Home from Utah, what a trip!

[Midrsv]

I made it home this afternoon after a 4050 mile trip from KY to Utah, an incredible journey. We met up with our wives in Grand Junciton, CO and from there we went to Moab, Monument Valley, Lake Powell at Page, AZ, Zion National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Bryce National Park and Capital Reef National Park. The parks are incredible and much to our surprise the ride to and from the parks were equally as incredible.

 

The bike ran well but got really poor gas mileage. I only had 5 tanks about 30 mpg. Most were about 28 mpg with a low of 22. I was towing a small trailer (Unigo) and rode 2-up while on the loop through Utah. The Gold Wings with me did much better on gas. They would always use 1/2 to 1 gallon less than me on each fill up.

 

Here are a few photos from the trip.

 

Dennis

[Tom]

Dennis Nice pictures..Id say you may have it checked out on the mileage unless you all were running REALLY fast 80+ alot..I did basically the same trip except from Texas and average was 39,2 up loaded heavy. Tom .....Glad you all made it safe.

[az1103]

To what do you attribute the poor mileage? Trailer?

[stvmaier]

What an amazing trip that must have been. Congrats!!!! Hope you had a blast!!!

[Skid]

That is beautiful country, I am wanting to go west very bad......

but the gas mileage, did you leave the parking brake on?

welcome back, glad you're home safe.

 

[V7Goose]

The trailer cannot be blamed for that bad mileage. Something is wrong. The easiest answer would be a bad coil or fouled plug. Start the bike cold and withing one minute, touch the header pipes (NOT the chrome heat shields) near the exhaust valves. Don't wait more than a minute after starting or the heat from a good cylinder will be enough to burn you. All four pipes should be very hot, but allow your finger to touch them for about 1 second without injury. If any pipe is not that hot, you have found the problem.

Goose

[DRBentley]

I just bought a IR temperature gauge from Harbour Freight (inexpensive, $28 incl shipping) that reads remote temperature and is guided with a laser beam. I haven't tried it on my RSV as I just got it and haven't had the opportunity. But, that was the main reason I bought it was to check temp's on the bike, I've tried it by just pointing it at things and it seems to work.

 

Anyhow, this may be an excellent way of trouble shooting the exhaust temp without burning your little pinkies! I will try it out soon and post a reply if there is interest.

[Yama Mama]

Dennis what gorgeous photos. I am so glad you had a great road trip.

Take care,

Mama:hurts:

[V7Goose]

I just bought a IR temperature gauge from Harbour Freight (inexpensive, $28 incl shipping) that reads remote temperature and is guided with a laser beam. I haven't tried it on my RSV as I just got it and haven't had the opportunity. But, that was the main reason I bought it was to check temp's on the bike, I've tried it by just pointing it at things and it seems to work.

 

Anyhow, this may be an excellent way of trouble shooting the exhaust temp without burning your little pinkies! I will try it out soon and post a reply if there is interest.

The biggest problem with this is making sure you can actually read the temp of the specific cylinder. A water cooled bike makes this much harder because the water is the same temperature everywhere, even if a specific cylinder is not firring. That is why I suggested the finger test directly on the header pipe next to the exhaust valve. If you are going to use the IR thermometer, best bet is to direct the beam onto the clamp for the header pipe. My Sears model has a lazer that aids in aiming it that would allow this.

Goose

[kantornado]

Midrsv looks like you had a great trip and am glad you made it home O.K.

 

I got the same fuel mileage on our trip from MN to Idaho and back pulling trailer after we bought the RSMV.

 

Same fuel mileage from Mn to Colorado and back W/trailer.

 

Same fuel mileage from Mn to Colorado and Las Vegas W/trailer.

 

Out here in Vegas we get ( 2 up ) 33.6 mpg average no trailer and with the trailer

we get 28 mpg.

 

My pipes are O.K. and bike is tuned and runs great. I think its just the way I ride

and the way it is.

 

I have talked to other RSV owners here and its the same fuel mileage there getting also.

