Standard MPG?
 

Hey all,

I've been poking around the internet trying to establish a baseline fuel efficiency for a 2001 f4i. It looks like most people are getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 40mpg. I just bought mine about a month ago, and through two tanks I've gotten closer to 25-28; usually right around 95 miles when the reserve lights tick on. I filled up with ~3.8 gallons this morning at 105 miles and one Res bar down.

I'm commuting mostly on surface streets, and I'm not beating the hell out of it; most times my RPMs are < 6k. My bike has 29k miles on it, but I just had the 30k mile service done on it, and replaced the CCTL and fuel pressure regulator a bit ago. With the service came new spark plugs, tires, and a serious engine sync. Everything else should be "perfect" per the mechanic (who's a known reliable guy in town.) I haven't put a full tank through since the service, but I don't -think- I've seen an improvement since then. I've been throwing some B-12 Chemtool in with the gas since I bought it to try and clean out any gunk.

I'm pretty sure all the mechanical bits are stock (certainly the exhaust), though the air filter might be aftermarket. I'm filling up with 87 octane, per MoM. It's not a CA model, so it shouldn't have an O2 sensor.

Any thoughts on whether (1) I'm expecting too much for gas mileage or (2) what the problem might be that my bike is so thirsty?

Thanks :)

I had to replace a rear tire from a nail and I did the job myself. When I put wheel back on the Bike I didnt have any axle grease. My mileage dropped significantly, though not to your degree. Since I put the grease I havent seen the reserve bars and Ive went up to 120 miles before I put gas.

This may be wayyy off but it had an impact on my mileage.

Wow that's not very good. I get around 40mpg. Usually I fill up when the reserve comes on at around 135 to 140 miles to a tank. I have pushed it to 167 miles on one tank and I barley made it to the gas station. My bike isn't stock. It's got a slip-on power commander and K&N filter. Havent replaced the plugs yet and it's about time for an oil change. It's got stock gearing correct? Also I run 93 octane in mine.

Plugs just got replaced with the service. The gearing should be stock, yes. The oil isn't horrible, but I plan on changing it this weekend anyway.

Thanks for the idea Mitch.

Vegas i have the same issue. But i believe mine to be fuel pressure regulator cause I have a fuel smell. You said you already replaced yours so that cant be it. Keep us posted on what helps.

I get 40 plus no matter what; usually more like 45. Reserve light comes on about 160. I ride like you do. Usually under 5k - Occasionally 8-9k.

My completely stock 03 F4i gets 33-35 pretty consistently, whether I flog it or not. 27 seems pretty low considering the type of riding you describe. I wonder if your non-stock airfilter is clogged and making the engine work harder than it has too? Just a thought.

That might be worth checking out mmburns, especially since it's so easy to fix. I may do it anyway, whether it actually helps or not.

On a recent trip 180 miles round trip I got 49.6mpg. It was about 20 miles of interstate at 75-80mph (one way) and the rest was state hwy and county roads (averaged about 65mph at speed). When I got back home I put 3.75 gallons in the tank. Oh, and I used 87. Better mileage than I thought I would get.

I run 93 in mine, and usually get to around 150 miles before my reserve kicks on... On average my rpm's are between 5-6k.

^^^ This.

Just for fun, you could get a very small plastic gas can & fill it up. Then, strap it to your rear seat & ride til you run out. Then you'll know for sure what mileage you're getting.

I rode today and all 4 "Fuel Squares" were flashing... I'm not sure how close I was to running out, but I know it had to be close.

I did my first documented tank and got 170mpg before the fuel reserve came on. With that I believe I am getting about 40-42 miles to the gallon and 210 to the tank. Is this good?

That is how mine behaves.


Guys - don't trust those Fuel Reserve Bars. They all seem to come on at different times, etc....

What temp are u riding in? Now that it is colder i am not seeing the 40+ milage i was during the summer. I now can only get right around 35 because it to cold for there to be a good mix of fuel goin on.

Out in NV the weather has fluctuated from mid-80's/low-90s to the low-to-mid-60s.

Usually it's close to 70 in the morning, and 80 in the afternoon when I leave.

