I used my '97 mostly for commuting and trips to the Dragon a couple of times a year. The commute is almost 30 miles each way on freeway running 70mph+ with occasional bursts of throttle/speed to avoid or get out of unsafe situations.

I have no engine modifications at all. I was getting about 40-43 mpg with the stock pipes.

I recently switched to Scorpion slip ons and now I'm getting consistently 46 mpg.

Of course I did not buy the bike for high mpg reputation, but I think my mpg is very good considering its performance capabality.

What are other Bird owners getting?

(Now if I can just modify the suspension so the bike does not loosen my fillings, I'll be set)

36-38 mpg avg cruising speed 80 mph. 00' bird stock exhaust.

About 41 mpg with mixed riding, only 1 up. Timing advance, shimmed needles & PAIR removed.

Bout 40 MPG

About 40 when being good

33-35 when hell raising


I'm jetted for a Yosh. 4 into 1. Now I have Micron slipons with a factory header. I'm running a little rich, my next project is to pull the carbs clean them out and change the jetting.

it's been done, and you'll probably find more info doing a search, but I'll throw down anyway...

commuting 40 miles each way mostly highway ~75mph moving average, but some stop and go... 43mpg

running corners hard, 1-up ~40
running corners hard 2-up ~35

with luggage, ~78mph average, full to empty in one sitting, ~48mpg

I'm running a '97 with stock pipes with punched baffles, K&N filter, and a Factory Pro jet kit, plus an 18T front sprocket... but I got the same mileage with stock sprockets before the 10% ethenol gasoline as I get now with the 10% ethenol gas and the 18T front...

Mike

I just fueled up last nite, and my mileage came out to 40mpg. This is a 99 with stock exhaust and airfilter, on the hiway at about 75-80 mph average, with quite a few full throttle passes. If I ride a pretty steady 70mph, mid 40's are no problem.
You have to admit that the fuel mileage is excellent with the XX. I think if you rode a Busa or ZX14 the same way, mileage would be way down.
Randy

I'm happy to get 41 or so. I don't ride hard, mostly, but I weigh 250 right now. I also recently went up a tooth in front, and didn't get the expected increase in mileage, so that was kind of a drag.

I sure noticed a drop in mileage when I dropped a tooth. GOing to go upa tooth for the 6k trip to NEXXT. Will have to see what I get, hopefully better mileage and less stops.

My last check was 43mpg, and that is just normal sane riding commuting to and from work, however if i go to guns with it 37. My pilot jets need to go into the ultrasonic cleaner also.
Jet

My last check was 43mpg, and that is just normal sane riding commuting to and from work, however if i go to guns with it 37. My pilot jets need to go into the ultrasonic cleaner also.
Jet

Just finished a 600 mile day. 500 miles of 75-120mph freeway, only once to silly speed, and 100 miles of 60 mph secondary road. Best tank was the last one with 207 miles taking 5.3 gallons. It is actually probably a bit worse though as my GPS shows my odometer to be about 1.5% optimistic. The bike had just done 3 weeks of nothing but around town trolling so it needed a bit of cleaning out. First tank 194 miles and 5.1 gallons, second tank, 194 miles 4.9 gallons adn the third as above. This is better than I had been getting and I attribute it to not using the top trunk and a 20+ lb weight loss on my part.

I could probably break into the 40's if I put new plugs in it. The current set has 32K miles on them, originals. I know my bike is rich, I can see it in the pipes (stockers). I may well try a pair of slipons in the near future as well as an 18T front.

Oh yeah, bike is an '01 that is completely stock.

Stock I got 38-40 commuting with traffic and close to 50 freeway droning while laying on the tankbag.
When I am playing it drops to low 30's or if I am really having fun I have seen it in the high 20's

43 is I behave

35 or so acting up

almost 25 if I am raping the shit out of the turns. (hardly goes under 6k R'

I am riding the baddest motherfucking 02' that has graced the planet..













its a Vespa

39 mpg average riding from Las Vegas to Denver. 1 up, loaded bags, 90 mph average speed. Stock '02.

