Discussion
We are often told to use high gears ASAP to save fuel, but how significant is it?
Obviously if you are driving at a steady speed down the motorway using an unnecessarily low gear will use more fuel. But what about situations when your speed is varying?
Threading my way through town in situation where I frequently have to use second I often leave it in second rather than keep grabbing third or fouth briefly then changing down again on the basis that I have better things to concentrate on than gear changes. So my revs are higher, but I don't have to put my foot down as far to accelerate, so I can't believe fuel consumption is much different.
Similarly in country nlanes on the bike I like to keep the revs up sufficiently to get a snappy throttle response. I spoke to someone who was in the habit of changing up at 3000 RPM, then went on an IAM run and was encouraged to rev higher. He was astonished to find no noticeable increase in fuel consumption
Obviously if you are driving at a steady speed down the motorway using an unnecessarily low gear will use more fuel. But what about situations when your speed is varying?
Threading my way through town in situation where I frequently have to use second I often leave it in second rather than keep grabbing third or fouth briefly then changing down again on the basis that I have better things to concentrate on than gear changes. So my revs are higher, but I don't have to put my foot down as far to accelerate, so I can't believe fuel consumption is much different.
Similarly in country nlanes on the bike I like to keep the revs up sufficiently to get a snappy throttle response. I spoke to someone who was in the habit of changing up at 3000 RPM, then went on an IAM run and was encouraged to rev higher. He was astonished to find no noticeable increase in fuel consumption
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff