Fuel consumption

Well I don't know how you all get such high mileage from a tank, I just put 15.6 litres in and having covered 130 miles, thats about 38 mpg. I am thrashing it mind but does seem a little juicy...

07:27:05
Mine is the same. Runs fine, but I get about 37.

I posted about it a while ago. Everyone seemed to think there was something wrong with mine, so I'm glad yours is the same!

Have a look here... He got over 60....!

http://www.cb500club.net/t2056-fuel-economy-2002-cb500

I don't think I've ever got it as bad as 38 mpg.  Mine is usually around 45 mpg.

It does depend *a lot* on what you do with it.  I can get more than 55 mpg on a long run.  I get 45 usually on my short stop-start commute through town.  I suspect that if I was *really* boring I could get 60 mpg and, equally, if I really thrashed it it would be less than 45.

What you really want to do is ride with some other people who claim to get '60 mpg' and see if either:

a) they are really slow, smooth, don't accelerate much and don't go above 50 or 60 mph (I think this is the most likely answer).

b) they are mental and can't work out how much fuel they are putting in

or

c) your bikes are knackered


I am assuming that you have checked/changed the obvious things:

* binding brakes
* tyre pressures
* clogged air filter
* oil change
* slipping clutch
* jumping chain


I'm really hoping (and suspect that) you would have noticed if any of those were a problem...

I've checked all of those and recently serviced it with new oil and filter.

I only get 21MPG out of my BMW 330, so to me, the bike is very economical...!

Hi,

mpg in the 30's is not great and unusual too. Eternally's suggestions cover it : bike in good condition = decent mpg.

I've a cb5 with race can, jetted to suit and even on fast road use its never dropped below 45mpg. Same bike did 600m round trip to Devon (with Freeflow - what happened to him?!) and with all the camping gear, tankbag it did 59mpg, thats with several mway hours at 80 and some exploring trips too.

m1

sullivj wrote:I've checked all of those and recently serviced it with new oil and filter.

I only get 21MPG out of my BMW 330, so to me, the bike is very economical...!

I thought you probably would have.... but you never know!

Might be running a bit rich, what are the plugs like?
I can get just over 18 litres in when I fill the tank, good for around 240 miles unless I'm thrashing the bike.

The plugs I took out, were fine.  The new ones are NGK Iridium ones.  I assume they're OK too.  Maybe one day I'll try and drive it REALLY gently and see what I get....

I doubt I will though...!

As said in thread referred to above:
"Over the course of 6000+ british miles, mine has done 62.15 mpg on average."

For keeping records, i use 'MyCars' on a smartphone, and this verifies I've missed no fuelings or anything in this period.
Screenshot from phone, showing monthly average since April:


Today, avg mpg has sunk to 21.61 km/l - and then I'll leave it to you guys to do the calculation. Hint: this site might be of use.

CB500Y, 92RON petrol, NGK Iridium plugs, K&N filter, standard can, BY45 front, Conti Avenue back, Castrol Power1 oil, engine jetted by local magician but not tuned in any way whatsoever.

How you manage to do less than 40 mpg is beyond me, based on what i've seen here. And no, I'm not in any way going slomo - I'm havin' all the fun I can, before december comes and the bike is taken off the road for winter storage.

I'm averaging 60+, with a combo of motorway trips and A road riding for fun.

I came back from London today, bike was fully loaded and I was doing the speed limit on the motorway (honestly officer) and I managed 62mpg.

The worst I've ever got was 58 to the gallon and I'm not a small bloke and I do like to hear the bike rev, so I have no idea how to use that much fuel.

I may have to try though, a tank full of holligan riding.......

Can confirm you can get 6o+ mpg. Assuming plugs, filters and so on are ok it's down to how you ride. I do a 64 mile round trip commute. Roughly half on an A road and the rest on a motorway. Best I've ever got is 71, just an experiment. To ride like that all the time I'd go nuts! 
I usually get 62-65 but on the odd occassion I've been late and hammered it it's gone down to around 50. 38 seems crazy, you must ride like a demon!

trevor2110 wrote:Can confirm you can get 6o+ mpg. Assuming plugs, filters and so on are ok it's down to how you ride. I do a 64 mile round trip commute. Roughly half on an A road and the rest on a motorway. Best I've ever got is 71, just an experiment. To ride like that all the time I'd go nuts! 
I usually get 62-65 but on the odd occassion I've been late and hammered it it's gone down to around 50. 38 seems crazy, you must ride like a demon!

