Can you imagine the gas mileage these bikes would get with

....less rolling resistance?


I've been getting a pretty steady low to mid 70s mpg wise, but my bike coasts like the brakes are slightly on. My car actually coasts much better than this WRR. It must be the knobbies and chain drive setup that kills it. It would benefit the acceleration as well.

Anyone else notice this? (or maybe my bearings are hosed up and need regreased)?

I'd like to ride an X and see how that feels..... that may be a better way to go for 90+% street riding.

cars always roll better than motorcycles.. the chain is the biggest drag. One would think by now a better drive system would be the standard.. rather than the old chain & sprocket from the early 1900's. But evidently direct drive, or cvt's just aren't as cost effective or reliable.

Yeah, I suppose areodynamics are pretty poor too.

Last night I did a little experiment to reduce the resistance from the chain. I washed the bike and chain then put the bike up on the work stand started it and put her in gear, and instead of lubing the chain with chain wax like I do after every wash I decided to lube the chain up with lithium grease in hopes that the lithium grease will find its way in to the x-rings of the chain. I can say that after lubing the chain with the lithium grease the chain and wheel began sliding and rotating MUCH MUCH more smoothly than when I normally do this with chain wax. Hopefully the lithium grease will stay in the x-rings when I wipe it off and apply the chain wax before my next ride. We'll see....

darn, how do you guys get 70mpg? i only get 59-60mpg. i ride a lot of hwy though, so maybe the high revs lower gas mileage.

NorgeWR2X wrote:

darn, how do you guys get 70mpg? i only get 59-60mpg. i ride a lot of hwy though, so maybe the high revs lower gas mileage.

Thats about the same mpg I got with stock gearing. Mine is a little worse now, but that's because I changed the gearing to 13x47.... I see more like 50-55mpg, and I too ride a lot of HWY. I plan to gear the bike back to stock after I ware these sprockets out, just had to see what all the rave was about with the shorter gearing.

I get in the low 60's with stock gearing riding in the metro area with unleaded+. Out of the metro where the better gas is it jumps up to the mid 60's. I don't use premium because most of the time on the trail it can not be purchased. Engine is modded. Berwyn

NorgeWR2X wrote:

darn, how do you guys get 70mpg? i only get 59-60mpg. i ride a lot of hwy though, so maybe the high revs lower gas mileage.

I generally ride it pretty easy. I only weigh 140#. I notice that if you flog the bike at all, it will suck a lot more gas, so I generally don't unless I have to really get going to get moving in traffic. I'm checking with the GPS and my best mileage was 77 mpg on two occasions! It runs fine on regular unleaded.

One of the biggest things I've noticed is how much longer the bike coasts now with X wheels. I've seen a solid 5+mpg improvement over my dirt setup too, and I'm usually riding faster and harder. Radials and smooth tires ftw.

NorgeWR2X wrote:

darn, how do you guys get 70mpg? i only get 59-60mpg. i ride a lot of hwy though, so maybe the high revs lower gas mileage.

It's a little motor, so how you ride makes a big difference.

Dual sporting 50/50 with lots of 30mph idling down gravel roads - and less wind resistance - I get 71mpg US. Long ride on the slab at 60 mph, and milage drops to mid to high 50's.

Which I'm okay with. I don't mind the lower mileage pounding down the slab, because that's still pretty good mileage compared to my truck and gas stations are not hard to find. But multi day trips back in the mountains, there are no gas stations so good mileage is pretty important.

Biggest thing I did was swap the chain for a standard chain. HUGE difference! So far it's wearing just as well as the o-ring I had, and on a test where i coasted on the o-ring, I had to put it in gear to get it rolling to make it up the other side of the hill. I didn't have to do that with this chain. same road, same speed, different chain. It's amazing how much resistance those ring chains actually have.

SheWolf wrote:

standard chain. HUGE difference!

I'm considering this route next chain replacement. It would be interesting to know how they compare with lifespan/resistance. I know the standard chains are generally cheaper...

My XLR250 use dto coast soo much better, it didnt have the O ring chain, so maybe thats it!!!

This is the first bike I've ever owned with an o/x ring chain. I needed a new chain a few months ago for my 45 JT mod and kept reading that the standard chain was for racing???, so I was a turkey and bought an RK x ring chain. I always thought the rings would create fiction( pretty obvious), and I've never really known how the hell you are supposed to maintain these new type of chain. I read don't clean them because you'll flush out the lube from the rings??? Things were so much simpler when you just kept a chain clean and lubed. Anybody what to buy an RK 110 OSX chain, with 3,00 miles on it??

I can vouch that on the X there is still a lot of slow down when you pull the clutch. I feel like a giant air brake and apparently function as one too. When in gear it sheds speed like nobody's business.