 

I read about these guys getting 45 or 50 mpg and wonder if they know how to do math.

 

The NAVIGATOR and I went out on a 2 up run this last weekend and I filled up

afterwards and got 36.9 mpg we went 150.8 miles and it took 4.08 gal.

 

I did not get this good of fuel mileage 2 up in MN we pretty much got 32 or 33 mpg

very consistently and W/trailer we got 22 to 25 mpg.

 

I think you did fine and had a very enjoyable trip for sure.............Ron

[Eck]

Wow you are one lucky couple.

You two just completed one of my long life dreams...

Like Skid said, I want to go out west real bad....and believe me...some day I will....

[Guest JGorom]

Great photos...that surely is one of the prettiest rides this Country of ours has to offer. My wife and I took a trip to Nevada a few years back (rented a Harley for a week) with the intentions of making it to Utah specifically to see Zion and Bryce National Park's...unfortunately her back was giving her trouble (and the Harley did not help) and so we had to keep our rides shorter and ended up visiting many sites outside of Las Vegas as a result.

 

Sorry to hear about your mileage...I used to get 40-44 two up riding (hard/soft on throttle) but since I changed out the rear end (VMax) I have been getting between 36-40 depending on how much throttle. I know mileage reports here have been all over the map...and some of that is how Yamaha sets these machines up...and a lot of that is how we drive. Recently I have found out how my own mileage has actually gone down whenever I fill up and get an ethanol blend. Consumer Reports did a study on ethanol and it simply does not help the mileage averages at all...ethanol is a failure and it is unfortunately a policy our country continues to go down.

[Midrsv]

For clarification on the mileage I must add that I have a speedohealer to correct the speedometer/odometer error and the correction factor is about 7.5%. So for those of you calculating your mileage from the stock odometer and are getting in the mid 30's you can probably deduct about 7.5% from your mileage. That being said, I also had the speedohealer on my '04 and I did not see this poor of mileage. I do plan to ask the dealer about it the next time in. This bike from the start has always seemed to get 3 to 4 mpg less than the '04. The few tanks where I got in the 22 to 25 mpg range was when we were running across Kansas with brutal head winds, constant 35 to 40 mph headwinds. And for the 1450 mile trip out and back I wasn't riding 2-up. My wife flew out.

 

This was my fourth year to go west. Been to the Grand Canyon, Utah, Rocky Mountain National Park, South Dakota, Yellowstone and Glacier. Time for a new direction now. I'm tired of riding across the KS, MO and NE.

 

Dennis

[Mariner Fan]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing with us. Sounds like you had a heck of a nice ride. ...

[Sailboarder]

very nice trip! I just got back from Colorado myself two weeks ago. Did 8,000 km round trip. We wanted to do Utah as well, but just didn't feel we could take the extra days to go into Utah and out again, so we stuck to touring Colorado. We hit the Monument in Grand Junction then went down towards Montrose, but turned on hwy 141 towards Gateway. I must admit, although we hit many mountains, valleys and canyons, Gateway was our favorite drive! If anyone is in Colorado near Grand Junction, take hwy 141 towards or up to Gateway from Cortez. You won't regret it.

[Guest BluesLover]

What beautiful pictures!

 

It's one of the trips on my "post-retirement" list.

 

Cheers,

[Steve S]

Great looking pics there Dennis. I can't wait to get out there and see if for myself.

 

The wife and I are leaving on June 28th from W. KY for Taos NM, then Page AZ. After a couple of days at Page we are going to wander our way up through Utah, then into Colorado to the Denver area before heading home. Our plan is to hot-shot to Amarillo TX, then take 2 lane roads the rest of the way to Denver. I just hope we can come up with some pics as nice as yours.

[utadventure]

Great pics!! I'm glad you had an enjoyable.

 

We have been blessed to have these in our back yard here in Utah. Were you able to check out some of the eateries we mentioned or find some great ones on your own?

 

Now, I want to go for a ride but I think I better work and pay the bills.

 

Dave