Your mileage may vary

[ShirleySerious]

Maybe I'm just cautious, but when I first got my bike a year ago, I didn't know what kind of mileage my '78 550E got and it doesn't have a fuel gauge, so I would run out of gas on the road alot. The manual says the tank is 4. something gallons, but when I fill it up after about 100 miles (using the trip meter), the gas pump says I only put in a little more than 2 gallons. Am I just being paranoid, or am I completely underestimating the mileage I can get? I ride semi-normally and don't race.

What kind of mileage does everyone get?

[marz]

dear ms.serious.

well depending on temp(outside).
valve clearences.
the way you drive(me no drive fast never)
how clean youre air filter is/isnt.
temp of youre oil.
driving at constant speed/or stop and go.
tire pressure.(extra weight)
all of these things add or subtract.mileage.
if you drive during a v .hot day .then let youre machine cool off.then drive in a cool night (late summer) youll find the milage is really good at night.
i drove in my truckaproximaetly 1000 km
during the night and i got 476 kms to one tank.this is absolutly unbeliveable
as ive never got over368 kms.before without running out of petrol.the next2 days i did it early morn and the consumtion was back to 360/370kms.
hope this has helped (or confused)

marz

[salty_monk]

Doesn't it have a reserve?

I just reset the trip meter each time, I usually always get at least 140 before going to reserve on the 550 you should get even more even though the tank is smaller.....

You should be able to get 200 I would think.

Dan

[ShirleySerious]

A little. I didn't know if my tank actually held what the specs actually said. I'm talking about on average for say, this time of year, 70-90 degrees and a warmed up engine. I'm sure I could do more than 100 miles on a tank, but I don't want to be the one who runs out of gas on the road doing it.

[txironhead]

On an "average" day, fill up the tank, reset your trip meter and then run it until you have to switch to reserve. Then you will know your ballpark mileage per tank, with the reserve being your emergency backup

[tkent02]

GS 550 should be around 50+ mpg, cruising.

[Vegerito]

on my gs1000 i head back and forth a 110 mile trip one way pretty often to see my gf, i set my speed controll and just cruise at about 68-72mph and get an average of 45-49mpg, im fricken happy with that

[Dink]

My 1150 is running a little poorly and getting 38mpg (imp) I have no idea how to convert that to US mpg, I am not especially gentle with it BTW.

Dink

[rkubik]

Imperial/US

multiply by 3.78, then divide by 4.55. That being because a US gallon only has 3.78 L, while bak when we had gallons, they had 4.55 L.

Me, I'll take metric.

How many gills per furlong is no longer an issue.

[rkubik]

Imperial/US

multiply by 3.78, then divide by 4.55. That being because a US gallon only has 3.78 L, while back when we had gallons, they contained 4.55 L.

Me, I'll take metric. How many gills per furlong is no longer an issue.

[Pharkmeh]

my old gurl gets 120 m/p tank

100 if i flog it as likes to be riden...\\/

[Clone]

I get 300km/tank on the highway
I get 260km/tank in the city
That is 15L at the pump. Because like clock work, when the needle hits the red, I have to switch to reserve as it sputters and dies.
So I am quite pleased with this range.
Works out to about 186miles/tank for you metric distance challenged folks.
And to :shock:46miles to the US gallon. \\/or 56 miles to the real gallon.

[the_journeyman]

Um... My GS1150 gets 100 miles/tank ~

JM

[dpep]

Fill up the tank; set the trip meter to 0; strap a gallon of gas on the back; and run it dry.

[RevRoy]

50 MPG is alright

My 1980 550 GSE has been getting 51-54 MPG almost every week (actually, it went up a few mpg when I started adding Seafoam, and it runs MUCH better). What I do is, at 125 miles on the trip odometer, I start thinking about filling up (usually about 2.5 gallons). If I go to 150 miles, I might need to think about turning the petcock to the reserve setting. Once, I went 165 miles, and was wondering why my engine was cutting out and sputtering ... DUH! A 550E tank will hold approximately 4 gallons, including 1 gallon for reserve.