lindy
Well-Known Member
Ssky...
I think you may be misunderstanding - at least me. I don't think people don't care about gas mileage. It's just that for any one machine design, gas mileage is pretty much in the hands of the person operating the machine. Take the same machine - whether it is a bike or a car or a boat or an airplane - it can be driven gently and get towards the top of its fuel mileage potential or it can be run hard and get toward the bottom of it potential. Same machine.
Example - something I'm familiar with: the military does this with airplanes all the time. An F-16 can suck fuel at the maximum rate of 72,000 lbs per hour in full afterburner - that would be in hard maneuvering - training or combat. IT blows through a lot of gas in this mode and can only do it for a few minutes - remember, it's not very big - doesn't hold all that much gas. But it is also ferried across the Atlantic at a fuel flow rate of approx 1,600 lbs per hour. Big difference! Do you see?
All machines are like this - you see it in the graphical scatter of the mileage data points (the bell shaped curves - normal distributions) in data collections like FUELLY.
I see this in my personal car - it's a Honda Civc SI. The SI is no normal Civic. It has a completely difference engine than all the other Civics - I mean completely - different bore, stroke, size, capacity,... and transmission - 6 speed manual only - versus most Civics being autos and any manuals being 5 speed in the regular civics. So there is much more power available - if you want it.
So -- go to the forums - and the guys are complaining about their awful mileage - like 17 mpg. The scatter is all over the place with guys saying they try to drive softly but can't get better than 18 under any conditions. Well the normal distribution goes all the way up to 40 mpg for this car. And some people report this in the forums.
I average about 32 mpg - depending on what I am doing- highest was 37 mpg. The point is - it depends on how it is driven --- and some of these guys are incapable of driving the car softly - even when they think they are. They get in the car - pedal to the metal! Can't help it - think that is the way to drive. Then they complain about tires lasting 22,000 miles - and clutches going out.
It's amazing to me - the lack of thought that goes into these guys perceptions. I bought mine new - still have the same tires - at 62,000 miles - wear bars no where near.
It's all on how a machine is driven - each one is capable of the same thing.
Your description of your driving is - to me - hard driving. And I might add - to me - a little scary.
Any mods you make are going to make little mpg difference - and the difference for any set of mods could be in either direction - either more usage or less usage. But performance oriented mods usually increase fuel usage - because the object is to get more power out of the machine. That almost always comes by using more gas - gas is where the energy comes from.
So it's not that we are indifferent to gas mileage - it's just that you are dealing with a machine set-up for power - it has it's basic fuel usage characteristics - and "your actual mileage -- may vary". According to the driver.
It is what it is.
I think you may be misunderstanding - at least me. I don't think people don't care about gas mileage. It's just that for any one machine design, gas mileage is pretty much in the hands of the person operating the machine. Take the same machine - whether it is a bike or a car or a boat or an airplane - it can be driven gently and get towards the top of its fuel mileage potential or it can be run hard and get toward the bottom of it potential. Same machine.
Example - something I'm familiar with: the military does this with airplanes all the time. An F-16 can suck fuel at the maximum rate of 72,000 lbs per hour in full afterburner - that would be in hard maneuvering - training or combat. IT blows through a lot of gas in this mode and can only do it for a few minutes - remember, it's not very big - doesn't hold all that much gas. But it is also ferried across the Atlantic at a fuel flow rate of approx 1,600 lbs per hour. Big difference! Do you see?
All machines are like this - you see it in the graphical scatter of the mileage data points (the bell shaped curves - normal distributions) in data collections like FUELLY.
I see this in my personal car - it's a Honda Civc SI. The SI is no normal Civic. It has a completely difference engine than all the other Civics - I mean completely - different bore, stroke, size, capacity,... and transmission - 6 speed manual only - versus most Civics being autos and any manuals being 5 speed in the regular civics. So there is much more power available - if you want it.
So -- go to the forums - and the guys are complaining about their awful mileage - like 17 mpg. The scatter is all over the place with guys saying they try to drive softly but can't get better than 18 under any conditions. Well the normal distribution goes all the way up to 40 mpg for this car. And some people report this in the forums.
I average about 32 mpg - depending on what I am doing- highest was 37 mpg. The point is - it depends on how it is driven --- and some of these guys are incapable of driving the car softly - even when they think they are. They get in the car - pedal to the metal! Can't help it - think that is the way to drive. Then they complain about tires lasting 22,000 miles - and clutches going out.
It's amazing to me - the lack of thought that goes into these guys perceptions. I bought mine new - still have the same tires - at 62,000 miles - wear bars no where near.
It's all on how a machine is driven - each one is capable of the same thing.
Your description of your driving is - to me - hard driving. And I might add - to me - a little scary.
Any mods you make are going to make little mpg difference - and the difference for any set of mods could be in either direction - either more usage or less usage. But performance oriented mods usually increase fuel usage - because the object is to get more power out of the machine. That almost always comes by using more gas - gas is where the energy comes from.
So it's not that we are indifferent to gas mileage - it's just that you are dealing with a machine set-up for power - it has it's basic fuel usage characteristics - and "your actual mileage -- may vary". According to the driver.
It is what it is.
