189 miles then walking

[zore]

So I take a look at my od this morning before starting my trek to work this morning.  Plenty of gas to make it to work.  BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ WRONG!.  The od clicked 158 and I had to switch reserve.  I figured I was only 20 miles form work so I should make it.  BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ WRONG!  I passed the last fuel station and then took my exit.  As I was making my exit she started sputtering.  Oh dear this is bad.

I coast as far as I can and get prepared to walk the bike to the next gas station.  I wasn't far from the fuel station, unfortunatly, it was half way up the mountain.   Luckely for me, I do take care of myself and run 4 miles every other day, if not every day.  But as the angle of the hill continued to grow, my little chicken arms started giving out.  It was probalby a good 3/4 of a mile from bottom to top and after many breaks to catch my breath and allow my heart to get off the rev limiter, I made it to the gas station... and they were closed.

Needless to say, I ended up having to call someone from work (all of 2 miles away) to come get me and find a fuel can.  We passed 2 other gas stations on the way and they were all closed at 7:30 am.   I finally found a nice guy who had a tank and loaned it to me. 

I thought the tank was 4.5 gallons but I'm only getting 4.3 in it to the very top.  I'm going to lower the rear get back to 125 to help fuel mileage a little bit as I believe it's running out of fuel first.  I was getting almost 50 mpg and now I'm just barely getting over 40.  Considering my monster and sprint st were all getting into the 60's I'm a little perplexed.  I'm a fuel miser, as you can tell.

[d0n]

that's a bitch!

[zore]

Bitch... indeed!  I have always wanted to run a tank dry and I'm just glad it wasn't my car but I also wish it was 2 miles from home as it's much flatter and no mountains.

[ps2/bikevision]

murphys law states that" no matter which way you push the closest gas station will always be up hill and closed"

that sucks.

[dminor]

189!!!
   I have to go to reserve at 139. No more than 150 and I'm walking. Stop at the pump and put some gas in her. stop being a gas miser
Don ???

[zore]

well, it used to go 180 miles before hitting reserve, hence my dismay.

[Kenny]

      Riding long distances on the "V" I find myself  pushing the envelope with regards to fuel,plus all you need is a Gas station that is closed or gone out of business & your in big "Trouble". I found after running out of fuel on the reserve, I can sqeeze a few more miles out if I lean the bike over on my leg -past the side stand limit - this allows the fuel stuck in the right lower area of the tank to reach the petcock.It's got me to a gas station more than once.
                                 FYI  Kenny 

[zore]

Yeah, I tried that.  The tank was bone dry.

[haunter]

Yeah, I tried that.  The tank was bone dry.

I changed jets this weekend on my FZR, and realized I had forgotten to stop at the gas station as the tank had about an ounce in it, not near enough to refil the bowls and get back to the gas station

[ProfessorRex]

well, it used to go 180 miles before hitting reserve, hence my dismay.

Well... didn't you just do away with your YICS???

[zore]

The mileage was the same with the yics on it.  It seems to drop drasticly in the cold.  I would think it might go up with the cooler denser air giving more power which lead me to believe it might be runnign lean.  I had a 120 and a 125 in it and put a 122.5 and a 127.5 in it which made no difference.  I'm going to put a 125 in the rear again.  I had dropped the main air jets from 135 to 130's.

My ultimate goal is to have enough jets and adjustability on hand so that I can start tuning them to run with no air box flapper.  I've been toying around with teh idea of even mounting a holley 2 barrel on it but have only found the 500cfm variaty which I believe might be too big.

[Lucky]

It seems to drop drasticly in the cold.  I would think it might go up with the cooler denser air giving more power

it's the other way around actually:  coller denser air has more volume, so you use more gas to compensate, but the engine should run stronger

often an engine will have a noticable improvement in cooler air.

[Lucky]

BTW, i only got this kind of milage when i hit 5000 posts  :P :D

[Brian Moffet]

coller denser air has more volume,

Actually, cooler denser air has more mass, the same volume.  Cooler, denser, drier air is best as it allows for more vaporized fuel to go into the engine (moist air can't absorb as much because it has water in it.)

Brian

[zore]

Cooler air also contains more oxygen.  My thought being that if it creates more power as it gets cooler out, I should also use less throttle to get the same amount of power, thus getting better fuel mileage. 

[Brian Moffet]

No, power is based on how much fuel you burn, oxygen will make little difference.

Look at it this way, when you're driving down the road, you have a couple of losses going against you that you have to burn fuel to overcome.  The first is air-resistance, and this is the biggest.  The second is frictional losses due to tires, wheels, etc...  The third is engine losses.

Assuming no wind, the air-resistance will be constant for a given temperature, altitude, and moisture.  As the temperature drops, or pressure increases, your engine does make more power, but since the air is denser you have to use more power to move through the air.  Higher altitude (what is called higher "density-altitude" in flying) means that the air is thinner, you get less power but you don't have to work as hard to go through the air. 

I'll ignore the second factor, it's pretty straight-forward.

The third factor is that engines work best at certain RPM, they are more efficient at that RPM.  Higher or lower than that RPM the engine will require more fuel to make the same HP.  That RPM range is where auto-manufacturers set standard driving RPM for freeways.  That's also why you shouldn't do freeway speeds in 4th if you have a 5th, the car was designed to use 5th at freeway speeds (usually).

Brian

[zore]

As far as I can remember, you need fuel and oxygen to create combustion.  With out either of those 2, you don't go anywhere.  Why does nos create more power?  It creates a cooler charge, and it releases oxygen in the combustion process.  You have to compensate by adding more fuel as it will run lean.  With that said, you will generally make more power running lean than you will rich, as you get higher combustion temps.  But this is at the cost of collecting all the hot oily pieces that you'll be leaving down the road.

[Brian Moffet]

Major difference between pulling NOS from a tank and driving through cooler air.  Also, you'll make more power running lean until you reach a peak ratio, then you'll make less horsepower but have cooler head and exhaust gas temperatures.

But other than that, you're correct.

Brian

[haunter]

if you get really lean you run hotter

[Brian Moffet]

Actually, not true.  You run hotter until a peak, then you start running cooler.  In airplanes where you can carefully control the mixture to every cylinder, running lean of peak (which results in cooler exhaust and head temps) is a common practice to improve fuel economy and engine life.

However, airplanes are pretty much designed to run at a constant RPM, which is not true for motorcycles or cars.  This technique would not work for them.

Brian