OK dammit!!! 2001 model. Just rolled 6000 miles. No mods. Last 4 tanks were 32MPG, 32MPG, 33.5MPG, 32MPG. The 33.5 was with Techron cleaner. 11 miles each way to work. Never break 85 on the longest stretch of maybe 4 miles. Usually cruise at 73MPH. No stop-and-go traffic. 5 stoplights. maybe 5 stop signs. Two school zones. light throttle. shifts between 3200 and 4200 RPM. 260 manly pounds of man on the seat. When I rest my schlong on the countertop while on the scale it drops to 220 pounds. But seriously, what the hell could be wrong?!?! I wanna romp on it to get DOWN to 32MPG - not get that normally! Is it pissed at me becasue I rarely dig into it???

Only time I checked was 38-40 MPG running 80-115 mph on the interstate, probably averaging 85-90. I was pleased to get that kinda average over many hundreds of miles.

36-38, one tooth down in front.

It is not pissed, just bored.

The bike will ot do well around town and having to haul your big self around isn't helping. Mine doesn't do much better in the city. You really need to take the poor thing out for a good long ride. Mine has gotten much better as the miles have piled on. I bought it in November of last year with 13K on the clock and will turn over 33K when I get home tonight. Take a weekend and go put 1500 or so miles on the thing. It will thank you for it.

Yeah, but 32-33 is really low, even for in town. When I was down a tooth in front, I got better than that. I wonder if you're down a tooth front and back or something. Maybe you've got some bad plugs. TX, I'm not much lighter than you, and the only time I've ever been that low was with these crazies in Red Bluff. If you put some road miles on it, and it's still doing that, I'd get it looked over.

Now That's a bunch of Smack.... first the Fuel milage of the Bird is Good but not Excellent.... excellent would be in the high 40's and low 50 range Like a few other bikes out there. One of which you think should get worse , for whatever reason........ the Busa.... will dance around you and laugh, consistantly getting better gas mileage, now matter how you ride.

I've got a buddy with a Busa... he gets 48-50 mpg all the time.



More Smack....... My worst TANK of gas was... 23 mpg... and there was not a damn thing wrong with my Bird. It's all just a matter of how hard you ride.
I used to get 32-34 mpg in town all the time....


The biggest factor is riding style... then overall mileage...and the list goes on..

I've changed mine... with a PC and stuff.. so I'm not going to tell you what I'm getting.

PS. Your odomemter is off by about 2%, which can be easily fixxed by using a 17 / 44 Spocket setup. While your speedometer is off even further... but can be corrected useing a 18/45 setup... but this will cause your mileage to be off in the other direction.

Yeah, Eric, but them damn Hayabusas have to take off at least 5 MPG for the fugly factor.

Something interesting just happened to me in terms of fuel consumption.

I posted on Friday that I cooked the gel battery in my XX and switched to a lead/acid battery from O'Reiley auto parts. It's a lawn mower battery but was also listed for a 1000RR so it's probably OK. Any port in a storm, as the saying goes.

Anyway, the bike fired right up with the new battery and I noticed on the brief ride to the hotel, that the bike felt really crisp. Proved itself on the way home yesterday and today. Got 43 mpg at a 68 mph average on secondary roads and 40+ running an indicated 93 mph (85 GPS) down I-95 today for two tanks worth. That is 2-3 mpg better than the bike has done since I have owned it, about 20K miles.

I really don't have an explanation for this. Maybe the low resistance of the probably internally shorted battery was robbing power from the iginition system. I ain't complaining.

True..................All except for the Special edition Black ones.... those are cool. Because as you know... Black is the fastest color.




So............

If that were true.... then maybe there would be more to gain from a HID headlight unit than just more light.

If less electrica draw = higher gas mileage.

Oh, its true all right.
I really don't think it was a normal electrical draw thing so much as the battery was drawing excessove current frpm tje charging circuit, robbing the ignition system. That battery was HOT. Hot as in I couldn't touch it for 20 minutes and it was still uncomfortable to the touch once I got it out of there.

That, I guess, does qualify as electrical draw and anything that reduced the electrical load should increase the available power. This was just an extreme case. Since the power to run any electrical device must come from the charging circuit, it would make sense that reducing the electrical load will decrease fuel consumption. In the case of HID vs standard lighting, I doubt you would really notice the difference.

