Dude, IMO your figuring it out all wrong.... Think of it as only costing you aprox. $5./Hour for both of you to ride a great bike, on a great day, in a great country! Take her to the mall for a hour bet you both don't enjoy it on 5 bucks! Lol Don't baby the bike because of gas mileage...ride it like you stold it cuz we all know how long of a boring winter it was just waiting for weather like this! Lol

 

What's this winter you speak of???

 

Yesterday i and the wife went on a 250 mile adventure, my gas light came on at 180 and i fueled at 190 and pumped 4 gal. I got about 47 miles per gal. and i was running at 65-70 witch i didnt think was to bad considering i installed cobra pipes and a k&n air filter. What did suck was when i crossed from Iowa back into IL. and gas price jumped up 35 cents. Illinois sucks!

 

Might check the rear tire pressure, you shouldn't see that kind of drop off, maybe the second person was more than the tire pressure wanted. I have never gone much below 45mpg 2up.

 

Worst 2-up mileage I've ever gotten (mods listed below) was 41mpg riding into a strong headwind. Granted, I don't cruise at 80, but we were doing 70 (75 at times) for a large chunk of the journey. Return trip, riding with the wind, was MUCH better!

 

Although i didn't pay that much attention, i did experience a noticible dropoff in mileage when doing 75-80 as opposed to 65-70 on a cross-country trip i made a couple years back. I tried different octate ratings, and it didn't affect mileage anywhere near as much as the speed did.

 

Going nearly 90 on the 900 2 up is probably revving that motor pretty high. I wouldn't be surprised the gas mileage would get really poor at that point.

 

Wind drag increases exponentially as speeds go up, and the engine is well above its optimum cruising RPM range by 80mph. You won't hurt anything at that speed, but it's perfectly normal to see the mileage drop significantly. I've gone into the low 30's on the 500 when maintaining 80mph for a full tank. On the other hand, I've also gotten into the low 60's when maintaining a 40mph backroads cruise. If you want to extend your range, keep your cruising speed between 65-72.

 

I have the batwing fairing and got 32 mpg on the trip to Co Springs, but I was doing 90 on the speedometer. When I keep it to 65-75 I get 45-50.

 

Judging from the replies I guess it is something normal... I was just surprised to see such a big change in MPG for a relatively small difference in speed. I have heard that it is exponentially harder to reach higher speeds and it most likely just hits the steep side of that curve around 80mph thus needing more juice to get to and keep it up there. It's strange cause it seems my ZX-14 actually gets better MPG at those speeds (37-38) than my 900. Just gonna have to keep it under 74-75 cruising from now on. Low MPG is one of the reasons I got the Vulcan.

 

Keep in mind that your ZX has a tremendously better profile for high speeds than the cruiser. It was built from the ground up for that in both drag coefficient and gearing.

 

and it is a 4 cylinder that is made to rev really high vs a v-twin made to rev kinda high.

 

Both very good points. Do you guys know what the rev limit on the 900 is?

 

I have a 2009 900 with cobra pipes k&n filter ecu remapped by dealer for previous owner(just bought it). I'm 163 wife is 100 filled it up to check the fuel mileage as my klr with exhaust and mods got 53 mpgs got 35 mpg extremely low imo. Or does it need to be that rich for the aftermarket pipes? I wouldn't think so that 15-20 mpgs in my opinion is a bit excessive. the tips pf the pipes inside are black indicating way too rich.

 

Loucarisma,

If you haven't changed your intake/air box, you are pig rich. Whoever "tuned" the fuel mapping obviously just cranked it up with no regard to proper mixture and didn't test on a dyno with a "sniffer".

1. The intake restriction on the 900 isn't the filter, it's the intake tube to the airbox.
2. A K&N filter does nothing on the 900. K&N has stated this and it's one reason they took so long to start making one for this model.
3. K&N filters do nothing for 99.999% of vehicles anyway. Stock filters are simply not restrictive. Engineers do know what they're doing, and modifying intakes usually ends up in a drop in torque if anything from disrupting the "ram-tuning" resonance. K&Ns do, however, pass about 45x more dirt and larger particles as well.

You should be getting at least 40 mpg even with pipes and hard riding. I have pipes, stock intake, and have used stock and K&N filters. Same power and mpg with both filters. I get low 40s with a headwind on the interstate (70-75) and as good as 60 with a tailwind or drafting at 65. Overdrive pulleys will help a bit. My windshield drags the mpg down a bit.

My best was 67 on one fill (so realistically probably like 62-64) going about 60-63 with a 20mph tailwind and drafting a semi that had skirts and a trailer tail. These are long rides, 3.5-4 gal fills so pretty accurate. I've even calculated my exact trip/odo error to correct my mpg calcs.

 

Wish I had seen this thread before posting mine.

This morning, on my way home, my fuel light came on at 135 miles (~33.75 MPG) with the wind to my back. Bike has the bigger 170/80 rear tire, Barons Hack N' Slash slip-ons and a K&N air filter. The stock mufflers were black from soot on the inside. Bike smells a bit rich, too, at times. As far as I can tell, there is no fuel pack installed. I am a heavier guy @ 260 lbs and the LT windshield is removed. I haven't checked the plugs yet, but plan on it this weekend. The last VN900 I owned had a BAK, 3" pipes and stock rear tire and it did much better. Since my ride is using the taller tire, would that true the MPG since the tire corrects the speedo?

Thanks!

 

i tent to get around 60+ mpg (uk) while riding 100% stock, and that is riding aggressively but i do sit around 1-2k rpm which probably helps. infact I reckon that if i were to ride extremely economical I could probably get upto 70-75mpg(uk)

 

There is no way you are cruising at that low of rpm. Idle speed alone is about 1300 Rpm's. Even if you were, you are lugging that motor and that is hard on it.

 

I changed the pipes and air then had it on the dyno. I get about 45-50 mpg. But the way I look at it is.

Tank of gas 12 bucks.

Getting out on the open road and relieving stress so you don't choke the sh*t out of someone.........PRICELESS!

 

2019 vulcan 900 Classic

I just picked up my vulcan 900 Classic last week and the dealer filled up it. the gas light finally turn on but i've only done 120 miles. I haven't traveled faster than 70mpg+ keep it below 65 before break in proposes. Is it normal to get be getting 27 mpg?

 

I just picked up my vulcan 900 Classic last week and the dealer filled up it. the gas light finally turn on but i've only done 120 miles. I haven't traveled faster than 70mpg+ keep it below 65 before break in proposes. Is it normal to get be getting 27 mpg?

How much fuel did you put in? The gauge/low fuel light on at least the older Vulcan's is notoriously not accurate.

 

Let it fully break in before you start worrying about mpg.

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And for the record, when my fuel light comes on, I still have about a gallon and a half in the tank.

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