Fuel economy

[hiccy]

Well, with petrol being rumoured to go to at least £1.50 a litre in a few months time, possibly even £2.00, getting under 40mpg on a daily commuter is beginning to seem a bit wasteful. So what bikes are actually quite easy on the juice? Preferably ones that don't make you feel like a tt riding them and could handle themselves on an inner city motorway. Is a regular 60mpg on mixed M, A & B road commuting possible?

[N Dentressangle]

My CB500 manages 60+ mpg, but might fall a little foul of your first criterion...

[Momentofmadness]

Wouldn't something like a Suzi GSX600 do the job?

[chieftain]

Apparently the CG125 does 120mpg, according to used bike guide, which can't be right, can it?... obviously, you would not be the coolest dude on the block.

Sorry, not much help!

[Mr OCD]

My Thundercat YZF600R averages 52mpg...

[hiccy]

The CG125 I had many moons ago did about 115mpg; fiver in the tank come giro day and that kept me going for a fortnight!

Bit useless on the motorway though. Basically I'd like the fastest torquey-est (?) bike I can get that'd do a realistic 60mpg. The F800 reviews seem to sway wildly from 40 to 80 mpg, but the local dealers are ignorant tts so that's out. The manufacturers don't publish figures so I'm kinda stuck atm. Surely there's a reasonably economical big-ish bike out there?

[RizzoTheRat]

My TDM850 will do mid 50's if I don't push it too hard, and low 50's on a B-road blast. Drops a bit in town though. The newer 900's a lot more frugal.

[Taita]

SV!

[freddytin]

Taita said:

SV!

Another vote for SV 650, piece of cake to achieve 65 mpg.

[strattonkillick]

I've got an F650GS which manages an easy 60+mpg on my commute which is all urban with a few miles of dual carriageway. Not the coolest bike I'm sure though.

[Phil C]

An SV650 does 60mpg!!!! what does the SV1000 do? - suddenly I'm seeing them in a whole new light. Always liked the looks - just thought they seemed a bit 'delicate' - no offence at all to any owners - just mean they are the only Jap bike to look stylishly Italian if you know what I mean - but as a commuter an SV certainly bears thinking about.....

[Muffles]

My SV was pretty good on economy too, my commute is quite stop start though. I think that's where the low down torque helped as I never really needed to rev it a lot - I've had 2 600cc IL4's since, and both are/were worse on petrol. I guess you need to rev them a bit more to get moving each time.

Might just be the SV that's like this, I'd have normally said V-twins would be a bit better on economy cos you could ride the torque, but I seem to be of the impression litre V-twins are actually pretty bad for some reason...

[m3psm]

My old Mk1 TDM850 and the VFR800 both do about 42mpg, so not great.

Even riding frugally I doubt I could see 50mpg from either.

[catso]

My 916 will easily do 45mpg on a run.

[Silver993tt]

Just completed a trip via France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic and ending in Munich - total about 2000 miles. Motorway was about 50% the rest on country roads riding quite hard and some cities (Dresden, Leipzig, Munich). Average was 47mpg. Bike is Kawasaki ZZR1400.

[hiccy]

Bit of a difference between going on a run and urban commuting: even my Fazer will do 45-46mpg on a run or longer blast. Day in day out I think I get about 38mpg.

So it looks like there are no decent sized bikes that are easy on the fuel; guess that means I might be getting a tatty commuter hack this autumn then rather than trading my bike in. I'm surprised at the SV: 60mpg commuting?? Might have to look closer at that.

The F650 I'd already thought about, what about other big singles though, XT660? Or some of the KTMsupermononutter thingies?

The feedback is greatly appreciated guys.

[Hooli]

something torquey with some type of fairing i'd say. my gsx1400 will do 45mpg on a quick(ish) run but start aiming for warpspeed and it drinks like a fish compared to faired bikes ive ridden with, thats roughly triple figures upwards btw.

[The T Boy]

I averaged about 60mpg on my SV650S and get 50mpg out of my Sprint ST 1050.

Most of my commute is motorways though and this suits the big ST whilst was probably a bit too hard for the ST. At slightly slower speeds (think congested B road and filtering speeds) I expect the SV figures would have improved a bit but the ST wouldn't.

I think that the type of roads and riding would have a big impact on what type of bike would give the best mpg.

[ZZR]

I have taken the go-slow route now due to the increased costs of fuel and am rarely going above 75mph on my daily commute. As a result I am getting 260 miles out of 23.5 litres, so getting 52mpg. Not bad from a 78,000 mile ZZR1200!!

It's still costing 10p/mile though!

[bordseye]

you can apparently average 80 mpg with a 500cc Enfield Bullet with the lean burn modern engine. You would, however, have to grow a beard and drink decent beer (as opposed to that lager kiddie drink) to be allowed to own one.