Gas mileage again... sigh

[Guest IanJ]

Hey all. I have a question regarding gas mileage on our beloved V11 bikes. I'm riding mine in a short commute (about 5 miles each way) that's mostly go with a bit of stop. No freeway involved, and the speeds rarely reach 50 MPH.

 

My bike (a 2002 Le Mans) is getting between 22 and 25 MPG most of the time, mostly on the higher end of that range. From a thread many moons ago, I got the impression that most people were seeing 30-32 MPG in-town -- I think I'd faint if my mileage got that good -- what are people seeing these days? I'm talking about hard-core in-town riding, with less than 10% of any given tank (and more like 0-5%) being ridden on the freeway. Does anyone else do this? If so, what kind of mileage are you seeing?

 

The simple fact is that my bike gets worse gas mileage than my car in all situations (including on the freeway, where my bike was getting 38-40 last year), and that's really demoralizing. I love riding the bike, and it's provided me with very few unpleasant surprises, but the gas mileage is just kind of soul-crushing. If I were riding some freakishly powerful supersport, ok, but a 90 HP Guzzi?

 

Anyone else seeing this kind of performance, and if not, any theories what might be causing it?

[callison]

Well, I was getting 33mpg last week, but set my valves (left side was off a tad on both inlet and exhaust - right side was spot on) and changed the plugs. Mileage jumped to 37.5 mpg - and this is with a newly added but not optimized PCIII. I have never even touched the TPS or balanced the throttle bodies on this bike either, although those are actions that are definitely due as it idles too low. I would have to say, try a tune up first and if you have a PCIII, take it out of the circuit for a while and see if that helps.

[Guest russ]

Just had mine tuned because I was getting a combined 32 mpg. They found that the CO was too rich and leaned it out to the 3.5 range (it was 6-7). Now I get 40 or a little better. No flat spots (never had), no PCIII (don't see a need, at least not yet).

[docc]

When I had my throttle bodies replaced (which didn't change the drip) the dealer refused to check the CO.He said the plugs would strip out the threads in the headers. Are they really hard to get out? Has anyone stripped the threads?

 

(I'd love to get40mpg!!)

[RichMaund]

In short commutes in Pittsburgh Pa. in hills I got mid 20's! That was my worst mileage, but real fun roads!

Down here in the flatlands of SE Va. I get low 30's around town.

Freeway I get 41 typically. High of 43.

[Guest k.tx]

I get about 32 - 38 mpg riding to work, 16 miles one way, hardly under 50 mph except I'm late and face the school zones.

Cross country and highway I got about 35 - 40 mpg so far.

Out of the crate and only one mod so far (CF Mistral).

 

Konrad

[Guest mcloutier]

Where you been Ian? Haven't seen you on the board for months. Are you going to be hanging out at the National in July? Need to get that bike out of Seattle for a little bit.

[Cliff]

in the headers. Are they really hard to get out? Has anyone stripped the >>threads?

 

 

Yeah, stripped one of mine. Had it welded back in. Stopped on the other one before I stripped it.

[Guest IanJ]

I've been busily working on other things in my life, hence the dissappearance from the board. But I've been riding my Le Mans every day, and it's been a great bike except for this gas mileage thing. Sounds like people who are seeing 30-ish MPG are generally riding a mixed in-town and freeway commute, so maybe 25 MPG doesn't necessarily indicate a broken bike.

 

Anyone have any tips for getting better mileage in town? I'm experimenting now with riding in the low RPM range (hovering around 3k RPM), and the next two tanks after this will be testing riding more like 4500-5000, to see if that impacts gas mileage much (so far, it looks like riding at 3k makes mileage go down a bit -- 23 MPG on the last tank). Any thoughts on the subject are appreciated.

 

Would any modifications to the bike make much difference? Stucci crossover? PCIII? Different pipes? I don't want more power or louder (I mean, I'd take more power...) but maybe some of those thing could help the mileage. I seem to recall mixed reports of the PCIII increasing gas mileage.

[Guest dkgross]

Hey Ian!! I was wondering where you've been!

 

I'm getting about 25-30 as well. I've got a PCIII (just stock), and haven't done any pipes/x-over/etc... I've only got 500 miles on her now, and I usually can go about 90 miles or so before the little 'low gas' light just starts to come on. I haven't been brave enough to see how much further it will go.

 

What do Jason and Micha say about your mileage???

[Guest IanJ]

Well, Micha says it's normal, or close enough to normal that he's not worried about it. Jason thought I was making it up, or something, so he pulled a gallon or so of gas out of my tank without telling me, last time I had the bike in for service, "just as a joke." The low-gas light came on at 70 miles on the trip odo and I started flipping out wondering what was about to explode or melt into glowing goo. I'm still unhappy about that one.

 

I talked to Micha about what can be done to improve the situation, and he said he can probably improve the mileage at the expense of performance. I think I'm going to take him up on that and see what it's like, because this low mileage is dragging on my mind.

 

Dave had mentioned some adjustment that could be made to the injectors which might improve mileage, but Micha said he never got the email forwarded from Dave, so that adjustment remains a mystery for now.

[guzzi323]

I don't think he's getting anywhere near warmed up on his commute. I have a 15 mile half city/half freeway (rarely over 50) commute and I had been getting around 27 or 28 if all I do is my commute. I put in a bypass for the temp sender and richened up the low end with my PC III. I've just been richening it a little at a time and now it's close to feeling right. I now get about 32 MPG in my commute.

Once I have the time and find an O2 sensor that'll fit in my pipe I'll make a cheap-o exhaust sniffer and get it all dialed in properly..

[guzzi323]

Oops, I forgot to mention in my previous post. When I first bypassed the temp sender I took the bike out for a 20-25 minute ride and it was still spitting and popping when I tried to pull away from a stop. I was surprised how long the temp sender is modifying fueling. I guess they have to do that to get it past the EPA or something.

[Guest russ]

I too have a 5 minute commute and was getting 32 mpg until they adjusted the CO down to 3.5 or thereabouts (it was 6.0). Factory settings for epa are a shade under 2 which is too lean and now I get 40 mpg, more on the highway. Not only that it was fixed under warranty because Guzzi agreed there was something wrong. Could your dealer/mechanic be hosing you?

[Guest IanJ]

Russ, the CO on my bike was adjusted to 3.5 or so, with no change in mileage. We had tried it leaner than that, to see if mileage could be improved, but it started popping and misfiring and making life generally uncomfortable. Since putting the mixture back to 3.5 CO the bike has been a dream to ride, but has crappy gas mileage.

 

Are you seriously getting over 40 MPG on a purely in-town, under 50 MPH commute? On a V11 Le Mans? My bike got up to 39 and 41 MPG by taking a freeway-only trip (nearly no in-town riding), and the best I've ever seen in-town was in the upper 20s, maybe 28 or so.