Touring and Fuel Range Improvements?

Maybe I'm missing something but why all the hand wringing over mileage? This is a sports bike with an engine that likes to be revved....it's entertainment porn and whether the afternoon costs you $10 or $15 in fuel, who cares. If you need to fret about the gas cost than get a Chevy Cruze or some other boring box and toot around the hills smiling at how much gas money you are saving, or sit at home playing Grand Theft Auto. Enjoy life, nothing is free. And if you do the math you will probably find that tires cost you more than fuel, yet I don't see people agonizing over the rubber cost.
 
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It isn't just to save money but more important as to how far you can go on a tank without refueling. I know of some areas that are remote enough so that gas stations may be more than 100 miles apart. This is what the hand wringing is about.

Personally, I do not intend to tour anywhere that remote and if I do I will be consulting my GPS, Phone databse and atlas for potential gas stops.
 
If you had to pay the price for fuel that I do, THEN you'd understand!!
You pay for a gallon what I pay for a litre.:eek:

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
 
I'm with the crowd above that says this isn't a touring bike and certainly not one to try and wrangle MPG out of. It's a fast canyon carver that is meant to have the pi$$ run out of it and never too far from the pump. The only way to do oneself justice in this regard is to go get a bike meant to do what you're asking of the FZ1 and it cannot possibly do for you. FJR? Connie? ST? Yes, most of them get about the same MPG but that are built for touring and have a larger capacity tank to cover distance.

I've used my FZ1 for touring, but I don't travel remote roads... and I stop when I see any station and I'm down to two bars.... about every 100 110 miles.
 
Cobalt said:
I've used my FZ1 for touring, but I don't travel remote roads... and I stop when I see any station and I'm down to two bars.... about every 100 110 miles.
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And I've found that after 100-110 miles my butt is starting to burn so that is a good time to get off, stretch, hydrate and top up. I can understand the range issue but I doubt that many folks get so far out of range of a service station that they get anxious with only a 4.8 gallon tank, or roughly 4.5 gallons of usable fuel.
 
I ran my fuel eco test just to satisfy my curiosity. I stop for fuel at 100 to 120 miles or when I have one bar left.

Where I ride finding a station isn't a problem.
 
Evitzee said:
And I've found that after 100-110 miles my butt is starting to burn so that is a good time to get off, stretch, hydrate and top up. I can understand the range issue but I doubt that many folks get so far out of range of a service station that they get anxious with only a 4.8 gallon tank, or roughly 4.5 gallons of usable fuel.
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Do you have any aftermarket seat? With my TS seat, I don't have enough fuel any more to get a sore butt between fill-ups. ;) :cloud9:

I did a couple hundred miles with my wife on her bike on the forth... We did none of the high-rpm riding, all high-gear / low-rpm riding for the entire tank... I was VERY surprised to hit 155 miles on the tank BEFORE I went to blinking. Fuelly shows I got 41.2 MPG on that tank. I always top off to the very brim so it's fairly consistent... Never have I gotten that kind of MPG from this bike. We did have a few short runs on the tank into the triple digits . . . . :eek5:
 
Chasing range and MPG on the gen 2 FZ1 is definitely an effort in futility. It's just not a bike that encourages range or economy and it's certainly not engineered that way.

I made a point of buying a bike that could get an easy 300 km (185 miles) before looking for fuel and that wasn't the gen 2, sadly. That was sort of the deal-breaker for me

There's always a gen 1 FZ1! They have incredible range :)
 
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Its kind of strange though how the donor sports bike that the engine came from does better fuel mileage than the sports tourer! How odd:what:

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Yeah, I've wondered the same thing about the R1 getting better mileage than an FZ1. Is it the aerodynamics of the body? Or perhaps the rider is down behind the windscreen more because of the handlebar positioning? The R1 cams have considerably longer duration, which I would think, make mileage worse.

For me, the curiosity about mileage is just an intrigue with how things are designed. I don't mind the mileage because the bike just runs so well, and is so much fun and enjoyable to ride.

I rented a Kawasaki Concours 14, ran through a couple of tanks of gas, and it averaged 44 MPG. Riding the FZ1 same way I rode the Connie, I would get about 39. The Connie has 1398 cc displacement, weighs about 640 pounds and has a larger frontal area than the FZ1. Stuff like this is what makes me wonder just what IS different that allows that bike to get better fuel economy. Sure, it is a touring bike, but something is designed differently.
 
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Where I go to ride some twisties its pretty remote, so Im having to watch the mileage of each fuel station. I have yet to go through a tank with this bike, but im going on the assumption of 150 highway miles on a tank.