I do 

I've never been too bothered to work it out accurately but i think mine must be nearer to 38 as well. mainly inner city, and constantly reving the nuts off it to hear to the de-baffled exhaust, all in the name of safety of course...To the best of my knowledge my bike is in good mechanical condition. 

On the other hand I remember thinking i would get around 180 out the tank while touring.

I always think about topping up around 100-120 miles and the fuel is getting low at that point.

My bike gets between 55 and 60mpg depending on what I've been doing (out for a jolly or commuting). I'm a new biker though so my "thrashing it" is most peoples "conservative"!

so you all got me thinking and i re-checked mine last night after I filed up. 128 miles in 13.18 litres - works out at around 44mpg. I could ride a lot smoother so I'm well happy with that.

69.9 mpg over the last 985 miles.....but that's riding it like the old codger that I am.

when i give it some im getting around 170 ish miles out of a tank usually around 45mpg. ive been a bit economical using it for work at the minute as im skint lol. i do 50 ish on the motoway to work. i got 52 out of it being cautious but realised id worked it out wrong and it might have been more! Ive put 9 litres in it so will see how far that gets me, im aimiing for 120 miles! ive got an aftermarket can on and i know its running rich too. next year its getting a service with a k and n filter, iridium plugs and if lucky a dyno test and tune. i need to do the sprockets and valve clearences too so lots planned but im loving the bike more than my ninja or cbr.

I need to fuel up tomorrow, will let you guys know then.

im on fumes at the minute but still not on reserve, 9 litres bought done 112 miles so roughly 56mpg traffics been poo recently though so lots of gear changing and filtering:D im happy with that would like 60 mpg getting there, the more i can save getting to work the more i have to play at weekends lol

Just filled up and worked out I got 52mpg over 155 miles. I must have been REALLY caning it on the IOM to get 38!

Yeah I have been practicing my hooning skills recently. Trying not to let the revs get below 7k is fun!

45mpg is what I get when it is exclusively used in town...  it goes up towards 60ish on longer journeys.

managed 60 mpg today but over the weekend i had to adjust the drive chain and my tyres were down to 22psi!!! so might get a bit more now. anyone think bp or the like petrol makes any difference?? not really ever noticed but ive put some in today to see if anything happens, same thing with the 97 ron petrol? ive heard its no use for our bikes is that true??

Mine gets around 54mpg from what I have calculated over the summer. Thats with a K&N air filter, 126 Dynojet jets (equivalent to 128 Keihins) and 2 shims under the needles. Just shy of 50BHP on the dyno. After market endcan with the baffle still in. 14 tooth front sprocket.

I pretty much exclusively use Shell Nitro/V-Power. I notice the difference when I go back to a tank of standard fuel. I know there are claims that it makes no difference on CB500s due to its lack of ignition advance, older pre '95 CB CDis apparently have a "better" advance curve, so this could be why theres a difference.

It just pulls much better, most notable up a very large fly over local to where I live, standard fuel at top end the rpms level out and stop climbing while with V-Power the revs will just continue to climb. Back when I bought the bike, when it had a "pod filter" tune, it made an even larger difference, standard fuel just made the bike feel like it was running like there was something wrong with the bike. I also think it gives a better throttle response.

If your CB is getting under 50mpg as a stock bike I would definitely check a few things, an old bunged up airfilter will make the carbs suck up more fuel, crappy plugs will just be inefficient and waste fuel by just not burning it and an old exhaust system on a high miler could be all coked up. Dirty carb internals could also cause some dodgy metering of fuel.

Then, if all those are good I would consider checking the valve clearances, valves not closing properly would also waste fuel leading to low MPG. This would be the last thing to check, it would probably be pretty minimal too, as in, would make the least difference of the above things to check.

When I checked I was getting about 56 mpg, pretty good since I don't hold back, although 40 of my 50 mile round trip is motorway miles. 
As far as I was aware higher RON fuel was more or less to stop detonation or pinking as it is in  4 stroke. Not to produce more power from the samr engine, but to allow engines with higher states of tune run efficiently.
Not fact, but that is my knowledge of it.