I just changed the oil, checked the air filter (it looked good,) and put some more chemtool in with the gas. I ran the engine a little while working on it yesterday, but if I don't see at least 120mi before the res bars go on this week I'll call my mechanic back and see what he thinks.

Just wanted to follow up, since so many people were so helpful.

As of my fill up this morning, I got ~119mi on 3.4 gal of gas (no res bars showing) so ~35mpg. Not perfect, but much improved and not too bad for an 01 with semi-high miles and surface street routes.

It looks like the service, the chemtool, or a mix of both cleared up my gas mileage problems. I also changed the oil, but I doubt that would have so significant of an impact.

Thanks for the help everyone, I appreciate it :)

Just a quick note because I saw that some of you are running 93 octane. If your owners manual specifies 87 or 89 octane you're wasting your money. Unless your motor has been modified with a shaved head, a thinner head gasket, or high compression pistons, then you don't need the anti-detonation properties of the higher octane, and your motor will actually make more power with the lower octane.
An easy way to tell if you need a higher octane is to listen for the knocking sound of pre-ignition. Get your bike up to about 55mph, shift into 6th, then quickly open the throttle. If the motor just accelerates with no knocking then you don't need to go any higher in octane.

EDIT: My '06 f4i manual specifies "86 or higher"; can't say about other years or models

my owners manual states 86+ octane, while the sticker under the seat states 91 octane.


Moses

The manual that I saw calls for 91+ so I've been running 93 as no one around here carries 91. Idk if thats the manual for my bike but it was a manual for an f4i?

I get 35 hwy and 40 around town

I probably get low to mid 30's. But I haven't ever kept an overly close eye on it.

ethanol can make a difference in milage, I lose a couple per gallon when it in the tank.

ain't that the truth..

I've ran two tanks through my bike now since I picked it up. The 1st tank I got 150 miles w/ 3 res bars showing and put in 4 gallons(37.5mpg). Today I put on 140 miles w/ 2 res bars showing and put in 3.7 gallons(37.7mpg). On my 2nd tank of gas I was riding pretty hard and I also ran 4.5oz of seafoam in that tank. The petcock on my F3 was way more reliable.


Moses

14 fillups this summer.
Max mileage was 41.73MPG (60 MPH with a 15MPH tailwind)
Min mileage was 29.46MPG (Pushing 80 MPH into a 20MPH wind)
Avg overall was 35.27MPG (50/50 City/Highway)
02 with 23000 miles & Stock gearing

I thought I would revisit this as I have been keeping a precise log on my iphone in an app called Road Trip. I use my 2006 model for commuting to work across London. The bike has been returning consistently between 35 and 36 mpg (UK) which I gather is about 29 or so US. The bike is standard apart from an air filter, and an aftermarket exhaust. This mpg has been recorded over the last couple of months when it has been pretty cold. I hope to keep the log going into summer also.

You mean carburetor sync (fuel injected bikes don't have carburetors. Maybe you're talking about a valve clearance check?).

The idea that axle grease is causing a difference in MPG is laughable.

Check how many teeth those sprockets have, check to see if you have an o2 sensor (might be dirty), and change your oil.

Personally I live in south Florida, run 87 octane, and have not had any knocking even at very hot trackdays. Run what your bike says to run, but buy good gas. On something a bit more modern with higher compression, I would probably be hesitant to run 87 though, at least at the track. If you have a piggyback like a PC, when you tune your map, tune with a particular octane and continue to run that.

My bike gets between 20-50 MPG depending on how I ride.

I could see this making a bit of a difference...greased verses ungreased. plus riding ungreased could probably lead to bearing failure. Also, fresh oil/grease could make a difference over old oil/grease, as well as synthetic verses conventional lubricants

I'm always surprised how some of you guys get 40+. I got a 06 & the only time I saw 40+ mpg was on my first few rides in 06, after that I've always got 30-33 mpg on my daily commute 50/50 city/freeway.

Weekend rides usually give me about 25-28 mpg & the worst I ever got was about 21 mpg.

