Marlen Padberg Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Hi all! I'm a year-round (until it snows) kind of rider in Canada, and am wondering if any of you have observed something similar to me. I have a 2010 R1200RT camhead, and in the last few weeks, I've noticed a variance in mileage that I get, depending heavily on the ambient temperature. It seems I get much better mileage - close to 500km per tank - when the weather is warm - 20 degrees Celsius or warmer. The warmer it gets, the better my mileage gets. When it gets cooler - below 10 celsius - I find the mileage suffers quite a bit. I might get 400km per tank if I am easy on it. I wonder if this is the fuel injection adding more fuel to keep the engine at proper operating temperature. I'm not complaining, because no matter what the temperature is, hit the starter, and it never fails to go, and performance seems to be linear no matter the temperature. Cooler weather seems to provide a bit of a torque bump, as I would expect it should with more dense air. What have your observations been? Mine are not scientific, by any means, just rough approximations. Just curious. Marlen (from Canada). Link to comment
dirtrider Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Hi all! I'm a year-round (until it snows) kind of rider in Canada, and am wondering if any of you have observed something similar to me. I have a 2010 R1200RT camhead, and in the last few weeks, I've noticed a variance in mileage that I get, depending heavily on the ambient temperature. It seems I get much better mileage - close to 500km per tank - when the weather is warm - 20 degrees Celsius or warmer. The warmer it gets, the better my mileage gets. When it gets cooler - below 10 celsius - I find the mileage suffers quite a bit. I might get 400km per tank if I am easy on it. I wonder if this is the fuel injection adding more fuel to keep the engine at proper operating temperature. I'm not complaining, because no matter what the temperature is, hit the starter, and it never fails to go, and performance seems to be linear no matter the temperature. Cooler weather seems to provide a bit of a torque bump, as I would expect it should with more dense air. What have your observations been? Mine are not scientific, by any means, just rough approximations. Just curious. Morning Marlen That is pretty typical of most vehicles. Lots of things effect fuel mileage in cooler weather-- like gasoline formulation change for winter (winter gasoline), air density (cooler denser air), longer engine warm up before it goes into closed loop, thicker engine oil (for longer), thicker final drive gear oil (for longer), thicker trans gear oil (for longer), bearing greases stay thicker longer, tires start off on lower air pressures & don't get as hot, rider wears heavier (& more bulky) riding gear, for some riders they have windshield up farther in cold weather, use of more electrics like heated seat, heated grips, or heated clothing (those require more work from the alternator). Probably the biggest fuel economy hit is from longer engine warm-up before riding (if you do that) as sitting still warming up the engine is getting "0" miles to the gallon. Link to comment
David R Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 I see the same thing. As it cools off, milage goes down. David Link to comment
MichiganBob Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Good Evening, All those variables that DR lists make sense. I know that in Michigan, winter gas with all it's additives makes a big difference. A gallon of fuel in December does not have a gallon of fuel when you factor in all the additives. Perhaps it's too early up in the northern kingdom of Canada to be changing the fuel formulas. I'm just not sure when these changes to fuel occur. I do know that my chevy drops an average of 5 mpg in the winter. Of course, having a garage filled with motorcycles and tools and other good stuff, making it impossible to put the car in there, might be part of the problem. Yes, I have remote start that works from my bedroom. Take care, Bob Link to comment
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