Hypermile your motorcycle up to 179 MPG: No snake oil, no scams!

two.wheel.riot 3 years ago

sounds dangerous and i'm also pretty skeptical.

rethansmith 3 years ago

I definitely appreciated the fact that you pointed out that some techniques were very dangerous. I heard some of these on the radio the other day and the person made not mention of the danger involved.

Great Hub!

Roadster 3 years ago

How freaking stupid, all of these are rediculous ideas and should not be attempted.

1, half the throttle and forget about getting on the highway

2. Sitting upright puts more drag on the bike and many cruisers have windshields.

3. Cover your radiator and fry your engine

4. Using the kill switch may save you gas but you'll spend that on repairing the ignition system.

5. Drafting, sure, make sure you can't see whats coming like all the idiots who tailgate and end up in the 10 to 100 car pileups on the highway. On a bike rearending a semi at 70 mph, you won't remember a thing.

PowerSportOil 3 years ago

Hypermiling on a motorcycle is tricky and I think you can use it if you are in the wide open spaces.  On a trip I did out west I tried to keep low to avoid drag but I was going very subtley uphill towards the continental divide and into the wind and on my return trip there was a noticeable improvement in milage.  I'm glad you did not mention high tire inflation as with many auto hyper-milers.  This is disaster on a bike. 

Using sythetic oil can also make a bit of a difference in milage. It can be very important if you cover your radiator as mentioned because synthetic oil has a much higher 'cooking' temperature. Dino oil cooks (loses viscosity) when going over 235 F. You will surely reach that temperature if you are covering your rad.

Rahul 3 years ago

now these hyper bikes are super bikes...more power than super bikes.

Heavy bikes 2 years ago

latest Honda XL500 BMW F650GS

alvaro84 2 years ago

Hi! I've been doing #4 and its kin for several thousand kilometers (ok, miles for you) and at best I got an average of 98.9mpg for a tank on a BMW F650CS (a somewhat more streamlined sister of the mentioned F650GS). I think these values you wrote are not extremely hard to reach but almost impossible to sustain (for several hundred miles) under real world conditions (real roads and traffic).

I'd say that restricting your throttle is a bad idea if you aim for the best possible fuel economy - though I don't know the BSFC diagram for any motorcycles but gasoline engines usually get more efficient under considerable load (but worse again with wide open throttle). Pulse&Glide is based on this fact and works for the F650 pretty well. It's not as good for the Hyosung GV250 though - or I'm doing it wrong.

I'm already covering the radiator at winter and don't do unnecessary idling - except when I'm coasting to lose speed and don't do it long enough to kill the engine.

I don't know what can be considered as a 'powerband' - I try to keep the revs as low as I can without lugging the engine (aka using the highest possible gear).

I suspect I could still improve FE a bit with a 'thinner' oil (now she runs with mineral 15W50) and by adjusting the windshield (I think I have worse air drag than the windshield so it stays)

On drafting: I think it needs much experience and whatnot to really benefit from it: I can do much better with Pulse&Glide than with drafting. Of course it would be the best to combine the two but if there's something I feel unsafe, it certainly is.

motorcycle blue book 2 years ago

Number 4 can give you one heck of a back fire when you restart your bike... It's kind of fun.

motorcyclist 2 years ago

What do you think about shifting to neutral and coasting?

alvaro84 2 years ago

For me it's perfectly OK as long as I'm planning to stop.

I tried to shift to neutral while forced autostop on a long downhill at ~60km/h (37mph?) and it worked - but when I tried to shift back to 2nd, the gears started to grind badly. It was scary enough, I surely won't try this again...

JonnyM 2 years ago

You didn't mention the first thing that's obvious; gear ratio. Most of the gear ratios are set to facilitate 1/4 mile times so they look good in the specs. I took my 1980 GS450S down 5 teeth in the back, and up one in the front. No problem on the take-off or up hills. The cruising rpm dropped dramatically, the bike ran much smoother, and with a 120 lb pack I toured the US for 30,000 miles in '88. Average gas mileage was 75, with a high of 90 in Colorado.

alvaro84 2 years ago

In theory it would be no problem to go at 60 km/h in 2nd (though I rarely do it, I normally shift up at ~3500): it would mean ~5000rpm, while the redline is at 7000. It's my BMW F650CS - and our Hyosung GV250 did similarly, the gears were grinding when I tried to shift out of N at somewhat higher speeds. But no probs, my grip gets stronger this way :D

About the gear ratio: there's no known way to change it on a Scarver, it has a belt drive, and there's no real need, the 5th gear can't even be used under 70km/h and I need 15-20 to use the 1st! The GV250 has a chain though, and I intend to change its sprockets to get lower rpms (revs 7000 at 100km/h in 5th)

dgicre 23 months ago

Drafting and turning the motor off would not be my first choices to save gas. There are less extreme measures you can try to save gas. Make sure your air filter is clean, your plugs are fresh and switch to synthetic motor oil. Most people I know right after they get their bikes put bigger jets in the carbs and drill out the air box. These are great for more power but they will not save you fuel. If you really want to save fuel, get a 50cc Aprilia fuel injected scooter. You will get close to 100 MPG without putting your life on the line.

sbyholm 23 months ago

For many the reason to have a motorcycle is to drive inefficiently and the whole idea of hypermiling is a bit misplaced. :)

alvaro84 23 months ago

dgicre, here it's a common saying that riding a 50cc in Budapest is putting your life on the line in itself.

The things you say are the basics - keeping your bike in a good shape is a necessity if you don't want to get even worse FE. The techniques Hal Licino wrote about are after and beyond these basics :) Anyway, I really don't recommend drafting, it takes away much of the information you need for your safety (and efficiency!) - though it might work reasonably safely if you keep at least 2 seconds of distance behind the draftee. I still prefer riding anywhere but behind a truck...

sbyholm: fortunately not for everyone :) There can be many reasons to ride a motorcycle. For me, it's to have a reasonably efficient vehicle for commuting and touring (something that can deal with longer distances) and not to play (in the sense so many bikers play) :)

zbret 17 months ago

A tip for the drafting. The draft "cone" extends into the neighboring lanes. Go about 50-100 ft back in the neighboring lane, ie left side of right lane, or right side of left lane (left, right of the "center" where the truck is), and you will feel the reduced wind without concern for low visibility, the trucker not seeing you, or becoming a back ornament for the semi.

alvaro84 16 months ago

I don't know what kind of roads are there, but here it would be a bad idea. The neighboring lane is

a.) the wrong direction, you'll risk a frontal very soon (2-lane roads)

b.) the passing lane and you'll get tailgated in an instant (2x2+ motorways)

c.) emergency lane which you shouldn't use (2x2+ again)

Semis are rarely anywhere but the rightmost (save for the emergency) lane as they have much lower speed limits than cars or motorcycles here. All in all, I don't do long stretches of drafting. The only place I can be for longer times is right behind a semi, at a safe distance.