Those are the same numbers I used to get with mixed highway/local riding. The only way I was able to improve on that was to really baby the bike by keeping it under 4K rpm for the whole tank and not twist the throttle past about 1/4 way at any time. My best ever numbers were 42mpg (once) and my worst was 27mpg. I am hopefull that when I add the PCIII and have it mapped correctly that I'll be able to score high 30's to low 40's with normal highway riding. We'll see.

I am glad someone finally asked this one... It looks like there is something up with my bike as well.
My mileage is pretty bad. I have a 97. Stage1 Jet Kit, Two Bro Single exhaust and down a tooth in front. Mileage is hi twenties maybe a 30-32 mpg if I stay off the throttle (all in town driving) . I know I run rich, I can see it in the exhaust.

Thanks for bringing out this question... I need to investigate this further.

36 - 38 with mixed riding. 01 scorpion exhaust and power commander.

I have a 98 BB and I commute about 63km ( 39ml ) each way and have had a best of 320km/18l ( 41.81mpg ) average of 300km/18l ( 39mpg ) at 80-120kmh ( 49-74mph ) avge speeds without wringing its neck and 270km/18l ( 35mpg ) at 90-140kmh ( 56-87mph ) avge speeds with some hard accelleration thrown in. I do seem to get slightly better milage during the warmer weather so far ( obviously less choke needed as I work 12 hr shifts so it tends to be colder in the early morning/evening ) but it does not seem to matter whether I use 91 RON or 95 RON fuel although she runs smoother on 95 so tend to alternate 91-95 . Will be interested when summer comes and I can take her on some longer distance rides and see what the milage is then

2001 cherry red all stock picked it up in detroit drove to nola followed wife 800 mi 70-80 mph all interstate 44.5 mpg.left wife last 400 mi 100-140 mph dropped to 36 mpg. xsitement factor is inversly prportional to mpg.

OK. Continuing to beat this poor horse...

Took <whoever's> advice and filled up tonight and ran 170 miles up and down the Interstate. I also put in half a can of Sea Foam since that seems to be the elixer of choice here. Got 41 MPG running with traffic at average 82MPH but ranging between 65 and 90 MPH depending on how many lanes and how many trucks were in the left lane slowing down traffic dammit.

So if my commuting mileage goes up from 32, then it's the magic of Sea Foam! If it stays around 32-33, it's the normal day-to-day magic of the Bird hauling my big ass around to and from work.

On a side note: This bike is smooooOOOOOOooooth!!! And pretty damn comfy too (with the Corbin Smuggler). I've decided to not worry about a higher windscreen or VFR800 clip-ons (unless they fall in my lap). I am, however, waiting patiently for the peg lowering brackets.

The ride back from NeXXt, averaged 75mph on my 97 jetted XX and got 52mpg.

Gearing is 18/45.

I've always noticed a "sweet spot" on my carbed bird where it got better mileage. Around 4-4500 rpm's, but usually ran 5-6000. The 18 front sprocket helped me get the highway speed and keep revs right where they need to be.

Last fill-up, after Sea Foam, and driving nice...

31MPG.

Time to hit the shop manual and google. -and maybe the Honda dealership for a XX brain scan.

I won't bug you guys anymore with this until I get a breakthrough.

2000 model
TiForce full exhaust
No PC
K&N
18Tfront / 45 R
Mid 40's cruising 75 or so
Mid to upper 30's in town
No I do not ring the snot outta her

Note to TX1100F. you might check my earlier garage posts about knock sensors.

My 2003 which I bought from a dealer with 0.1 miles on the clock, has always gotten 31, never higher than 33 nor below 30. I've finally changed out the knock sensor (thanks Joe ) and now my mileage has gone as high as 37, and sometimes back down to 31. It has much better power now and usually gets about 34 mpg.

From previous mpg queries and this thread I am convinced that there is still a significant issue with my bike. My next area to check will be the fuel pressure regulator, it may be holding a higher pressure and forcing the bike to run richer.

