Searching bike MPG's

[Mikefiatx19]

Hi All,
Does anyone know if you can search the bike section by bike age and MPG?
I want to buy a commuter that has decent MPG and is pre 2004 (older = cheaper bike).
At the moment I have to see a bike for sale then check the fuelly page to see how good the MPG is. It would be nice if I could list the best MPG bikes on fuelly then search local papers for those fewer bikes. I am looking for anything that returns 60+ MPG under normal driving.
Regards
Mike

[Berttrack]

cb400four would work. If you don't lean on the throttle too much

[Mikefiatx19]

Thanks, I will keep my eyes open for one of those. They seem to be a bit hard to find but i'll try.
Mike

[Jay2TheRescue]

If you want cheap, reliable, good MPG, and some decent get up and go it's hard to beat a Kawasaki Ninja 250.

[Charon]

The 250 Ninja has an unusually large fuel tank, over 4 gallons, which gives it a range of over 200 miles to reserve. Seems like mine would go 220 to 230 miles, and get about 70 mpg. Two others, not as quick as the Ninja, are Honda's CM250 Rebel and Yamaha's XV250 Virago (or later, Star). My 250 Star has averaged 79 mpg. Both of those have been around essentially unchanged for over twenty years.

[E1]

The fact that you're in the Netherlands, your age range is pre-2004, and you're looking for ones that can get 60+ MPG restricts the pool greatly. BTW, is that imperial or US gallon?

I think the Ninja 250/500/650 or other similar bikes like the Suzuki SV-650 might all be candidates for you. Most bikes dating back before 2004 were not fuel injected. There are bikes out there. One of the biggest high MPG bikes I know of is the Kawasaki ZX-11. I've read of more than a few who were getting 50 MPG US on them. I believe too they were California (CA) model variants.

If you were in California, Illinois, Florida or New York (USA), you might be able to get your hands on a California model 2000 - 2003 ZX-9R. These are 142 HP 899cc sportbikes with 5.019g US fuel tanks, but also well suited for sport-touring. Top speed is ~172 MPH. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I bought a stock 2000 model in '08 and it averaged about 48 MPG US until I tuned it. I liked it so much, in 2010 I bought a similar stock 2002 California model, traveling across two states to get them both. It too got 48 MPG US when I bought it and I've tuned it similar to my 2000 model. On a tank, 240 miles is well within their capability between refueling. Reserve USg capacity is just over 1.0g, so if you trip reserve at approximately 4g US and you're in the 210 miles ballpark on the trip counter, reserve will get you 52+ miles on top of that.

Unsure the odometer was reading correctly, I've measured them against mile markers and just about every other bike out there over 90,000 miles traveled, recording 41,000 miles of that. They stun, baffle, and have stranded their fair share of other riders who've challenged their range capabilities. It's a privilege to own and be on one. Challenges are always encouraged.

However, if you get just any old ZX-9R that isn't equipped with the California vapor recovery system or ones that have been modified to be supposed liter bike killers, have had equipment stripped or have been poorly rejetted, the 9R is just another average to low MPG motorcycle. Only the California models 2000 - 2003 are capable of these numbers.

If you find one of those in stock condition, impossible in Europe, you'll find a supercommuter you may have difficulty just commuting on.

USg


Imperial gallon

[itripper]

Originally Posted by Charon

The 250 Ninja has an unusually large fuel tank, over 4 gallons, which gives it a range of over 200 miles to reserve. Seems like mine would go 220 to 230 miles, and get about 70 mpg. Two others, not as quick as the Ninja, are Honda's CM250 Rebel and Yamaha's XV250 Virago (or later, Star). My 250 Star has averaged 79 mpg. Both of those have been around essentially unchanged for over twenty years.

I have both the 250 Honda Rebel and the 250 Virago (older name Route 66). The Yamaha being a V twin had much more torque and got 70 MPG. The Honda is an inline 2 and gets 60 mpg. On both bikes I had to change the drive sprockets for better highway speeds/less RPMs. I did a lot of highway miles on both.

The 250 Rebel is a much easier to maintain bike, much simpler and open and I found to be much more reliable. Never had one problem with my Rebel

The 250 Yamaha has the carb between the two cylinders and a little more cluttered to get to stuff. l have had some minor electrical and mechanical problems with it. I had put 80,000 miles on it before I stopped riding it (was still running fine).

I stopped hassling with bikes as m car gets the same mileage with AC for 110F degree days and heat for the 0F degree days. And a stereo too!

LARGE

[itripper]

Here is some aggregate info:
WR250X 80.86, 16 bikes, 257 fill ups
Virago 250 80.32, 13 bikes, 184 fill ups
TU250X 72.06, 40 bikes, 609 fill ups
CBR250R 67.65, 289 bikes, 4289 fill ups
NC700X 65.22, 49 bikes, 375 full ups
GZ250 64.46, 19 bikes, 289 fill ups
Burgman 400 58.95, 54 bikes, 1410 fill ups
GS500F 51.91, 113 bikes, 1840 fill ups
Vulcan 500 51.89, 32 bikes, 803 fill ups
DL650 49.4, 192 bikes, 4389 fill ups
KLR650 48.08, 18 bikes, 381 fill ups
EX500 47.69, 97 bikes, 1671 fill ups
Ninja650R 46.47, 140 bikes, 2904 fill ups
SV650 45.75, 193 bikes, 1919 fill ups
Concours 38.49, 40 bikes, 1206 fill ups


A lot of these bikes have been in production for decades, the Virago 250 has been, mine is a 1988 model.