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compare mpg on vulcan 1600 classic

13K views 25 replies 17 participants last post by  Dudester  
#1 ·
I have a 03 vulcan classic 1600 , what should I be getting for a tank of gas,I have aftermarket cobra pipes on it , thanks and feel free to give me your mpg
 
#6 ·
Anything from 30-45, depending on temperature, speed, riding habits, and ethanol content of your fuel.

My MPG is 10-20% lower in California and Nevada than it is in Arizona and Utah.
 
#9 ·
Between 165 & 185 miles when the low fuel light comes on, depending on how hard I ride. A couple of times, on a slow, cruising weekend trip, the light didn't come on 'til 200 miles. If I fill up right when the light comes on, it's about four and a half gallons. My bike is bone stock.
 
#11 ·
why is it lower in cali and nevada do you know?
Ethanol (about 10%) and other additives that are supposed to reduce smog.
It's bad enough that it's in there, but to ADD to the "damage", ethanol, being an alcohol, attracts moisture from the air, so to add insult to injury, our fuel is quite literally "watered down".

I used to be able to keep a 5 gallon can of gas in the garage for years to power the lawn mower.
A couple of years ago, I had 30 gallons of gas for the dirtbike go bad in 4 months.
 
#12 ·
thanks for all the feedback , i at about 75 miles on my tank right now and have a little under 3/4 of a tank but thats with one baffle out , will that hurt my bike , is it normal to get better milage with the baffles out . and how hard is it to recalibrate a bike to adjust ,if i take both out it wont stay running , thanks for the help
 
#13 ·
You mean the baffle out of one pipe, or you've only punched through the rearmost baffle plates?

You definitely want both cylinders balanced.... not a big deal on the Nomad because it's really a 2-1-2 system, but on the Classic, it's a 2-2 with a crossover.
 
#15 ·
Between 165 & 185 miles when the low fuel light comes on, depending on how hard I ride. A couple of times, on a slow, cruising weekend trip, the light didn't come on 'til 200 miles. If I fill up right when the light comes on, it's about four and a half gallons. My bike is bone stock.
200 MILES on a tank of gas ???? In Canada, that's like 340 kilometers per tank. I ride with a lot of the big bore Vulcans from our motorcycle club, and I've never seen anyone get those kind of numbers. They usually are looking at about 200 kilometers per tanks ( 120 or so miles/tank)
That is truly incredible. :shock:
 
#16 ·
I top mine off and normally start getting the light flickering at about 135-140, normally on solid around 150.
I have gone 180, but it was on fumes.
 
#17 ·
I don't know if it's abnormal. It's what I get. The first time I was down to fumes, I had 200 miles on the odo, put in the full 5.3 gallons. If you take into account the speedo error, that is something like 180 miles, I guess. My speedo reads 70 mph when my wife is driving at 65 with the cruise control engaged. I don't get that good mileage all the time, mind, just on those slower, not in a hurry, weekend cruises. During the week, when I want to get to work or home a little faster, it hard to get more than 180 miles from a tank. Remember, my bike is all stock, with 13,000 miles on it, at sea level. I have read and heard that it is rare to improve your mileage with any mods, but you can get more POWER (who wouldn't want that?), or better sound.
 
#18 ·
I get ruffly 150-185 till the light stays on solid. I end up putting in about 4.5 gallons of gas into the thing at that point. My bike right now is mechanically stock. Untill the warentee runs out I think I;m going to enjoy the stock pipes due to the milage.

I had my bike all the way through the break in process in 8 days. So that tells you how much riding I do.
 
#20 ·
If you take into account the speedo error, that is something like 180 miles
Speedos are as far as 10% fast, but the odometers are pretty accurate.
I corrected mine with the Speedo Healer and now I'm showing about 150 on the odo and over 160 on the GPS.
 
#22 ·
DUDESTER... 200 MILES? Why not? It is rare indeed that I refuel at less than 205-210. The max I have gone is 253. I am constantly amazed at the dreadful fuel mileage reported here. I keep good records and in 21,000+ miles this year I have averaged just a tick under 46 mpg. I ride pretty hard in a wide variety of terrain throughout the west and I would croak to see anything less than 40. If you are filling your tank 1/2-2/3 of the way up the cup, you should easily go 200+ before the low light. Yesterday I refueled at 205.6 miles on the guage (195.73 GPS) and took 4.618 gal.
 
#24 ·
'06 Nomad. 38mpg best so far; sometimes worse, but by the time the light comes on, I'm ready to stop for a butt break and a cupajoe anyways. I don't trust the light, so when it comes on, I start looking for gas! Rarely put in more than 4 gallons though, so must still be ~ 1 gal left when the light goes on.

DS
 
#26 ·
DUDESTER... 200 MILES? Why not? It is rare indeed that I refuel at less than 205-210. The max I have gone is 253. I am constantly amazed at the dreadful fuel mileage reported here. I keep good records and in 21,000+ miles this year I have averaged just a tick under 46 mpg. I ride pretty hard in a wide variety of terrain throughout the west and I would croak to see anything less than 40. If you are filling your tank 1/2-2/3 of the way up the cup, you should easily go 200+ before the low light. Yesterday I refueled at 205.6 miles on the guage (195.73 GPS) and took 4.618 gal.
Well I can only wait until Spring to be able to see how many miles I'll get on my 1500. Maybe our altitude is higher or lower than yours or something. I haven't met anyone around here with a 1500 Vulcan that got your kind of mileage, which again is roughly 350 KILOMETERS/tankful and no mention of reserve (which I don't think the 1600's have anyway) In all honesty I think I'd be happy to get around 150 MILES/tank which I think is close to the norm around here.
Time will tell what I get out of mine I guess. ;)