OT - Motorcycle fuel mileage

BMW 101 for Bill:

Bimmer = motorcycle Beemer=automobile

the K1200RS is a motorcycle, in reference to the OP's questions. a 740i is a car....totally irrelevant for this discussion.

most boxer BIMMERS should get between 45-55 mpg, but as stated earlier, the "flying brick" K series bikes are trading that mileage for power; now

130bhp, and 0-60 in 3.2 stock.

CRWLR wrote:

I ride a 1986 Kawasaki Police 1000 for my main 2-wheel ride. 89 HP, 44 mpg, range about 120 miles on the 3 gallon tank. Full fairing makes it nice for 'less than perfect' weather, saddle bags (hard stock ones) hold a lot of stuff, built-in spotlights look like God Himself coming down the road if you replace the red & blue pursuit lights with 3" driving lights. Hollywood Motors makes a dual seat conversion for these bikes, I just stuck a late 70's LTD seat on mine for the wife to ride with me. She loves it because she says she feels safer on my bike than others because we're so insanely visible on a huge black & white cruiser that everyone looks at (especially riding 2-up). Currently has 126k on the original engine with no work done to it beyond maitenance. Runs great and doesn't use oil. Thes bikes are made by Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Lincoln, Nebraska and are designed to NEVER break unless you smash them. These bikes are made for someone to ride on them 8 to 12 hours every day without tiring the rider, and still handle real well for a floorboard equipped bike. It actually handles surprisingly well for it's size. Curb weight is a little under 700 lbs but you'd never know it's anywhere near that heavy if you know how to counter steer and weight your outside peg (of course every rider knows all that uber-basic beginner rider stuff - right?). I Bought it for $1600 in 1994 w/ 42k on it. I could probably sell it today for close to what I paid for it despite the mileage. Don't play cop if you get one, but if you wear a white helmet, everyone drives real nice around you until you're past them (then it doesn't matter how stupid they are because they've already made direct eye contact with you - and people WILL look at you on these bikes). In California (used to live there), you can split lanes and everyone gets out of your way instead of crowding you because they're just crabby selfish dorks who think that you don't have a legal right to lane split in that state (it IS legal in California, but not anywhere else as far as I know).

Check out the ads at

Cheers, - Jeff G

86 Kawasaki Police 1000 82 Kawasaki Police 1000 67 Kaiser Jeepster Commando C-101 50 Willys 4x4 Station Wagon 60 Model Understanding Wife

So is it illegal to split lanes now? I've seen bikes splitting lanes down the

405.

Driving a motorcycle on the streets of Southern California isn't a healthy idea. I know of one person who was killed and another who lost his hip riding on the street in SoCal. I've had my share of hair-raising incidents too. Off-road is a different story entirely.

-Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)

Been a long time since I was on a bike. Used to do motocross in my younger days. After that, street riding. I've been lucky enough to never have a bad experience with another auto driver. Now, my own worst enemy (ME), that's another story :-).

A couple of bikers at my work tell me about what some cars do to bikers going in-between lanes. Some try to block them from doing it, some have even opened the car door in front of them, others (like me) pull to one side of the lane to allow them a better path.

I'd love to have a bike again but where to ride, that's the question.

Billo

You don't have a link to that picture do ya?! Sounds like an action movie scene!

You have never driven on wet greasy streets much eh?

When the brakes are locked up and some fool is 10' in front of you, you have two choices. Lay the bike down or eat metal.

The second one was close enough that I stopped myself from going under him with my foot on his door.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

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You will not save much in gas. These types of bikes are not all that fuel efficient.

Communting on a bike is like playing russian roulette. You are going to lose, it's just a matter of time.

If you want to ride a street bike, do yourself (and your family) a favor and keep it for riding on pleasant weekend afternoons, far from the maddening commuter crowd. ...and be careful out there. The life you save WILL be your own.

-Fred W One time owner of BMW K100. Sold. Now have only dirt bikes.

