly with size, and F=ma^2, which means that acceleration is, like wind, exponential, and a little more acceleration (if used !!!,) or if accelerating more weight, (heavier/bigger bike) eats a lot more gas. (Brake less, plan ahead, accelerate less, save gas and wear and tickets.)
*Cars are tuned to get max mpg at low rpms. Bikers want power so bikes are efficient at higher rpms, but they are not tuned for economy, even though" their best economy" [efficiency] is at higher rpms. A 250 will do 65 mph, if you want economy. (It's operating near it's peak rpm efficiency.) A 150 is highway legal, but barely keeps up, so any wind or speeders and you are in danger in the slow lane, near on ramps. Scooters nowadays are made 250 and 500 cc for commuters. They have some storage, too.
You don't really need a 750. A 500 is a good size, or a 600 is a fav size today. A 250 Honda Rebel just has one carb, so economy is better, but they lack performance and barely are ok on freeways... somewhat overpriced. Leaning fwd reduces drag, so a smaller bike is ok, like a 250. Sitting upright increases wind resistance so much, a 500 is almost equivalent (in power.speed.) Few 350s or 400s are made. Too bad. A good size compromise. See used old Hondas for these sizes. I bid on a '90something(?) 1000 Hurricane today. I will ride it gently. On our '85 VF500F, I get 35 mpg. I ride it harder, and it's almost race tuned. My '73 - 750 Honda Four gets 40-45 mpg easily, but wide open for 8 hrs I averaged 15 mpg, stock. It's mild state of tune makes that '73 750 = an '84 500 in higher tune. Same 68 HP. 100 lbs different. About the same mileage. They'll do 130. Will you?
My dad rode his Honda 90 Trail 1 mile to work. In a few months, he'd run out of his 1.7 gallons, and get honked at as he pushed it home. They laughed. He did too. And all the way to the bank as well.
Your mileage, lol, may vary... Hey, report back, eh?!? Happy Holidays! BillSF9c
DUDE i ride a motorcycle every day of the year it is fantastic!!! i have a 95 american classic eddition. the mil on it isn't that very good i go about miles on bout three gals. you would prob be better off with a newer bike and a sport bike, most of the time gets better millage that n a cruiser. imports are good
I own a '93 Honda Nighthawk CB750, and I get about 45 mpg, mostly highway driving. If you REALLY want economy, look at a used Honda Nighthawk 250 or Honda Rebel 250, or Yamaha Virago 250. The 250 cc bikes can go fast enough to ride the Interstates (but not much more), and typically get 75-85 mpg. The downside is that they're smaller bikes, so may feel cramped if you're tall. Back when I was a teenager, a 500cc or 650cc was a big bike, and a Norton 750cc was a monster! The current obsession with bigger and bigger bike motors is just STUPID, because the 500 - 800 cc range will do everything the bigger bikes do, and do it lots cheaper, both in purchase price and also on maintenance. I had a Kawasaki KLR 650, which was an excellent solo bike, got 50-55mpg, GREAT in-town commuting bike, could keep up with the Harleys on the Interstate, and could go offroad with no problem - - I wish I'd kept it. And it only cost $5K new! Downside? Not a good choice for carrying a passenger, stock seat is uncomfortable for long rides, knobby tires wore out fast on pavement, and hard to fit a windshield onto (but I did it with a Street Shield). You might also look for a Honda Pacific Coast 800cc, which are wonderful commuters and get about 50 mpg, very smooth, quiet, comfortable, and with full fairing and windshield to make the drive lots more comfortable. Unfortunately, they stopped making them in 1998, so all available ones are at least 10 years old.
I drive a Suzuki Intruder 800cc every day except ice or snow. It got 49-51 mpg when it was new, now it has 73,000 miles and gets about 45 mpg. Weight is a big factor in miles per gallon, there are many big heavy bikes out there. My intruder weighs 450 lbs. Depending on where you live and the weather you might spend alot of money on warm weather clothing and or rain gear and the savings on gas wont look so good. I live near Seattle WA and it cold and wet a lot.
I ride a 07 Goldwing every day to work (40 miles one way). It is an 1800 cc engine and I get around 40 MPG cruising at 70 MPH. At slower speeds (60 MPH) I have gotten around 45 MPG. If you are after economy look at a Honda 250. For commuting it would be great.
I just sold a 200cc bike I bought here on ebay , it was the little wildfire mustang you see all the time. It was a fantastic starter bike and got around 100 mpg, its top speed was only 60 mph though, and that was pushing it hard. Not a good commuter bike even though it was street legal. The smaller the engine cc's the better your fuel is likely to be, you'll have to consider first where you will be riding. If you're never getting off a city street and not going t be anywhere with a 70 mile an hour speed limit a 250 may be fine and the market is now flooded with fair quality Chinese bikes at a fraction of the cost of a new Honda Rebel or its cousins. The 500's you can get in British and Russian and Chinese bikes. Look good and aren't badly priced, should get good mileage but are only advertising speeds around the same range as the 200 and 250 cc bikes. So a Japanese bike would be a better bet. I have seen an Aussie bike, Johnny Pag in a 300 that advertised freeway speeds. You pretty much cant get an american bike that I have come across that is lower than Harleys 883cc sportster . I am buying a 865 Triumph Bonneville it claims an average 40 mpg. There are also the Hybrid moped scooters that should get incredible gas and do freeway speeds as well Honds silver wing is a good example, If you have never ridden definantly go for the smaller bike if you have the option, just to get you're feet wet. Bikes have surprising take off speed and aren't as simple as a bicycle no matter how much your buddy says they are.