There is no doubt that a bad battery will load down the stator and suck HP.
You know I didn't think it was really worth posting at the time but I have noticed a slight difference in mileage dependant on the lighting. When I went from riding with the high-beam to just the low, and again when I switched to the HID. Electrical load will translate to a mechanical load, like riding with one of your brake callipers binding. If you had to crank the stator by hand and switched off/on 80 watts (roughly the difference between 2 HID verses 2 halogen bulbs), you would definitely notice the difference, almost to the point where you wouldn’t be able to continue cranking the latter, unless you’re N1K.

Normally, I get 35-40. Most of my miles are when the bird's loaded with luggage anyhow.

Just double-checked my records.

Based on the last three trips (Spring Rally in NC, cross-country trip and Rally in WV), the bird gets 34-41 MPG with exceptions as low as 30 and as high as 45 MPG.

Most of what eats your gas is riding style and weight (a lighter bike needs less to push it).

Mine is FI for what it's worth.

I get 60 mpg while doing 100-110 mph on interstate.In town I get only about 52 mpg.Well,not really.

FI XX is not the most fuel efficient bike.Period.I get low to mid 30`s in town and about 40 at indicated 80-90 mph at the sea level.While touring Colorado,Utah or Wy. it goes up,simply becouse there is less drag,thinner air etc.Last August I got something stupid as 45mpg between Ouray and Leadville while doing 10 over speed limit.It was cold as hell,raining,and I voted to hook up the electric vest,but not radar detector.There is only one electric outlet on my bike.

The only way to get the same mileage on my XX at /or near sea level would be by means of pushing or towing.

BTW if bikes are not ridden side by side those compros don`t hold much water.Your definition of fast might be very different of mine.

Totally Stock 02: 37-41 mpg with mixture of city and highway.

I just wish that the back tire would last longer-- Any suggestions?

Just don't tell me to avoid 1. Rapid Acceleration

2. Picking on Corvettes

3. Demonstration Rides For The Uninformed M/C Riders

4. Deal's Gap

OK... I think I've had a breakthrough of sorts. It's somewhat convoluted but gels in the end.

Last fill-up after sissy commuting riding was 29mpg!!! shit.

As it happens, after filling up and closing the cap and jamming earplugs and strapping helmet and one last nose-pick, I hit the starter and hear the dreaded BRIP-click-click-click-click sound. Dead battery. Make a call, get jumped , make it home. Begin searching this site for battery recommendations. My quick search turned into research. I found a comment to the effect of low voltage conditions make for bad computing. Hmmm... Makes sense. Still looking for a battery though. Read about R/R issues on the way. Bummer. Read about CCT issues. Simple fix but dammit, Honda, why! Fuel pressure regulators too. I took a side trip on that one.

I have been smelling gas for a long time. When starting of course, but also sitting at lights, idling in parking lots, and at the end of the day filling the garage with fumes when I got home. I don’t see dripping gas. It all seems to be blowing from the pipes. So fuel pressure regulator check in the near future. But then think back to low voltage and bad computing...

So after seeing all the comments about Yuasa and loving/hating gel cells and Interstate batteries etc etc etc, I did what I've done for 20 years and headed to Wal-Mart. Filled my new Wally World Special and charged it overnight at 2A. Installed in this morning. Freaking Magic!

So since I bought my Bird 3 months ago or so, the FI light has ALWAYS stayed on for 1-2 seconds immediately after starting. I was about to start funking with the wiring loom. As an aside, I could also count the beats from the starter. About 4/second. With the new battery installed, the starter spins fast enough that I can't count the beats per second but it doesn't matter as it fires up almost before it physically hit the button! Sorry. Got excited. I saw some Discovery Channel thing on String Theory. Continuing - and the FI light never lit at all today!!! And after parking it in the garage after work, I didn’t smell gas!!! Freaking Magic?!?

Could it be that the whole (short) time I've owned it, the (assuming OE 2001) battery was slowly dying and dropping voltage and running the alternator harder and thus giving me progressively worse mileage and an FI light on startup from low initial pressure and bad computing so much so that is made me trail the remnants of an extremely rich mix???

I will top it off in the morning and report what MPG I get in a few days. Fingers crossed. I hope this thread can help out some poor bastard in the future...

Thanks for the years of discussions, ideas, and data folks!

Thanks for the update. Sounds like a matter of narrowing down the culprit. Kepp us posted.