99 RSV Gas Mileage

[Yamastretch]

Hello all. I bought my friends 99 RSV about a year ago and have been having a blast riding since then. I have done numerous maintenance tasks (oil change, clutch fluid, carb sync, etc) on it since I have owned it. During the year I have noticed my gas mileage was right around 28-30 mpg which I thought was normal. During the meet and eat here in Daytona last weekend, and research on this forum, I found out this is not very normal. What are some things I can look at to improve this. The bike seems to run fine. Every now and then I get a back fire on deceleration (But very rare). One thing I know is that my friend put on a Road King muffler when he owned it and he thinks he rejetted it with a stage 3 kit???

[SaltyDawg]

Gas mileage has been discussed a ton here. Everything depends on how you ride, how you fill the tank, how you are actually measuring the miles, and the speeds at which you ride.

 

Gas mileage sucks if you are running in the 65 MPH range and above. Most will get low to mid 30's at those speeds.

 

New plugs, color tune, and a carb tune will work wonders for your mileage. As well as clean air filters. First thing I would do is change the plugs and run a couple tanks of gas through with about half a can of seafoam in each tank. That will clean out your carbs and knock some of the carbon build up down. Then I would get it colortuned first then carb tuned. A carb tune will help a little on the mileage, but getting the colortune will make the biggest impact on performance and mileage.

 

Hard on the throttle, jack rabbit starts, heavy traffic will all cause lower mileage.

 

Measuring mileage with the bikes ODO is not the best judge of distance since most are off about 5%. Use a GPS for an accurate mileage.

 

Filling up the tank the SAME every time will also help. If you don't fill up to the same mark every time then your mileage will vary.

 

BTW there was no need to rejet the bike after the road kings were put on. I don't know a lot about rejetting so I can't say if that is effecting your mileage or not.

 

Is it backfiring or popping on decel? Backfire can be fixed by removing or bypassing the AIS, popping on decel will probably be fixed by colortune/carbtune.

 

Hope this helps some.

[Seaking]

What's Colour Tune? Carb tune is that like synchronizing your carb?

 

I have K&N filters on my bike and pulled them out after a year's of hard riding and they are visibly spotless clean and still holding their red colour as advertised but I'm wondering if they are really clean or not, regardless of the colour only because of the time in use.. do you know what I mean?

 

Clean and recharge them on spec or wait till the red colour lessens?

[slick97spirit]

I ride a 2000 RSV and when I first got it had the same issues as you are describing. I was kinda disappointed in the MPG. Synched the carbs, and changed out the plugs and it jumped to 41 MPG @ 70 mph highway riding. I was getting 33-35.

[SaltyDawg]

What's Colour Tune? Carb tune is that like synchronizing your carb?

 

I have K&N filters on my bike and pulled them out after a year's of hard riding and they are visibly spotless clean and still holding their red colour as advertised but I'm wondering if they are really clean or not, regardless of the colour only because of the time in use.. do you know what I mean?

 

Clean and recharge them on spec or wait till the red colour lessens?

 

CarbTune is a tool that allows you to sync the carbs.

 

ColorTune allows you to adjust the fuel mixture on the carbs. Most of these bikes are setup rich from the factory. That's why you will have soot buldup in the exhaust pipes.

 

Can't help you with the K&N's, but I would clean them annually at the least.

 

 

 

I can say this, when I got my RSV it got 33 MPG and with a colortune and carbtune (sync) it jumped to 42-44 MPG. This is all measured with a GPS, NOT the ODO.

[dragerman]

I’ve been monitoring my gas consumption for a while now and use the calculator to help http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/RBC:RCd0Jo71A8YAAFW4V7I/cgi-bin/carloan/gas.pl . The way I use it is I start with a full tank, ride, then when I need fuel again I fill it as close to what it was when I started and write the mileage on the receipt. When I get home I pull out the receipt and enter the ‘distance traveled’ and ‘amount of gas required’ on the calculator and it tells me my rate of consumption.

 

The speedometer on these second gen ventures are pathetic in terms of accuracy, and seem to be out by approximately 7%. This will affect your fuel calculations if you don’t have other means to accurately determine your distance traveled. I use a GPS, have punched out the fill neck on my tank and have taken many readings starting from a ‘full’ tank. The bike runs great and the plugs and tailpipe show the bike is burning clean. I don’t smell fuel from the exhaust, am running with K&N filters, iridium plugs, burn regular fuel (87 octane) and have synced the carbs. All my calculations are done riding 1-up however I’ve made no concessions for speed, terrain, temperature, head wind or weather. What I’ve found is that my mileage will very from 38 to 48 miles per imperial gallon (32 to 40 miles per US gallon). I’m sure I could bring those numbers up if I tried but that would mean installing a heavier throttle spring! ... These are accurate readings for my bike so as you can see the mileage can vary greatly. I’m satisfied that the bike is running well.

