Well, I've done the calculations and after a few rides on my "new to me" 2007 Versys with approx. 80,000km I've discovered that my mileage / kilometres per tank are weighing in at approximately 250 / 260 km, total, including the reserve on a 19 litre tank.
My testing has occurred through the cold month of December.
Wait, that's between 60 and 67 mpg. Seriously? My bike is still a baby, and has brand new tires, chain, oil, and I ran up I-95 and the Garden State pkwy doing 80mph @6k the whole way, and I would do 3.2 gallons on 155 miles, each way. 48mpg. What's your secret?
Le's see if I can do this and have it make sense to me - a mile and gallon person.
260 km x .621= 161.5 miles. 19 liters x .264 = 5.02 gallons. Then 161.5 mi ÷ .5.02 gal = 32.2 mpg or 13.7 kpl. This, of course, assumes the math is correct (I believe it is). BTW, to convert mpg to kpl multiply 32.2 mpg by 0.425143707 - really! Talk about precision overkill.
13.7 kpl doesn't mean much to me but 32.2 does and it seem pretty low. But I have to say that I don't check fuel consumption very often. I'm too busy smiling and enjoying the ride.
80000 km ≈ 49600 miles so a thorough service would seem to be a good thing. Forum member fasteddiecopeman has a couple high mileage Versyses ( Versyii?) and might offer some good first hand advice.
The only bike I own that has high mileage is a BMW K75S and it runs like a Swiss watch. And with 53000 miles, it's barely broken in.
80000 km ≈ 49600 miles so a thorough service would seem to be a good thing. Forum member fasteddiecopman has a couple high mileage Versyses ( Versyii?) and might offer some good first hand advice.
The only bike I own that has high mileage is a BMW K75S and it runs like a Swiss watch. And with 53000 miles, it's barely broken in.
I filled up the other day (4.826 US gallons) for 241 miles = 50 mpg. As I can get 5.4 gallons in to the top of the 'neck', that gives me about 266 miles to tank dry. I have got as much as 60 mpg, and USUALLY nearer to 56. At 56 that gives a range of just over 300 miles, or 500 kms.
Where are you, and how cold has it been for you in December?
Any idea of what maintenance was done if any, and at what mileage? Check you air filter, which may be dirty and/or over-oiled... Valve adjustment and spark plug replacement, followed by a throttle body vacuum synch would be advisable, beside a general checkup. Tires are inflated to 32 psi front and 36 psi rear once cooled to ambient temperature? You run on 10W-40 oil? Ethanol-free and/or premium gasoline would help as well.
I've been tracking my milage religiously on Fuelly.com. I average 5.1L/100km for mostly city riding. With highway touring it can improve to 4.2L/100km. That's with a MK1 Versys.
Mileage can vary widely with city/highway and riding style. Mine has varied from 4.1L/100km to 6.1L/100km over tracking 20,000km on Fully.com. If you want to get it down to the low 4's it will require constant speeds 90-100kph and gentle throttle application though.
I consistently get over 400 kms per tank on 91 pump octane (95 RON) ethanol-free gas and Amsoil AFF synthetic 0W-40... Higher speeds and rpm's will have a substantial impact on fuel efficiency.
I usually get between 300 to 350km per tank, the former is when I'm commuting via tollway and the later is when I commute within the city. The difference is the speed, when I commute via the tollway I'll be running WOT at some points, doing 100+ mph, braking hard when there is traffic and WOT again past the traffic. When I commute in the city I ride at much lower speeds.
When I go on weekend rides with my friends, all of them have sportbikes, I do push her a bit harder. Then I get around 250km per tank.
Yeah, I can get 400km per tank, but it is too damn boring. How do you ride?
I think I'm way heavier I the throttle than you all. Averaged around 43 mpg on a 1600 mile trip, but fell as low as 35 going 90mph into a headwind with all my gear. It's totally riding style dependent, as well as the roads. Curvy roads will make you want to slow into and power out of them.
My mileage is crazy when I cap my speed at 60mph and just put around. I've been using honda 10w-40 synthetic (no kawi dealer in my town) but I'm going to try Shell T6 5w-30...
You mean Shell Rotella T6 5W-40... Diesel engine oils are a poor choice for your motorcycle. Some Shell Rotella oils may happen to be pass the JASO MA test for wet clutch high friction applications, but they're still a diesel engine oil, besides not being formulated for use with combined transmission. It fares relatively low as far as engine protection is concerned.
-Thermal Breakdown BEGINS SOONER with Diesel oil, than with gas engine oils, which is not desirable for High Performance gas engine usage. And as you can see by looking at this short list of “high zinc” gas engine oils, or by looking at the complete ranking list below, there are many, many gas engine oils available that are FAR SUPERIOR to the best Diesel oils in terms of wear protection. Therefore, using Diesel oils in high performance gas engines is NOT the best choice, if you want superior wear protection with plenty of margin of safety (extra reserve wear protection above what the engine typically needs)...
Worst I ever got (converted to US MPG) 36.5 that was high speed (80 - 100 mph) in full touring mode (panniers, topbox, tankbag all full). My average is around 50 mpg US. That is using 91 octane (I think that is 95 US)
I've never noticed a difference in performance, knock or milage with 91 octane vs standard 89 octane. The Versys compression ratio is not high enough to utilize the higher ignition temp of 91 octane. 1 gal of gas contains the same energy regardless of octane. A higher octane only means that a higher temp is required to ignite it, a feature only beneficial in high compression engines to avoid pre detonation - the higher compression heats the fuel mixture to much higher temps before the spark plug ignites it.
Not true, really. Premium gasoline contains less energy that regular. Look up the Btu per gallon. Premium has a lower value. [Assuming no ethanol is involved].
Federal regulations require all gas sold in Canada to contain at least 5% ethanol, regardless of octane. The national average is 6.5% according to the globe and mail.
Had an aftermarket end can, high flow air filter and power commander 5 installed. Current mieage at 65k km. prior to 30k km the bike was running at average 300km per tankful, after the 30k km mark i went for a dyno tune and thats when the fuel consumption rose. Went for a second dynotune after 20k but still no improvement.
my V gets 60mpg riding pretty quick through the hill country. avg speed is probably 60 or so. roads are tight twisty and rough. Throttle is never very far open.
It was funny, last year i got an xr650l to ride rougher roads with and maybe some single track in big bend. I rode from austin south through blanco and over to luckenbach and ran out of gas rolling into the station on 290. The bike barely made it 110mi on the stock tank.
My cursory logic was 2 cyl must use more fuel than 1. Oppps.
I've put a bigger tank on the honda now, adjusted the jetting a bit, but it only gets about 40mpg.
It all makes sense now but I was really shocked that the V gets such good mileage.
Rode the "Super-slab" (I-10) down to Tucson and back yesterday, w/ my son as passenger (5'11", 150#), speeds around 80 to 85 mph, and got just under 40 mpg.
ride hard most of the time , highway speeds of plus 150kph and constantly get 320 to 350 km to 18 litres , 250km per tank is really heavy (car territory) . did a fast ride last week and managed 310km on a tank .
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