My R6 I sold for this FZ1 kicked ass. I could do 175 highway miles before fuel light came on. I would love to get close to that with the FZ1. Im going out sunday for a big ride so Ill report my findings next Monday.
 
loosenut said:
I can't tell you anything about the TB JuiceBox. Ivan's ECU re-flash takes care of the timing restrictions and then he provides a map based on your set-up. No Ignition Module needed with the re-flash. The gains in 1st-3rd gear are huge making the bike easier to ride.

To summerize:

Re-flash
Power Commander or equivalent
Ride
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What he said, but go with ECUnleashed and don't buy the PC3/5.

If you want good mileage buy a scooter.

Honestly for a liter bike the FZ1 mileage isn't bad. My Tuono V4R gets 27 to 32. With the RACE map in TRACK mode I get 27, but the throttle response is spot on so I just plan my fuel stops.

One last point, what's the ROI on a pipe, flash and PC? By the time you spend $1,500+ in mods, you'll need to ride a million miles to break even, let alone come out ahead.

If you like your bike, just add fuel and be happy. If you want to go faster, buy mods.
 
Evitzee said:
Maybe I'm missing something but why all the hand wringing over mileage? This is a sports bike with an engine that likes to be revved....it's entertainment porn and whether the afternoon costs you $10 or $15 in fuel, who cares. If you need to fret about the gas cost than get a Chevy Cruze or some other boring box and toot around the hills smiling at how much gas money you are saving, or sit at home playing Grand Theft Auto. Enjoy life, nothing is free. And if you do the math you will probably find that tires cost you more than fuel, yet I don't see people agonizing over the rubber cost.
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For me it has nothing to do with mileage, it's about the range. Sometimes I find myself a 100 miles from a fuel stop.

Not sure how this came down to fuel economy. I couldn't give a rats a$$ about mileage. I just want to extend my range. It sucks sitting on the side of the highway waiting for someone to bring you fuel.
 
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Ruggybuggy said:
For me it has nothing to do with mileage, it's about the range. Sometimes I find myself a 100 miles from a fuel stop.

Not sure how this came down to fuel economy. I couldn't give a rats a$$ about mileage. I just want to extend my range. It sucks sitting on the side of the highway waiting for someone to bring you fuel.
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Have you tried carrying fuel in some kind of container? They make some for off-road use, so they are rugged.
 
Ruggybuggy said:
For me it has nothing to do with mileage, it's about the range.

I just want to extend my range.
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I'm afraid the two go hand in hand because you can only fit so much fuel into so large a container ;) The only way to improve range is to improve fuel economy and it's just not going to yield much in the way of results for you.

Range is a weak point of the the gen 2 and other than carrying a few litres of fuel with you like loosenut suggested, you're kind of shit out of luck in improving that. Either that or you hypermile and that just sucks :(
 
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Hellgate said:
What he said, but go with ECUnleashed and don't buy the PC3/5.

If you want good mileage buy a scooter.

Honestly for a liter bike the FZ1 mileage isn't bad. My Tuono V4R gets 27 to 32. With the RACE map in TRACK mode I get 27, but the throttle response is spot on so I just plan my fuel stops.

One last point, what's the ROI on a pipe, flash and PC? By the time you spend $1,500+ in mods, you'll need to ride a million miles to break even, let alone come out ahead.

If you like your bike, just add fuel and be happy. If you want to go faster, buy mods.
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Would rather go with Ivan because of the support available. ECUUnleashed has some really bad reviews on various forums. Even with the FZ1, some flashes didn't work at all as reported over at FZ1OA
 
Just got tired of hearing "you should have bought a scooter". I'm not looking for to achieving 60 miles per gallon on a FZ1, it not going to happen. Some forum member have reported not having to fill the tank until 180 miles and getting up 40 miles per gallon. I'm getting 125 miles max when the light starts to blink and if I could move it to 160-170 that's more than acceptable for me. Carring extra fu is just not a practical thing especially when your already loaded up for touring. I've just purchased a Juicebox pro and will play around with a few maps to see if I can extend the range.
 
My Thoughts

Use real gasoline. Gasahol has alcohol in it of course and alcohol by volume has fewer BTUs of heat. They are ripping us off. (thanks Monsanto, ADM, Fed Govt, etc)

Gear it higher. Smaller rear sprocket. I've seen others do it. Yeah its a trade off.

The FZ1 sits up higher than the R1 and is not fully faired, so it has a larger frontal area which equates to more drag.
 
Ruggybuggy said:
For me it has nothing to do with mileage, it's about the range. Sometimes I find myself a 100 miles from a fuel stop.

Not sure how this came down to fuel economy. I couldn't give a rats a$$ about mileage. I just want to extend my range. It sucks sitting on the side of the highway waiting for someone to bring you fuel.
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If they could have made the tank 7 gallons... get rid of the stupid and useless scoop on the tank . . there could have been about one gallon there. Change the shape a little and make it deeper... We'd have a 200 mile range bike!!! I'm with you Tony....:bowdown:
 
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