Mileage and Speed

[jonathan180iq]

This is my favorite. Same engine as our bike, with more leg room and better looks.

[Badbob]

I saw some of these when I was looking but I could not find a good photo.

Nice.

[Regular Guy]

I bought my 16 tooth sproket from http://www.rebelgears.com about twenty something bucks, perfect fit, great guys to deal with. They cut many of their own gears in house. Amazing--- a made in America manufacturer. I think they are in Tenn. Guys. try to buy American if possible, for our kid's sake.

A thought about the mileage and speed dilema. I am curious are the ones that get the 70-80 mpg the same ones that only go 60 mph? Mine got 70-77 mpg and only 62 mph before I did mods to carb, exhaust, 16 tooth sproket, plus windshield. Now, on a good day I can do 75-80 (once got to 82 mph) and I weigh 250 lbs.and have a giant box mounted to the back of mine but mileage is now 58-62 mpg. Some days I can only do 60-65 mph. No matter what you do, this bike is still severly limited in the torque department. Things like head wind, tire pressure, hills, weight air temperature and humidity all still exert a large imapct on performance. as for me, I gladly traded 10-15 mpg for 10-15 mph. In my case, the bike was dramaticly better/safer for merging into traffic after the mods., I'm no expert, but I've riden all my life. on 50cc to 1100 cc, two cycle and four cycle. It's not a v-max or 750 Kaw 2-stroker for sure, but it is good at what it was designed to be, a low cost, low maintenance, inner-city, short haul commuter, that said, let's all keep tweaking, you can enhance the performance of this little bike. Don't give up! Your a great bunch and you all try to help one another, I really like that about this group!

Ride Safe!

[jonathan180iq]

On my 300 mile trip with the 16T sprocket, I had to really goose the throttle in order to keep the speed in 5th gear where I wanted. In doing so, I was using more gas than normal, which, of course, leads to a decrease in fuel economy.

The comparable mileage of any machine differs greatly depending on many factors, including those mentioned by Regular Guy.
And, while this machine can be tweaked, the potentional simply isn't there to make this bike something that it's not, naturally aspirated that is.

Even with improved carb tuning and sprocket variations, this single cylinder 250 4 stroke will always be a simple, lower speed commuter bike.

Now, that being said, there is nothing wrong with that. It's all relative anyway.

This 400 pound 1/4 litre bike that only costs $3,000 isn't that much slower than the 1,000 pound 1100cc $10,000 bike.
Sure, you can't open 'er up on the freeway and get up to 100mph, but how often does the 1100cc guy do that anyway?

In traffic and getting from place to place, we're all going the same speed.
This bike just gets you there cheaper and more efficiently.

For what it's worth and aside from what shortcomings it has, this is the second most efficient bike on the mass market; the first being Kawasaki's 125cc, at around 90mpg.

[jonathan180iq]

The sweet spot for getting the most miles out of each gallon is probably around 55-60 mph.

Slower than that, and you aren't traveling as far as you could on the same amount of gas.
Faster than that and you are using more gas than necessary to travel said distance.

I haven't tested it, as I ride more often is slow-n-go traffic.

If you wanted to, you could empty your tank completely and pour in 1/4 of a gallon. (carry some spare gas on the rear)
Then, reset your tripometer and ride at 55mph without varying too much, in the reserve position, until the bike stops. Then, take the number of miles traveled and multiply them times 4. That would give you a baseline MPG for 55mph. From there, you would repeat the test at varying speeds to see which average speed is the most efficient.

If no one is following you or if you don't have some spare gas, you'll be SOL when the bike stops. So, make you sure you have some back-up gasoline.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by jonathan180iq

This 400 pound 1/4 litre bike that only costs $3,000 isn't that much slower than the 1,000 pound 1100cc $10,000 bike.

How many accessories DO you have on that little beast? I thought the advertised dry weight was about 310. :??:

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by jonathan180iq

On my 300 mile trip with the 16T sprocket, I had to really goose the throttle in order to keep the speed in 5th gear where I wanted.

Yea, I can see we need to give you some training on the pleasures of 2-lane country roads. :2tup:

[jonathan180iq]

I was exaggerating the weight thing for effect. Add a rider and you're looking at a 500 pound machine. For the record, you'd be hard pressed to find a 1,000 pound motorcycle.

Well, 4th gear at 65 is only fun for so long. On the interstate, it just won't cut it. Your feet start going numb from the vibration.

[Regular Guy]

If you want to see some examples of how efficient a motorcycle can be check out Craig Vetter's Website( he's the guy that invented fairings (windjammers), among other things) @ http://www.craigvetter.com. He ran a contest for a few years and one contestant got 470 mpg. If you want you can make one yourself, he sells kits and instructions for the mod. I suspect these are not very practical on the street, but they are interesting to look at.

One thought I had to mention was if your bike won't go past 60 mph, you might want to check the valve clearances/adjustment. Being over zealous once, I adjusted my valves too tight and they weren't sealing quite all the way on the combustion stroke, not enough to cause a backfire, but enough to rob most of what little power I had. It ran like a dog, a slow dog, maybe more like a dog with a hurt leg. I loosened up on them a bit and bingo the lost power came right back. Just something to look out for!

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by jonathan180iq

Well, 4th gear at 65 is only fun for so long. On the interstate, it just won't cut it. Your feet start going numb from the vibration.

Yes and.........??

That kinda was my point. If you do much Interstate riding, any 250cc bike it probably not the best choice.
As great as the GZ IS, it's not perfect for everything.