I checked my gas mileage for the first time

.... and it was pretty dang good.


74.6 mpg. I rode it normal for the most part, but jumped on the gas a few times too. Even though that was regular gas, I never heard a ping or knock under load either so I guess this bike doesn't really care what you dump in it. I'm running premium now but can't really tell any difference power wise. I'm interested if I see any difference in the mileage.

Yep, pretty dang good. Is that per the factory odometer? If so, that might be a tad optimistic. Nothing to complain about though, I got 68 mpg Sunday(per GPS) riding local roads running 55-65 mph.

Sarah

greer wrote:

Yep, pretty dang good. Is that per the factory odometer? If so, that might be a tad optimistic. Nothing to complain about though, I got 68 mpg Sunday(per GPS) riding local roads running 55-65 mph.

Sarah

Yes, I was going by the factory odometer.

I forget where I read this, but on line someone said that the speedo is off on these bikes, but the odometer is correct. If you correct the speedo, then the odometer will be off. Maybe that is bad info.? I know my speedo is high by 5 mph, so if the odometer is off by the same amount, then the 68mpg sounds about right.

click me

motokid wrote:

click me

I am pretty disappointed with the fuel mileage with this bike, but I still can't get enough of it and plan on keeping it. I love the bike. Bone stock, I had to ride like a grandpa to pull 65 mpg. Of course, I am a grandpa, but I didnt buy this thing to ride 55 mph on a paved road. If I am out trail riding and having some fun I get around 55 mpg. Same on the highway at 65 mph. If I wring it's neck I get less than 50 mpg. My last bike was an 08 XT250. That was a great bike too, but the WR is much better in my opinion. The XT got 65 mpg at 65 mph on the highway. If you are buying this bike for fuel economy, don't buy it. I re-geared this winter (13/46), I like the mod, but I know my fuel economy is really going to be in the toilet now. For my bike to get 70 or 80 mpg as some claim, I wouldn't be having much fun riding it. That's my opinion, and my bike. Not discounting anyone elses claims.

grubbie wrote:

I am pretty disappointed with the fuel mileage with this bike, but I still can't get enough of it and plan on keeping it. I love the bike. Bone stock, I had to ride like a grandpa to pull 65 mpg. Of course, I am a grandpa, but I didnt buy this thing to ride 55 mph on a paved road. If I am out trail riding and having some fun I get around 55 mpg. Same on the highway at 65 mph. If I wring it's neck I get less than 50 mpg. My last bike was an 08 XT250. That was a great bike too, but the WR is much better in my opinion. The XT got 65 mpg at 65 mph on the highway. If you are buying this bike for fuel economy, don't buy it. I re-geared this winter (13/46), I like the mod, but I know my fuel economy is really going to be in the toilet now. For my bike to get 70 or 80 mpg as some claim, I wouldn't be having much fun riding it. That's my opinion, and my bike. Not discounting anyone elses claims.

Something wrong with your bike. I ride balls to the walls on the road, stock bike, about 64-65 mph.

The more you keep the throttle open, the worse the gas milage.
If you accelerate with the throttle wide open (or close to it) a lot, you won't be getting 70 mpg on those rides.
If there are many opportunities and situations that call for slowing down to 25mph and accelerate back up to 65 with heavy throttle, you ain't getting those high milage figures.

I believe that getting the bike up to speed and keeping it there will greatly increase the milage.

I always rode/ride these two bikes in the usual "uncorked" condition with FMF fuel programmer, FMF Q4 muffler, airbox flapper gone, AIS shitcanned, and geared down to something realistic (13/49 on the 2008 WR-250X I'm now riding).
I've never gotten better than about 40mpg with my WR-250R or my WR-250X.
Often less.
Nothing wrong with either bike, but it has to do with the way it gets ridden.
If I had to stretch milage out to something like 70 mpg, I'd probably have little fun riding the bike.

mordicai wrote:

grubbie wrote:

I am pretty disappointed with the fuel mileage with this bike, but I still can't get enough of it and plan on keeping it. I love the bike. Bone stock, I had to ride like a grandpa to pull 65 mpg. Of course, I am a grandpa, but I didnt buy this thing to ride 55 mph on a paved road. If I am out trail riding and having some fun I get around 55 mpg. Same on the highway at 65 mph. If I wring it's neck I get less than 50 mpg. My last bike was an 08 XT250. That was a great bike too, but the WR is much better in my opinion. The XT got 65 mpg at 65 mph on the highway. If you are buying this bike for fuel economy, don't buy it. I re-geared this winter (13/46), I like the mod, but I know my fuel economy is really going to be in the toilet now. For my bike to get 70 or 80 mpg as some claim, I wouldn't be having much fun riding it. That's my opinion, and my bike. Not discounting anyone elses claims.

Something wrong with your bike. I ride balls to the walls on the road, stock bike, about 64-65 mph.

I have found nothing wrong with it, but that is possible I suppose. What kind of mileage do you get at 65mph? Is that speedo or actual? I have seen many more people getting my kind of mileage than I have seen the other way. My speed that I am talking about is GPS speed, not speedo, it is incorrect. I have also seen a few claims of 95 mph with lower than stock gearing....I can't do that, with stock gearing,...downhill. I put a bigger gas tank on, but my re-gearing may eat up the extra gallon in lower mpg's. Time will tell I guess.

I'm one who gets good mileage on this thing. I average around 75-79 most times on pavement (GPS recorded). Off road it can vary from 56 up to 72, depending on how hard I ride it. Totally riding the snot out of it, the worst I got was 56.

