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H-Ds get awesome mileage...bikerfish
Do I look like I have the attitude?
It's sad that my Prius gets better mileage than my '03 RT.
I always used to ride the bike to save gas, but now it's the reverse.
One problem is engine braking on bikes is fairly strong. The Prius is made to coast and captures energy while coasting or braking.
To BMW's credit, the newer RT's get better mpg's than the older ones while giving more HP.
Why won't BMW make a diesel touring bike?
Harry
My BMWs both get in the 40s to 50s, good enough for me. In the past, I had a 23 mile rural commute to work and I rode my bike as much as possible, even on very many lousy weather days. Sure it saved me gas, but it simply felt good to ride.
Now, if the US bike market were good enough to support high mileage/lower power motorcycles, we'd have a wide variety of bikes getting 60 mpg and much higher even. Heck, a F800 BMW easily gets over 60mpg and it has great performance. If it were tuned for fuel economy I bet it would exceed 70 mpg.
But,....fuel efficient motorcycles don't sell in this country of cheap gas and wide expanses. Don't blame BMW for simply building what the majority of the market wants, recreational power!
My RT could use a 7th gear to lower highway RPMs by several hundred. That'd help a little.
Randy, I agree with what you're saying. It'll happen, someday, but it hasn't happened yet because the m/cycle industry isn't being pushed by customers or by the EPA for better mileage ... yet.
It is too bad I cannot get 93 RON gas. On 91 RON my bike shorts fuel economy 5-10 mpg over that alone.
Cars are adopting things like phased valve timing and direct injection, both of which can increase torque and HP while increasing MPG. They have also gone to more transmission gears + higher final gearing and some very lean mixtures at cruise. As an example, I have an '07 Corvette Z06 with 505 HP that gets 28 mpg on the highway. A 1967 Corvette 427 c.i. would be lucky to get half that or about 14 mpg on the same highway trip. Autos have made a lot of progress in 40 years.
Motorcycle efficiency hasn't improved as much since the 1960s like cars have. I think motorcycles eventually will adopt technologies that will increase the MPGs without sacrificing performance.
These days the path to higher octane is more ethanol. THAT will hurt your mileage for sure. And, methinks you've wildly overestimated the mileage hit.