[Freebird]

If he did actually re-jet it, I would bet that is the problem. No re-jetting is necessary when adding the Road King mufflers or any other slipon mufflers for that matter. Also check to make sure that the carb boots are seated properly on top of the carbs, they can lip up and you will suck air.

[Seaking]

CarbTune is a tool that allows you to sync the carbs.

 

ColorTune allows you to adjust the fuel mixture on the carbs. Most of these bikes are setup rich from the factory. That's why you will have soot buldup in the exhaust pipes.

 

Can't help you with the K&N's, but I would clean them annually at the least.

 

 

 

I can say this, when I got my RSV it got 33 MPG and with a colortune and carbtune (sync) it jumped to 42-44 MPG. This is all measured with a GPS, NOT the ODO.

 

I'll have a look at the colour tune as my exhausts are indeed sooty.. Got a big ride coming up on Sunday to NH from NS so it would prolly be my best interest ; )

 

 

Thanks M8

[SaltyDawg]

I'll have a look at the colour tune as my exhausts are indeed sooty.. Got a big ride coming up on Sunday to NH from NS so it would prolly be my best interest ; )

 

 

Thanks M8

 

Unless you know someone with a colortune, you might want to look around for a shop that does it. Not all MC shops will colortune a bike. I'm not sure what they would charge either.

 

http://www.carbtune.co.uk/colortune.html

 

There are some US distributors of this product. I'm sure there are others like it too.

[timgray]

Most motorcycle shops have no idea what a colortune is. I have yet to find one that knows how to correctly sync carbs.

[Yamastretch]

You all have given me lots to look at and I thank you. I bought some new plugs on the way home from work today and will install soon. Freebird, if you think it didn't need to be rejetted, will that hurt performance? And is it hard to rejet back to the original?

[Seaking]

Most motorcycle shops have no idea what a colortune is. I have yet to find one that knows how to correctly sync carbs.

 

All I got from my local MC shop about Colourtune is "be careful unless you know what yer doing..".. which means he honestly hasn't seen one before..

 

What size colortune do we use, 10mm?

 

Thanks for the info..

 

have you yourself used one personally?

 

here's the big question though.. On "average" taking the average RSV on the road today, if you took the time to colortune the majority of them, what's the average expected improvement in performance and fuel mileage could you hopefully expect? Enough to really make it worth the while to pursue this or negligible enough you really shouldn't have to bother unless it's 'really' bad..

 

If I go through all this will I expect to see perceivable gains or just a slight improvement hardly noticeable.. (expense, time and learning etc)

[N3FOL]

Yamastretch, if your gas mileage is on the high 20's to low 30's, it is not very good. I think my '07 and your '99 is not that much different and I already got 40.5 mpg on my last tank now that the weather is warmer (70 mph on highway measured via GPS). During the winter, my lowest mpg is 38 and that is riding at 20 degree temps in the am.

 

I would say change out your plugs and gap correctly, since your bike is back firing time to time as you stated. Synch once again and hope your mpg goes up. Don't neglect to check your tire pressure and as you know very well that this may also affect mpg in some way or form.

 

IMO, your mpg should be around in the low 40's riding conservatively. Good Luck and ride safe.

[SaltyDawg]

Of the RSV's that I know have been colortuned the improvement in MGP and performance was significant. I have to say MPG is between 8 and 10 MPG pickup. That's not to say someone already getting low to mid 40's will improve into the 50's, but those in the low to mid 30's should get into the low to mid 40's. This bike should be getting around 40 - 45 MPG. Both of the ones I had did.

 

 

One other thing. Your gas mileage will get worse if you are using mid or premium gas. I always thought it would improve mileage with higher octane, but it doesn't. Stick with regular unleaded, or if you are not using it switch to it and see. Anything over is just wasting gas and money.

[Seaking]

Of the RSV's that I know have been colortuned the improvement in MGP and performance was significant. I have to say MPG is between 8 and 10 MPG pickup. That's not to say someone already getting low to mid 40's will improve into the 50's, but those in the low to mid 30's should get into the low to mid 40's. This bike should be getting around 40 - 45 MPG. Both of the ones I had did.

 

 

One other thing. Your gas mileage will get worse if you are using mid or premium gas. I always thought it would improve mileage with higher octane, but it doesn't. Stick with regular unleaded, or if you are not using it switch to it and see. Anything over is just wasting gas and money.

 

Thanks Wayne..

 

I did the comparison of premium and ordinary gas and found I could go further on the same tank of gas with premium than ordinary gas.. 3 to 7 cents a litre more but you can go further, equals out the same in some cases..

[SaltyDawg]

Thanks Wayne..