I have an 06 with slip on and K&N filter. and i get 40-45 almost every tank... lowest I've had was 30ish and that was a full tank of racing.

on a side note. I use 91+ octane because it is not Oxygenated. I haven't rebuilt a rocket before but i have rebuilt high performance snowmobile all the time and for that you need non-oxygenated gas because of the high revs and compression... just figured it would be the same for a high revving bike

I'm suprised nobody has asked about the tires..
I'm assuming you run pilot powers (or similar street tires); what is your tire pressure front and rear? I ran into an issue where my fuel economy dipped to the low 30's for regular riding, turned out after I had lent my brother the bike he dropped the tire pressure for some more aggressive riding and never brought it back up, it was at 27 front and 35 rear, vs. my usual 36/42 for sport touring/commuting duty.

02 F4i, Yosh pipe, stock air filter.

40-50mpg. highway. 87 octane.

I'm always surprised how some of you guys get 30-. I have an '01 with over 35k miles on it. I don't think I've gotten a single tank below 35 mpg, whether I was flogging it or not. My average over the last year has probably been about 44-45 mpg.

I use midgrade gas and have Pilot Power 2CT tires.

depends on how hard you ride. if I were to go 90mph on the freeway, I doubt I would get 40+mpg. Funny thing is that on my 08 1000rr, it doesn't matter if I rode 70mph or 90mph, it will always gave me 40-43mpg.

haha yeah my f4i only got 38mph when my average speed was 90-120 for an entire tank. (boring ass North Dakota Interstate)

I'm running an average of 42mpg this season for commuting; although I did have a couple tanks at 38mpg when it was colder out (Early March)

^ +1 I was thinking the same thing while I was reading through this. Another issue could be the gas. I know in California we have winter gas and summer gas which affects gas mileage as well.

I just changed my spark plugs and gained a few mpg, but on avg I float around 38 in the summer and 33-35 in the winter just regular commuting. I've been running 35/35 front/rear for a little extra grip in the back, but might try bumping back up to 36/42 and see if I can squeeze a few extra for commuting.

Yosh Pipe, K&N Filter, 87 octane, t6 Oil every 3k.

I have only had my f4i for 2 months and put about 1500 miles on it... But I have been getting around 50 mpg, my best was 54 but that was when I was riding VERY conservatively ( around 3500 rpm) but as I've been reading it sounds like its better to run around 5-7k rpms so I will start doing that and see what my mpg is.. Btw it's an 03 f4i with 6k miles on it. Mostly stock other than a few cosmetic additions

Um, doubtful. I don't think too many forum members get the kind of mileage you're getting.

If you're cruising and let off the throttle suddenly, you don't want the rpm to be so high that you're jolted forward. On the other end of the spectrum, you don't want to be cruising at an rpm so low that you need to shift down to accelerate. I usually shift right around 4500 rpm; feels like a happy median.

Edit: Not saying you shouldn't experiment and find out what works best. I'm just noting my observations.

Ummm, what? Of course you do, thats the point of cruising. Higher rpm's = less gas mileage. In 5yrs and 53,000miles of phoenix commuting [3rd worst city for traffic in the country] I've never been in a situation that required me to downshift multible gears to get out of the way and downshifting one gear takes no time at all. If you pay attention to your situation at all times and anticipate problems and ass hats running lights, changing lanes, not stoping when they should etc. then you won't have a problem. And to top it off the bike can accelerate just fine from 3000rpm. Now I know everyone's going to yell "thats rediculous, these things are turds at that rpm!". Well yes compared to high rpm they are. Compared to how quick you get a car to move the bike does just fine at 3k.

By "accelerate", I don't mean being able to blow by someone. What I'm getting at is you don't want to be cruising at such a low rpm that the bike is going to labor heavily if you give it more throttle. Like you said, the bike can accelerate just fine from 3000 rpm. If I'm going through neighborhoods, I'll shift around 3250 and settle in at around 2500 in 4th gear (25 mph). I wouldn't cruise at a lower rpm than that, though, because if I need some extra power to speed up and avoid an accident, the time it takes to shift could be huge.

Basically, I don't disagree with anything you said. Maybe you were just thinking I'm a high rpm junkie like a lot of the others on here. ;) No need to be cruising at 6k on city streets.