I just saw your post......go for the Valk! we bought ours new in 03 Standard, Black & Chrome( the fastest Valks!) we have almost 60,000 miles on her and still going strong! we have done some mods, 16"apes,6"risers, car tire on the rear( Yes, we are Darksiders!) Cut off the mufflers and installed 36"straight truck stacks with 9" glass packs. She's taken us to Alabama,Missouri, and we ride every chance we get( my husband rides everyday, except if it's really cold & rainy!) We live in Texas, so we can pretty much do that. Just regular maintenance, (just changed the battery a couple months ago, you can but lots of parts & oil from autozone or walmart. )we run regular,with an occassional tube of Rocket Fuel(sold at motorcycle shops) about $3 bucks.( or just plain old octane boost) we get around 180 to 200 miles a tank(5 gal.)depends. The Valk don't hit her stride till she's about 75 mph( they aren't called cruisers for nothing!) you can get some good bargains on the VRCC website classifieds. ( Valkyrie Cruiser Club) Good luck! But honestly, get the bike you like and are comfortable! Starting out with too small a bike 5-650 cc, will just get you aggrevated and you'll wish you had bought a bigger one!
I went through all the same considerations mentioned above in choosing my first bike, starting with gas milage. but I have a very limited income, so I kept saving up while watching that list of cregs' and reading what others had to say. I ended up choosing a used honda shadow 600 vlx special that had been wrecked but still ran and drove good. I drove over a hundred miles to test drive it and paid an extra $100 to have it delivered, being wrecked brought the price down so I could aford it instead of getting a new one of those cheap chinese scooters. and finding a bike close to home saved me $600 in shipping fees that I could add to the dammaged upgade to a motorcycle insteat of a plastic scooter, the couple of things I want to share most is first of all, if youve never ridden a bike go to DMV & pick up some motorcycle riding info which should tell you how to hook up with a profesional indorcement program that will let you get licensed by paying for the class and using a loner bike so you can have the license to go out and test drive a few offerings to make sure of what your comfortable with, as most owners won't let you set on their bike till you show them your licenced for it. my 600 cc honda shadow stole my heart in the first minuite of my test ride - plenty of get up and go for merging into fast trafic with a very comfortable seat and body position Im a short fellow with a 29 in inseam and my shadow's seat hight is only 26 in high wich lets me plant both feet firmly on the ground which can be extreamly important at times. The second thing I want to share is that I had failed to research two aspects of motorcycle wonership which caught me off guard 1st the cost of replacement parts for my dammaged bike threw me for a loop ("but not enough to make me regret the purchase") and 2nd the amount of maintainance in the off season of cold - wet - slippery weather here in Oregon where I live. is a little mind boggling, mostly due to how they write those maintance manuals so that every step is interupted with special instructions for several other modles which the reader couldn't care less about at any given moment - it's hard to sift through and dig up just the info your in need of.
Better gas mileage is nice, but there are now pretty decent and satisfactory cars which will get as good or better mpg than medium-to-large motorcycles (admittedly for several times the price), and offer all-weather protection and carrying capacity (people and things) no motorcycle can. I predict that if gas mileage is your only interest in motorcycles, you'll soon consider buying one a mistake. BUT -- there is a whole rich mystique to enjoy with motorcycling which "has to be experienced to be experienced." Either you'll love it or be numb to it and dismiss it.
So -- buy an inexpensive motorcycle as your first bike, hopefully for a price you can resell it for if you don't like it. If you take to biking, trade up once you find out what kind of motorcycling you like best.
Hope fully this a contratulations and a welcome to the sport. I have been riding 30 years and couldn't imagine not having a motorcycle. I currently have three bikes, an '82 Honda CX500, an '84 Honda Shadow 700, and a '81 GL1100 Gold Wing Standard. Incredible as it may sound the CX is my favorite ride. It is nimble and has plenty of power for riding one up. I get between 50-55 mpg with it (depending on how much I am in the throttle LOL). I get between 45-50 with the Shadow and 40-45 with the GoldWing. There is a significant difference in my experience between a two cylinder bike and a four cylinder bike. More carbs = less mileage. IMHO. Good Luck!!!
glad to jump in on this one i have a yamaha r6 2005 raven .... when i first started out it was a blast i spent about 7 dollars in high octane fuel each gas stop ... now that gas boosted since the summer is over , i spend about 10 and wined up gettin change back .. however their is some ways to stretch out the gas on these types of bikes.... power commander boost power and saves on gas guzzle .... also a after market air filter will do the same ....
Your mileage will depend completely on much you twist your right wrist! My 1980 CB900 Custom will get anywhere from 25 to 50 MPH depending on, you guessed it, my right wrist!!! Deano
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