As for X-ring chains, my experience with them sofar over the years has been you can spray lube em to keep em from getting rusty and ugly, but they work fine with or without it since the lube is sealed in. Might last a little longer lubed since rust is fairly abrasive.

I agree that the Wr seems to have a lot of rolling resistance. My BMW weighs something like 375-400 pounds, also has an o-ring chain, and knobby tires, and requires noticably less effort to push across the parking lot.

On the flip side the WR is way easier to pick up after a dirt nap.

I wonder if it has anything to do with that pointless rubber ring on the sprocket? Shewolfe when you changed chain didn't you ditch the sprocket with the condom at the same time? And WTF is that rubber for anyway?

Muddyrabbit wrote:

I wonder if it has anything to do with that pointless rubber ring on the sprocket? Shewolfe when you changed chain didn't you ditch the sprocket with the condom at the same time? And WTF is that rubber for anyway?

I haven't actually looked at the fabled rubber ring, but if it comes into contact with the chain, it is probably for noise reduction.

BTW, I see you are from NE Ohio... I'm originally from Lake County, by the nuke plant! (Yes, I glow at night) I'm living in NorCal nowadays...

That god dammed rubber gasket was the cause of lots of noise for me.

Removing the POS was a blessing.

Noise reduction???????

Hardly.

Isn't the whole point of the X to be super agile with super sticky tyres? Putting low rolling resistance rubber (even if they make the correct size....) seems like madness to me. I have BT45 tyres at the moment, which are a compromise for grip/longevity for commuting, but I plan on getting BT003RS tyres if £££££ allows in the future I suspect they will toast in half the time, lower my mileage substantially, & have lots of other wear knock-on side effects. 60-odd MPG sounds pretty good to me compared to most other bikes & cars....

zone47 wrote:

NorgeWR2X wrote:

darn, how do you guys get 70mpg? i only get 59-60mpg. i ride a lot of hwy though, so maybe the high revs lower gas mileage.

I generally ride it pretty easy. I only weigh 140#. I notice that if you flog the bike at all, it will suck a lot more gas, so I generally don't unless I have to really get going to get moving in traffic. I'm checking with the GPS and my best mileage was 77 mpg on two occasions! It runs fine on regular unleaded.

I suspect that your weight and profile might be the key to your mileage. I'm short, fat (210), and wide. Aerodynamically, I suck and my mileage (55mpg) reflects that.

+1 On this bike, riders weight has a lot to do with milage and tire wear

I'm 6'2" 250lbs. I got 89 miles to my last 1.5 gallon fill. 59mpg. about 25 or 30 miles of that was 70mph highway though which cuts into the mileage (75-80 displayed). I usually get right around 70mpg. Then again, as I've learned in the other thread, I'm about the only guy who cruises in high gear. I think I would get much worse mileage if my bike were quieter. Stinkin powercore 4 screams if I don't baby it and a large portion of my commute is within 2 miles of the police station. Cops everywhere! Two tickets this year... 11mph over and 12mph over... I hate cops now. I pull the clutch lever and sneer every time I pass close to one.

I Think you guys talking about rider weight and whatnot are missing the point of the original question. The OP is right, the WR does feel like something is dragging, almost like a brake is stuck. Go push one across a flat parking lot, then do it with a different bike. Like I said before my much heavier BMW with Dunlop D606 tires and X ring chain rolls easier. Somewhere something is creating drag that makes it fe like the brake is on.

aaronhall555 wrote:

Last night I did a little experiment to reduce the resistance from the chain. I washed the bike and chain then put the bike up on the work stand started it and put her in gear, and instead of lubing the chain with chain wax like I do after every wash I decided to lube the chain up with lithium grease in hopes that the lithium grease will find its way in to the x-rings of the chain. I can say that after lubing the chain with the lithium grease the chain and wheel began sliding and rotating MUCH MUCH more smoothly than when I normally do this with chain wax. Hopefully the lithium grease will stay in the x-rings when I wipe it off and apply the chain wax before my next ride. We'll see....

Just wanted to add that the lithium grease did significantly reduce the rolling resistance of the x-chain, which increased my mpg and feels like more power to the wheel. Before my first ride after applying the lithium grease I wiped off the excess lithium grease, then lubed my chain with chain wax like I do before every ride. Seems like my idea of getting lithium grease to find its way in to the x-rings of the chain worked. Only negative thing I can see by doing this is you get a little splashing/sling of lithium grease on the rear rim, which wipes off easy after the first ride.

For the mpg figures, ~50mpg with just chain wax, solid 55mpg with one application of lithium grease and chain wax, with 13x47 gearing.