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Highway fuel economy
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June 17, 2008 at 11:30 am #1534C3_buttonsParticipant
Hello,
My names Matt and I’m looking for the best fuel efficient highway bike on the market. I’ve been riding for 2 years on a triumph daytona 650. I’m in the Marines and am putting my wife through school (shes getting her masters!) which is about 250 miles (almost all highway) away from my base. I’m not looking for performance or top speed, and I definitly dont need to show off. I just need a bike that will get the best mpg at highway speeds (70-75 MPH) and can make it up some mountain canyons without quiting on me!
I’ve been doing a lot of research on the Buell Blast, Kawasaki 250 and 500. They seem to be the best fuel economy but I have concerns about them keeping up to speed on the highway for that extended period. I’ve been reading a lot of the comments on here and it seems a lot of people know what they are talking about. I’m hoping a couple of you can give me some more details about my options and what bike will work out best. With gas prices they way they are this is my only option to ever see my wife! I’m not worried about how fast it’ll hit 60 or do the quarter mile, just that it can get up some mountain roads at speed and maintain that 60-70MPG at highway speeds!
Thanks for any input and I’ve learned a lot reading the posts already up. Take care
Matt
June 17, 2008 at 12:14 pm #7443MattParticipantWhen I’m easy on the throttle I routinely see high 60s mpg figures on my ZZR-250. The absolute worst economy I had was 58mpg on a fill up. My personal best was 87mpg.
The ninja-250 will do freeway speeds all day, but in all honesty, the buzzing get to me in under an hour on the highway. So a 250mile trip for me would take at least three breaks to get off and walk about.
Since you are comfortable with big bikes, take a look at some of the slightly larger more recent engine designs. The 800cc BMWs supposedly get 60+ mpg (and that would be a very comfortable way to travel 250 miles).
Additionally, the 650 engine in the Versys (and thus Ninja 650) returns on average just shy of 60mpg accroding to webbikeworld.
http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycles/kawasaki-versys/TotalMotorcycle has a fuel economy comparison for a wise range of bike here
http://totalmotorcycle.com/MotorcycleFuelEconomyGuide.htmBut it doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2006.
For sheer cash savings, a used Ninja is hard to beat (especially since it costs so much less than other bikes to buy in the first place)
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