Ninja 500r: 2 questions about MCN Review

[cspan37421]

Hi,

I've been looking at the Ninja 500r and read with interest the Motorcycle Consumer News (MCN) review of it in the July 2004 issue. A couple items from that article surprised me -

1) they list the valve adjustment interval as 12,000 miles. In a number of other reviews, though, I've seen it listed as 7,500 miles. Which is right (if either)?

2) Also, they somehow managed to average 64 mpg in their tests, with a range of 58-69 mpg. I find that quite surprising; most other claims I've seen put the bike in the 50 mpg range. Do Ninja 500r riders here consider their results unusually high?

Thanks,
cspan

[cspan37421]

PS:

BTW, I'm in the USA.

here's what I suspect. They pulled out a metric-based service manual, perhaps one from the UK. The valve adj. being 12,000 km, that's about 7,500 miles. That would explain that diff.

The mpg - if they did miles per imperial gallon, then the 64 mpg becomes 53.3, much more consistent with anecdotal evidence I've seen.

Just a hypothesis. What say the 500r riders?

[rlovrin1]

When my bike was stock, I was averaging 50-55 MPG. Since I had the Ignition advancer installed, full 2-1 exhaust, stage 3 rejet, K&N highflow airfilter, and the bike Dyno-Tuned- I now get 60-66MPG. I discovered this a couple weeks ago when I filled the bike up after a long trip. I went 198 miles on 3 gallons of gas. The bike's tank is 4.8 gallons.

[01zx7r]

Originally Posted by rlovrin1

When my bike was stock, I was averaging 50-55 MPG. Since I had the Ignition advancer installed, full 2-1 exhaust, stage 3 rejet, K&N highflow airfilter, and the bike Dyno-Tuned- I now get 60-66MPG. I discovered this a couple weeks ago when I filled the bike up after a long trip. I went 198 miles on 3 gallons of gas. The bike's tank is 4.8 gallons.

That is downright impressive! I'm looking foward to doing some of those mods myself now.

[QKENUF4U]

Originally Posted by 01zx7r

That is downright impressive! I'm looking foward to doing some of those mods myself now.

hes doing this on a 500 twin, i HIGHLY DOUBT youll see the same results. if anything youll loose a little gas milage.

[01zx7r]

Originally Posted by QKENUF4U

hes doing this on a 500 twin, i HIGHLY DOUBT youll see the same results. if anything youll loose a little gas milage.

Ok, ok.. but I am still looking foward to doing the mods for the perf increases! Speaking of which, guess who gets to help me?

[QKENUF4U]

Originally Posted by 01zx7r

Ok, ok.. but I am still looking foward to doing the mods for the perf increases! Speaking of which, guess who gets to help me?

if things work out i will have a place to help ya anytime ya need it. im working on buying a house/renting a house. trying to get pre-qaulified now.
lance

[01zx7r]

Originally Posted by QKENUF4U

if things work out i will have a place to help ya anytime ya need it. im working on buying a house/renting a house. trying to get pre-qaulified now.
lance

I have a garage and enough tools to take just about anything apart! It's the putting back together that is the problem. I'm pretty good mechanically. I took my rear tire and rim off to get the tire replaced, put the smaller front sprocket on, Yosh can (how hard is that though really?) undertail kit and so on, but the carb stuff kinda scares me. Probably after I do it once or see it done, it won't be such a big deal. All you AZ guys and gals are welcome to come over and wrench anytime!

[QKENUF4U]

well anytime ya need help hit me up and i can give ya a hand.

[DiverDown]

Originally Posted by cspan37421

PS:

BTW, I'm in the USA.

here's what I suspect. They pulled out a metric-based service manual, perhaps one from the UK. The valve adj. being 12,000 km, that's about 7,500 miles. That would explain that diff.

The mpg - if they did miles per imperial gallon, then the 64 mpg becomes 53.3, much more consistent with anecdotal evidence I've seen.

Just a hypothesis. What say the 500r riders?

Depends on what kind of riding I am doing. My last tank I went 204 miles before I had to switch to reserve. And it did die on me before I got it on reserve. But I was impressed with that. Normally, I get 170 to 180 before I have to switch.

[rlovrin1]

Originally Posted by DiverDown

Depends on what kind of riding I am doing. My last tank I went 204 miles before I had to switch to reserve. And it did die on me before I got it on reserve. But I was impressed with that. Normally, I get 170 to 180 before I have to switch.

That's how my bike was when it was stock. I'd get 180-200 miles then have to switch to reserve. I'm getting much better milage since the Dyno-tune.

[1Adam12]

Sounds like the folks in Az will have a tech day sponsored soon!

[cspan37421]

OK. I now own a 500r. The answers are:

1) Per the 500r MOM, valves at 7,500 miles, not 12,000 miles as MCN incorrectly reported. (USA)
2) my first 240 miles I got 66 mpg. But these were break-in speeds, avg. about 50 mph. At 70 mph, who knows.

My last bike (250 Nighthawk) varied a lot. I once got 88mpg, but that was at 45 mph. At 65-70 mph, the economy dropped to 61 mpg. Overall I averaged 70 mpg on the Nighthawk.

On this one I bet the average speed affects the mpg significantly as well.