 

I did the comparison of premium and ordinary gas and found I could go further on the same tank of gas with premium than ordinary gas.. 3 to 7 cents a litre more but you can go further, equals out the same in some cases..

 

 

I have to say, you're one of the few who gets better mileage. Then again I'm not familiar with other country's Octane ratings either. I had to convert the numbers in the trunk to find out what they are supposed to run on.

[Seaking]

I have to say, you're one of the few who gets better mileage. Then again I'm not familiar with other country's Octane ratings either. I had to convert the numbers in the trunk to find out what they are supposed to run on.

 

If I am not mistaken, 87 90 and 92 octane fuel is what's available here.. (reg med and high) (Bronze Silver and Gold) (good best and better) thems the ratings I remember lol..

[flb_78]

The only way a "premium" fuel will get better mileage is if it does not have ethanol in it. I've seen a couple of stations that advertise their "premium" fuel does not have ethanol in it.

[flb_78]

BTW, my 99 usually is around 28mpg. My best ever was 37mpg and that was riding with a 40mph tailwind at 65mph.

[BradT]

I did the comparison of premium and ordinary gas and found I could go further on the same tank of gas with premium than ordinary gas.. 3 to 7 cents a litre more but you can go further, equals out the same in some cases..

 

I would check the average after about 10 tanks and would think that you may not notice a difference.

 

Also for information remember when we (Canadian) are talking about MPG we may be talking about imperial gallons which are 1.2 times larger. So 36 is actually 30 mpg.

 

Attached is a spreadsheet of my mileage on our trip last year. Riding two up and pulling a loaded trailer, full of shoes (eck this way nothing will move around)

 

Brad

[Seaking]

I would check the average after about 10 tanks and would think that you may not notice a difference.

 

Also for information remember when we (Canadian) are talking about MPG we may be talking about imperial gallons which are 1.2 times larger. So 36 is actually 30 mpg.

 

Attached is a spreadsheet of my mileage on our trip last year. Riding two up and pulling a loaded trailer, full of shoes (eck this way nothing will move around)

 

Brad

 

I basically don't do the Miles Per Gallon calculations, but basically do the "how far on a tank of gas can I do" and I general go much farther on a premium tank than a regular tank of gas.

 

My 06 Midnight Venture, with K&N filters and Screamin Eagle pipes will roughly get me 1 litre per 10 miles of distance.. The bike, being a US bike, has it's ODO set in miles while I pump my fuel in litres. So when I run 160 miles distance, I would average out 16 litres to top it up full. If it takes me 15 litres then I am doing better but it's it takes more than my milage is down.. not scientific but it's a good marker, 1 litre per 10 miles on the odo.

 

Last fall, I did my fuel runs to see if a reg or premium fuel grade would make any difference, I would average out more distance on the tank of premium fuel that it was cheaper to run premium.. Go figure.. what can I tell ya.. 3 cents a litre more for premium but I get farther on that tank..

 

However, this year, I've started to tune my carbs better, and soon looking into colortuning as well..

[N3FOL]

Of the RSV's that I know have been colortuned the improvement in MGP and performance was significant. I have to say MPG is between 8 and 10 MPG pickup. That's not to say someone already getting low to mid 40's will improve into the 50's, but those in the low to mid 30's should get into the low to mid 40's. This bike should be getting around 40 - 45 MPG. Both of the ones I had did.

 

 

One other thing. Your gas mileage will get worse if you are using mid or premium gas. I always thought it would improve mileage with higher octane, but it doesn't. Stick with regular unleaded, or if you are not using it switch to it and see. Anything over is just wasting gas and money.

 

I just switched to Regular 2 full tanks ago to see what the difference is, if any. I've been using Mid to Premium grade fuel ever since I got my Venture. So far, there is no difference in performance that I can tell. It may be regular for the rest of the summer.

[1BigDog]

I tried using regular in my 99 6 years ago when I first bought it. It ran like garbage. I have run mid grade since then and it runs fine. Premium was a waste of time and money.

[SaltyDawg]

I tried using regular in my 99 6 years ago when I first bought it. It ran like garbage. I have run mid grade since then and it runs fine. Premium was a waste of time and money.

 

I did the same thing, I thought it ran better on mid and it did although I smelled raw fuel every now and then. Switched to reg and the performance seemed to go down, but the so did the gas smell. At least I thought it did. When I would romp on the throttle though my wife who was on her bike behind me could smell the gas,(complained about it a lot) so could Muffinman at Asheville last year. He stopped by and we colortuned and carb synced my 99 and she has been running like a scalded ape since. Getting great mileage, and great response with no gas smell. We colortuned my wifes Volusia and her mileage went from 33 MPG to mid to upper 40's.(she never fills the tank the same way:whistling:)

[1BigDog]

Muffy colortuned my bike last year too. Maybe ill give regular one more shot and see.