My first suspicion is the use of ethanol in the gasoline used. I get no better than the high 60s using the ethanol-tainted stuff here in Massachusetts. That's reached by using a fair amount of restraint with the throttle, too. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that the Canadian gas is the good stuff (no ethanol). From what I've read in the past the ethanol is good for about a 10% reduction in gas mileage. That figure seems to cover the range from the highest reported mileage to the median reported mileage. The low-fuel light comes on just below or just above 100 miles which, from what I've read, is pretty much the same as anybody else. My machine is still stock- no engine mods.

Where abouts in Mass do you live? I'm from Attleboro/Norton area. Any good places to ride offroad near you?

We have 5% ethanol in all of our gasoline. We don't have any gas without it anymore.

Midnite171 wrote:

Where abouts in Mass do you live? I'm from Attleboro/Norton area. Any good places to ride offroad near you?

I'm new to this- I really don't know. There is a place in Oxford called Hodges Village Dam. It's a flood-control project that has some trails. I haven't tried them yet. It's about 5 min. from my door. I have been riding old gravel roads that are semi-abandoned. If there's any historical slant to them it's even better. I thought I read of a place in or near Milford, MA that the enthusiasts call "Vietnam". I seem to recall there was an access problem, however. I've been to the old prison grounds near Rutland SF and over some of the gravel roads around Quabbin Reservoir. That's about it so far. Once the weather warms up I hope to revisit the Trans Mass Trail route and maybe start exploring the mountain roads in the Berkshires and in Vermont.

Addendum- I looked up the "Vietnam" site and apparently it is for mountain bikes. Sorry!

TBird1 wrote:

My first suspicion is the use of ethanol in the gasoline used. I get no better than the high 60s using the ethanol-tainted stuff here in Massachusetts. That's reached by using a fair amount of restraint with the throttle, too. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that the Canadian gas is the good stuff (no ethanol).

Nah, the enviro-nazis - not to be confused with conservationists like me - have Canadians by the throat. Canada has to have ethanol, even though it is less environmentally friendly overall. This is the home of David Suzuki, after all - the guy who lectured my grad class many, many years ago how we would have to be the generation who solved the problem of living under hundreds of feet of ice, because a new ice age was about to be upon us. Dave and Al have discovered that environmental extremism pays very, very well. You'll make enough to buy multiple, very large houses, scattered around the country on high value acreages.

But, I digress...

I last posted about mileage late last fall under "Hey, where did my mileage go" or somesuch. Just ambling and rambling around out in the mountains and on FSRs late in the fall. My mileage for rides like that was usually in the low 70's, and was suddenly down in the 60's. This is an unaltered bike other than protective bits, by the way.

I had "winter gas" thrown at me as one speculation. The mention of ethanol makes me wonder if the difference was because, or also included, a period of all my gas being purchased in Canada instead of down in Montana as is normally the case.

Well, in about a month there should be enough snow gone that any "winter gas" issues should be over with and there will be enough clear roads to fire the bike up and head out again. I'll make sure I run on good US premium for a few tanks and then see if my mileage gets out of the 60's dumps and back up into the 70's.

Some people don't care about their mileage on these bikes, but when some of the rides here put you over a hundred miles between gas stations out in the Rockies... you better care or make sure you're carrying lots of spare gas.

grubbie wrote:

mordicai wrote:

grubbie wrote:

I am pretty disappointed with the fuel mileage with this bike, but I still can't get enough of it and plan on keeping it. I love the bike. Bone stock, I had to ride like a grandpa to pull 65 mpg. Of course, I am a grandpa, but I didnt buy this thing to ride 55 mph on a paved road. If I am out trail riding and having some fun I get around 55 mpg. Same on the highway at 65 mph. If I wring it's neck I get less than 50 mpg. My last bike was an 08 XT250. That was a great bike too, but the WR is much better in my opinion. The XT got 65 mpg at 65 mph on the highway. If you are buying this bike for fuel economy, don't buy it. I re-geared this winter (13/46), I like the mod, but I know my fuel economy is really going to be in the toilet now. For my bike to get 70 or 80 mpg as some claim, I wouldn't be having much fun riding it. That's my opinion, and my bike. Not discounting anyone elses claims.

Something wrong with your bike. I ride balls to the walls on the road, stock bike, about 64-65 mph.

I have found nothing wrong with it, but that is possible I suppose. What kind of mileage do you get at 65mph? Is that speedo or actual? I have seen many more people getting my kind of mileage than I have seen the other way. My speed that I am talking about is GPS speed, not speedo, it is incorrect. I have also seen a few claims of 95 mph with lower than stock gearing....I can't do that, with stock gearing,...downhill. I put a bigger gas tank on, but my re-gearing may eat up the extra gallon in lower mpg's. Time will tell I guess.

Well, just to elaborate, by the speedometer I got 74 mpg, but corrected it was 68 mpg. I ride it conservatively but I don't pamper it by any means. I only cracked it open once or twice between fillups. The gearing is stock. I only weigh 140#, so that probably has a bit to do with it as well.

With all of the popular mods in place I was down to 43 mpg (actual). I have since changed my FMF programmer to 3, 2.5, 1, 8, 3, 4 and I am now getting a consistent 50 mpg. I know that I was running too rich with the FMF programmer set to its default 3, 4, 1, 8, 4, 4.5.

SheWolf wrote:

I'm one who gets good mileage on this thing. I average around 75-79 most times on pavement (GPS recorded). Off road it can vary from 56 up to 72, depending on how hard I ride it. Totally riding the snot out of it, the worst I got was 56.

Yeah! I've been getting around 65mph for the most part and I don't baby it. 95% has been on the street and 5% on dirt trails and I've only opened it up a few times. I'm having a blast on this thing. I suppose riding just a bit harder would be fun, but I don't need any traffic tickets. I only weigh about 145, so that may help too.


You can tell just by looking, this thing gets 65 mpg >

You're flying in that one.