Increasing Fuel Efficiency

[Thom]

Right, awaiting a new bike and whilst im stuck in uni i thought i'd ask a question.

The new bike is an ER5, generall quite good as a hack, hwoever im wondering if there is a way i can increase fuel efficiency throughout the rev range?

Now im thinking to myself "Create a more complete burn of the fuel" however i cant see how i can do this easily, perhaps ignition advance(start the burn earlier for a longer burn?) or perhaps new cams (Close the inlet sooner and open the exhaust later?). Perhaps it could be as simple as a different style of spark plug or fuel?

Im not necceserily going to do this but it would be interesting to see what's suggested, and if something comes up that i could perhaps sort out maybe ill try it.

P.s running the bike lean isnt an option unfortunately.
____________________
Current Bike: 1996 Yamaha TRX850 (The Japanese-Ducati One).
Previous Bikes: 1990 Honda NSR125 'Rothmans' (The smoking one), 1990 Suzuki GS500e 'Caf? fighter' (The loud one), 1987 Kawasaki GPX400r (The quick one), 1997 XJ600s Diversion (The reliable one), 2000 Kawasaki ER-5 (The spontaneously combustive one)

[Kickstart]

Hi

You probably could lean the mixture out a bit to improve consumption. Just don't do it too much. Similarly playing around with the spring on the slide you could probably get it to open more slowly and saving a bit of fuel.

Advancing the timing would only be an option if the fuel could put up with it (ie, high enough octane rating). Likely you would just get a load of detonation. The spark already happens before the piston is at the top (so the first bit of mixture burnt is pretty much wasted anyway).

If you want it really fuel efficient then use a far longer stroke and ignite the fuel far later so all of the burn is useful (you could probably use a far quicker burning fuel and ignite it later as well), and use a large flywheel to smooth things out and effectively store energy. Don't expect it to be fast though.

All the best

Keith
____________________
Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Vincent]

Two of the best ways to save fuel are to junk everything off the bike that's not required, (+ go on a diet yerself), and riding technique. Correctly inflated tyres also help and maybe fitting lower bars for better aerodynamics. Havng said all that, I would have thought the ER5 isn't too bad on fuel in the first place, my old 500 Kawasaki used to get as lo as 15 MPG sometimes

[yen_powell]

Get rid of any top boxes or panniers, don't wear flappy waterproofs, keep your knees in, keep your tyres pumped up, oil your chain, keep the bike in tune, ride when the traffic is lighter so you don't have to keep start/stopping, plan your filtering so it's a smooth as possible and lose weight.
____________________
Blackmail is a nasty word........but not as nasty as phlegm!
XT1200Z and a DR350 in bits

[el_oso]

changing gearing may help but it will depend on what sort of speed you will be doing. Motorway journeys could be improved quite drastically simply by increasing the gear ratio and dropping the revs. It is very touch and go though as dropping the revs too much will cause more fuel than required to be injected in.
____________________
Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[Alexio]

Certainly does depend on how and where you ride it. On certain routes through my town I can increase speed to about 40, clutch in and cruise until my bike hits about 25 and then smoothly re-engage gear to slowly accelerate back to 40. Down hill this works even better. Would definitely depend on the momentum of you bike but this sometimes saves me much fuel when the roads are quiet.
____________________
will never give up his CG. I look at my fuel gauge more as a progress bar than a fuel gauge.
G: With my GSXR I do often effectively use it as a scooter with a clutch in town.
ms51ves3: why does it need 500 miles? Are you teaching it how to be a piston?

[Cigaro]

[ms51ves3]

[.]

You could use a friction reducing micro oil like ACTIVE8 or ZX1 (sold in Half*rds) add a table spoon of the stuff to a full tank of petrol, then go for a ten mile ride.

On a bike with a carb you will need to adjust your tickover speed afterwards as the revs will rise.

[Kickstart]

[MarJay]

[Alexio]

Well, I swear my town is the hilliest town in England by certain routes I guess what I meant was;

When you are going down a hill, don't forget to pull in the clutch and cruise!

Of course, you'd lose the fuel efficiency when having to go back up the hills, but at least it would be kind of balanced rather than simply burning more in a hilly area.
____________________
will never give up his CG. I look at my fuel gauge more as a progress bar than a fuel gauge.
G: With my GSXR I do often effectively use it as a scooter with a clutch in town.
ms51ves3: why does it need 500 miles? Are you teaching it how to be a piston?

[P.]

do you seriously pull your clutch in and cruise...
I thought that was a disaster waiting to happen..thus havent really done that.
Only way to really increase fuel economy is to ride more sensible

[.]

[Alexio]

[P.]

Ah cool cheers Alexio!
If i recall you are from Hastings?

[Alexio]