Rubbish MPG On Motorbikes

licky_face

I've been interested in learning to ride motorbikes as it seems like a cheaper way to travel, but when looking at the sort of fuel economy you get a lot of the figures I'm finding are in the 40MPG range? Is this correct? Considering a motorbike is just an engine with two wheels and a man (or woman) sat on it I don't understand why the fuel economy is so poor.

bengalknights

It depends on the actual motorbike your using and the cc of it i know a lot of the 50cc and 125cc bikes as well as mopeds will easily achieve 70-80mpg but a lot of it is down to the fact that they are petrol driven machines.If there was a diesel motorbikes around im pretty sure that mpg figure would improve vastly.

Padz_2

Depends on the size of the engine. My Triumph Bonnie (900cc) did the same MPG as my car but I enjoyed riding it.

If you want fuel economy then you'll need smaller bikes like 50cc/100cc/125cc or a 250.

Rolandtheroadie

My hayabusa(1300) didnt fare well, but a Honda c90 I had for the fields as a kid ran forever on next to nothing.

extremely_bored

Only bikes that do good mpg are 50-250cc bikes as the cylinder capacity and power to weight ratio allows for good mpg,Modern bikes can rev to 14,000 rpm which is doible that of a bigger engined car even though the engine capacity is half. so double the amount of combusions in a small engine you end up with similar mpg to a small car.
bikes are much more fun but 10 times more deadly so be careful.

ciano125

My 929cc Fireblade would usually do about 40mpg, my mates 600 Fazer would do about 60mpg, and the 125 I used to have did about 80mpg.

It can be cheaper than a car, a modern 125cc will do 100mpg, and they are more fun than a car but it does hurt when you come off! Best left for fun is my opinion, but I'm lucky enough now to be in a position where I could afford a car for work and a bike for a toy.

Trebor16

My BMW R1200RT currently averages 52-54mpg on my run to work. My wife has a Kawasaki ER5 which averages in the region of 62-64mpg. This are averages that are worked out by filling the tank up each time and zeroing the trip meter and working it out the old fashioned way.

The trouble with most road tests that you read are they rarely mention MPG which I find surprising in this day and age.

Other factors to bear in mind on a motorcycle that if you use it in central London then there is no congestion charge to pay. Parking is also free in the many motorcycle bays around London, with the exception of the City of Westminster area. You can also park for free in Corporation of London owned car parks.

Wig

Maybe if they started charging road tax bands for bikes on emmissions - with more epensive tax bands- things would change, it seems the manufacturers just aren't interested in making them as economical as they can be.

alanrowell

There's the other thing that reviewers & companies rarely mention - range. Some bikes have ranges well under 200 miles with some nearer the 100 mile mark

Trebor16

alanrowell wrote: »

There's the other thing that reviewers & companies rarely mention - range. Some bikes have ranges well under 200 miles with some nearer the 100 mile mark

Some do mention it, but not many. My 1200RT can do 300 miles on a full tank, though that is nothing compared to my R1200GS which has the 35 litre tank from the adventure model fitted. I did a trip up to Scotland on that last year and stopped to fill up 400 miles after my last fill up. It only took 31 litres to fill it up, so it could have gone up to 450 miles at that rate of consumption:D

Trebor16

Wig wrote: »

Maybe if they started charging road tax bands for bikes on emmissions - with more epensive tax bands- things would change, it seems the manufacturers just aren't interested in making them as economical as they can be.

I wish they would do that then the road tax on my R1200RT would only be £30 instead of the £70 I currently pay. BMW started to publish the CO2 emissions figures on their bikes last year and as far as I know are the only manufacturer to do so. The figure for my RT is 114 g/km, which is in the £30 a year band for cars.