OT - Motorcycle fuel mileage

You're right. Never ridden in Cali! Maybe someday. As for lane splitting. I stopped doing that over 20 years ago when I had an incident.

I was splitting lanes trying to get to the front of a line, when my right side mirror hit the mirror on a car and my mirror went flying! As soon as my mirror went flying, the g/f started freaking and poundig so hard on my back, she damm near knocked the wind out of me. Seeing my mirror go flying, made me think twice about lane splitting. You're out there to ride anyway, what's the rush?

Btw, the g/f took the bus home (my choice)!

Mike

I guess you never took the MSF course, huh?

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

I don't think the stage one mods are that big a concern, Mike. My wife's Superglide with S&S carb, big cam and open drag pipes gets about 45-47 mpg. OTOH, my old shovelhead with the S&S 92" stroker kit only gets about

35(but it pulls oh-so-nice :-) ). Seems to me the guys over on rmh with the newer bikes in stock trim are getting about the same as you or my wife. Fuelies seem to get better mileage than carbed bikes and older riders seem to get better mileage than the kids. For reference, my '74 Sporty and my wife's '72 Sporty both got about 45 mpg, and the 750 Honda I had when I lived in SoCal got about 50(and that was with a big Windjammer fairing on it.

Oh, and CRWLR, even if you've ridden a million miles, if you've been off of bikes for a while, take the MSF course...you'll be glad you did, and it might calm some of the wife's fears.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

And no where in the manual does it tell you to be superman and leap tall cars in a single bound?!

Part of the idea in laying a bike down is putting something between you and what you ARE going to hit. Sure you're going to break a leg...but your head/neck will be furthest away from the impact.

Also, I'm 300lbs....that plus the bike weight (say 500lbs) means about

650-700lbs on that front tire (given the below % on breaking). The only hiway you'll find with no crap on the road is a new one, my front tire will lock up and more than like kick out to the side. There's no ABS on bikes guys. You'll loose control like in a car but on here you'll end up down and the odds are the bike will "follow" you in to the impact site.

Are you a musician? play the drums? hows your timing? Cuz if you don't time your jump properly you'll tag the car with your feet and you'll summersault over. And I hope you live in an area that has helmet laws (and you abide them) cuz we'll need something to hold your skull in when you land on your head and break your neck.

Just my opinion....what do I know eh! sb

So do you think the station wagon I was about to broad side would have hurt less or more than a semi trailer?

Mike

Paul Calman wrote:

So do you think the station wagon I was about to broad side would have

No, but you might slide under a big trailer, where a station wagon would cause you to stop suddenly. I would rather go over a car and try my luck at slower decelleration than slam into it at a high speed. I hit the side of a horse trailer two years ago, I managed to get the bike down to about 20 MPH before impact, and got up to look at the damage, and rode another 100 miles that evening. If I had lost control and slid, I would have hit harder and might have been crushed under it as she didn't actually stop moving untill she finished crossing my lane, dragging the bike with her.

Paul Calman, Hathaway Pines, California

Hey CRWLR,

I wouldn't buy another bike again for commuting for several reasons;

1. The fuel savings won't offset the costs of maintenance and insurance not even taking into consideration the initial investment. If this becomes your commuter, what does that make your beemer? You might as well sell it.
2. There is NO debate over safety. In the event of an accident, your odds of injury avoidance are better driving the losing Pinto in a demolition derby. When commuting, you exponentially increase your odds of an accident.
3. Nothing sucks the enjoyment out of riding a motorcycle like having to be somewhere at a certain time i.e. work. I used to enjoy polishing my vintage GL but it became a chore. Thankfully a caring neighbour rescued this specimen from me and devotes the time into maintaining it.

My next bike will have no purpose other than to sit and look pretty until I want to ride it... where I want to ride it.. for as long as I want to ride it. My next one may be a chopper... it only takes Paul & Vin three episodes to build one ;-)

-Brian

I believe you Bill... my Suburban got better mileage in the city than my GL1000

: >

: > I don't think the stage one mods are that big a concern, Mike. : > My wife's Superglide with S&S carb, big cam and open drag pipes gets : > about 45-47 mpg. : > OTOH, my old shovelhead with the S&S 92" stroker kit only gets about : > 35(but it pulls oh-so-nice :-) ). : > Seems to me the guys over on rmh with the newer bikes in stock trim : > are getting about the same as you or my wife. Fuelies seem to get : > better mileage than carbed bikes and older riders seem to get better : > mileage than the kids. : > For reference, my '74 Sporty and my wife's '72 Sporty both got about : > 45 mpg, and the 750 Honda I had when I lived in SoCal got about 50(and : > that was with a big Windjammer fairing on it. : >

: > Oh, and CRWLR, even if you've ridden a million miles, if you've been : > off of bikes for a while, take the MSF course...you'll be glad you : > did, and it might calm some of the wife's fears. : >

: > -- : > Old Crow : > '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' : > '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande : > ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 : > TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

LOL, I had to remove the fairing if I planned on passing anyone that day. I found removing the lower fairing looked better, got me an extra 20 mph on the highway and ran cooler but they went back on for those cold rides in October - December. I didn't have much use for the extra 20 mph on the highway when I was looking out for black ice.

-Brian

: > I believe you Bill... my Suburban got better mileage in the city than my : > GL1000 : >

> -Brian

oh, yeah, and the cute little stuffed animal to strap to the trunk What's with that, anyway?

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

My wife rode her '72 for 14 years until she got the Superglide. I had my '74 for 6 years until I bought the Shovelhead. Both Sporty's always ran in the 40-45 range. I had installed 4 gal tanks on both bikes and they would run at least 150 miles before hitting reserve(which was about .6 gal). Lessee 150/3.4=? Hmmm, my calculator says 44+.

Oh, and niether one of us is adverse to dragging shit in the turns either...even on the bigger bikes.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

Tatoos, piercings, run pins, Harley sticker for the Jeep,

-- Paul Calman, Hathaway Pines, California

I don't recall the tank volume on my GL1000 but as soon as I hit 100 miles it was time to panic

-Brian

On Sun, 07 Mar 2004 06:43:27 -0600, the following appeared in rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys, posted by Old Crow :

The road test on the two varieties of Sportster in the latest Rider showed similar results - low-to-mid 40's. And every test I've seen for bikes in the same general displacement range showed the same - mid-30's for the bigger bikes (1200-1500) to mid-40's for the smaller ones (750-1000). My 750 Yamaha triple only gets around 40 (if I don't flog it too much), but it uses considerably older technology. Now if I could get the 140 to 150 I got with a

125 Gilera back in the '60's... ;-)