Bull. Would you jump out of a car to avoid a collision? Rubber has a better traction coefficient than steel. It's better to be decellerating (not skidding) up to the point of impact than to just give up and slide under. People who say "so then I Iayed her down" are covering for applying too much rear brake and lost control, or ride old choppers with no front brake. I have done both, and been in this discussion many times, with qualified Motorcycle Safety Foundation instructors and new riders. Check out the AMA site,

and follow the "new rider" links Anyway, back on topic, Old GL- 1000 Goldwings in proper tune can give up to

34-36 MPG, as does the GL-1500, My wing is modified and gets 30-32. My girlfriends 86 Honda Shadow 500 gives 50 with her on it, and I have 2 friends who ride Harley "night trains" modified with moderate cams and carb work that also return 50 MPG, althought most are in the 30-40 MPG range. My BSA and Triumph give about 30 , but they are kinda old. I'm not sure what the new Wings do. Sport bikes aren't that efficient, and need frequent maintenance, and their stickier tires don't last as long. In California, a single rider on a bike is legal in a carpool lane, and can save on bridge tolls. Lane splitting is also legal here, but hazardous. I find they open up for a helmet that looks like a CHP, but most cagers are not paying attention. I use the 10 and 5 rule, I wont split unless they are under 10 MPH, and at no more than 5 MPH above their speed. Tagging a mirror will dump you, and i would prefer it to be minor. Ride because you want to, and accept the risk. Just because it may be cheaper doesn't make it sensible.

My VW Jetta Diesel gets 50 MPG, better than my bikes, but I'd rather ride. The new VW diesel Beetles and Jettas with the TDI engines also get around

50, and can be tweaked for better mileage. If you want to get messy and have a tank farm behind your garage, you can make your own bio-diesel from free waste oil from restaurants. They have to pay to get it removed.

-- Paul Calman, Hathaway Pines, California

your glass is definitely half empty.

the K-series is not, comparatively, nearly as fuel efficient at the R-series. power was given top priority in the K-series design.

by this logic, you should never ride nor drive anywhere. stay home and lock the doors. i'm not going to dispute that it's not POTENTIALLY more dangerous, because it is certainly less-forgiving than being in a car. however, your definition of "commute" certainly comes into play. small city traffic or more pleasant commutes i'd prefer a motorcycle. but if your commute is in a major metropolitan city, like Los Angeles, i'd have to agree that you'd be better off commuting in the biggest isolation-box bumper-car you can find.

any motorcyclist is well advised to take as many rider improvement, advanced rider courses, etc. as possible. by so doing, you'll more likely prevent yourself from being put into the 'rock-and-a-hard-place' scenario to begin with!

my 2¢

Where is that number relative to a stock bike with the same motor? I am mostly interested in stock numbers, then if I get a modified bike, then the assumption I make is that the numbers will be better, or at least justifiably different.

Thanks,

Sorry, my BMW is the car, not the bike.

Touche, with the ' thingie over the e. (that is French for "you got me", BTW)

Yes, it is better suited for a biker group. I was hoping some of us offraoding gearheads might also be poser Hells Angels. ;-)

That's true, just because it is a sport bike doesn't change the mileage very much as compared to a tourer or a cruiser. If I can buy half the gas I am currently buying, then the fuel savings will justify the price of the bike, assuming I don't go for a fully loaded, brand new 'Wing.

That sounds like a different situation. You were riding along and something happened and you lost control ... at that moment, you controlled the inevitable crash.

What I'm referring to is this ... I'm riding along and come upon a refrigerator in the middle of the road and I choose to "lay her down" instead of braking and maneuvering to avoid the accident or slow the speed of impact. It is always better to stay in control as long as you can ... your bike is likely much more capable than you think it is ... if you are already crashing then you can try and control the crash but you shouldn't choose to crash.

If that doesn't make sense, see sig. ;-)

Maybe I only know low risk people. I have known plenty that have crashed but none that were seriously injured or died.

Plenty. Even ice and snow.

I don't know the particulars but maybe you shouldn't have been 10' behind this fool.

In that one, it's likely that you would have been able to bring your bike to a stop rubber side down with no contact. Maybe not ...

All else fails, see my sig. ;-)

I gotta run the numbers, but I am filling up twice a week at roughly $35 per load, or $70 per week. I do that 4.3 times per month, that's $301 a month for gas. If I can cut that number in half, I'll save $150. The savings can easily make the payment, IF the savings is really half. If I trim my fuel costs by only a third, then the savings is $90, and the payment I am looking at is only about $115. For the $20 extra bucks the bike will cost, I'll save an unknown number of hours of commute.

I would prefer my Jeep as well, but the Jeep demands Premium fuel (because of mods), and the goal is to save time and money, not have more fun. I'll save time because the last 10 miles of my commute takes more time that the previous 30 miles because of standing still on the freeway - a bike can roll on through this mess much faster than my Jeep - and the Jeep sucks up the gas much faster than the BMW does, and goes much slower - standing still notwithstanding. The bottom line is, the Jeep is a giant leap backwards relative to the goal.

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