First Tank MPG poor?

Hi.

I was hoping someone here might be able to help.

I have just purchased a NC700X, with the main purchase decision being the MPG that is quoted and mentioned on various forums.

When I got the bike I filled up (0 miles on the clock), and have been riding a mix of city and highway. I noticed the fuel guage goes down a section every 26-27 miles, and now that I have hit 120 miles on the clock I am on reserve.

Is this bike likely to be this poor on MPG on the first few tanks? or could there be something wrong with the bike? At this rate I am only going to get a max of 150 miles to a tank and that would be to dry. This would makeit a lot worse than my old Sprint GT.

Hope fully it will just be as the bike beds in, but wanted to check on here as I have not seen this reported elsewhere.

Many Thanks for your help

Darren

Mine is a DCT and loaded with xtra's, I am getting about 65-68mpg. It is mostly flat were I live.

I lose a line every 50 miles.something doesn't add up if you are getting mileage like that

Hi Ziggie,

I would have expected 50 per line as well. Will give it until the first service, then ask dealer if no better. Thanks

I got great MPG form the start (between 65 and 70) so I can't imagine what is up with your NC. The terrain around my house is a mix of flat with some hilly areas and I try to be smooth and easy with the throttle. You are getting less than half of the MPG you should be getting. Maybe some bad gas or a bad fuel gauge. I would give the dealer a courtesy call and find out what is up.

Good luck and keep us posted

It might be dependent on how you ride. If you are on it hard and wringing its neck, you will get piss poor mileage. They seem to recommend short shifting at about 4k RPMs. I haven't had the chance to test my mileage yet since i bought it with roughly 3/4 of a tank of fuel (last week) in it and have only filled it once. So I am in the midst of figuring out my MPG.

My first tank, I averaged 60 mpg. It's been 73-78 mpg every since......but I drive like a girl!!!!

If you look at my mileage here NC700X (Honda NC700X) | Fuelly and look at the notes. You can see what mine got.

Darren - what makes it worse is that all these guys above are quoting you american mpg.
I have had the same complaint as you - that I cannot get near the mpg that some people are getting even if I ride very carefully. However, mine is not as bad as yours. I can almost always get between 200 and 210 miles from a tank, and my actual imperial miles per gallon is around 67 in normal riding.
Mike

Thanks for all your responses. I filled up tonight (11.3 litres and had done 138 miles) so I will see how this tank goes.

One quick question if I may, how far do you guys normally fill the tank to? I notice on this bike the filler hose fits in like a car and you can fill to the first click. But I noticed tonight you can fill another 1.5 litres up to the bottom of the neck (i.e. the bottom plate of where the bottom of the cap fits). - Obviously that makes a difference at to the consumption as 1.5 litres between first click and the bottom of the filler is half the reserve?

Thanks again

Darren

My 1st tank was 53,since they have been 56 and it's commuting miles only.
I got the 56 by Shifting at 4,000 rpm's and riding at 3,000 ...


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dsloper said:

Thanks for all your responses. I filled up tonight (11.3 litres and had done 138 miles) so I will see how this tank goes.

One quick question if I may, how far do you guys normally fill the tank to? I notice on this bike the filler hose fits in like a car and you can fill to the first click. But I noticed tonight you can fill another 1.5 litres up to the bottom of the neck (i.e. the bottom plate of where the bottom of the cap fits). - Obviously that makes a difference at to the consumption as 1.5 litres between first click and the bottom of the filler is half the reserve?

Thanks again

Darren

Click to expand...

See that's the problem with trying to pin down mileage numbers with any real precision. There can be a huge difference from one guy to the next (or girl, lol) as to what they consider "full", and if they're rounding numbers up, or going: "about" and just saying what they think something is, versus reality.

I would imagine an extra 1.5 litres (or 1.5 litres less than another) would make for a fair change to the mpg's.

Not stipulating whether or not we are talking imperial versus US can be another never ending source for many various replies made in confusion, and getting things sidetracked.

I would not go by how many miles you travel and the correlation of the LCD blocks disappearing with any exactitude, IMHO. My bike is all over the place with this. The first block can vanish after 97 kilometres, and then the second one, only 20 km's after that! All whilst riding in the same fashion-ie: not going from highway to city or anything, just steady cruising with no other blatant changes to speed or conditions.

My first tank was 48 US mpg. That sucks!

*BUT*, was it really that? I assumed the trank was "full", as all the LCD bars were showing, but I didn't look with my own eyes unfortunately. It was more than likely only barely filled enough to register all the blocks on the gauge, which for all I know, could have been 1-2 or more litres less, than what I would consider "full"

My second tank, I filled up to the bottom of that plate you mention, and at the end of that trip, showed 59 US mpg.

I have no doubt my mileage will get better as the bike breaks in, and what the difference between very low on reserve is, versus thinking "it's empty" at the first sign of the flashing red last block, when it's not, really.

I bloody hope so, anyway

Short trips and cold starts also kill the mpg. If all I'm doing is going to school, (8 miles one way) then my mpg is in the mid 50's. When I can do longer rides I've been able to hit mid to high 60s US gallons.

dsloper said:

Thanks for all your responses. I filled up tonight (11.3 litres and had done 138 miles) so I will see how this tank goes.

One quick question if I may, how far do you guys normally fill the tank to? I notice on this bike the filler hose fits in like a car and you can fill to the first click. But I noticed tonight you can fill another 1.5 litres up to the bottom of the neck (i.e. the bottom plate of where the bottom of the cap fits). - Obviously that makes a difference at to the consumption as 1.5 litres between first click and the bottom of the filler is half the reserve?

Thanks again

Darren

Click to expand...

I fill it up until the fuel is at the bottom plate or a little over it.

yeah me too. With the bike on the side stand I fill it so the fuel meniscus cuts through the circular hole in the metal plate at the midpoint. I have tested it once and found I could get a fraction more in if I put it on the centre stand, but it's hardly worth the trouble.
The idea of steady mph equals best mpg is true up to a point and if you want to be hitting the amazing figures some guys get then sitting on a dead straight road for hours at 55mph is the way to do it. I have found that cruising at 72-75mph knocks the consumption back to about 68mpg (UK) (I have the DCT X so maybe that doesn't help.
(But hey 68 is pretty good when my mates are getting 50mpg at the same speeds)
Mike

When you start your bike, do you let her warm up? I never do... I give her about 10 second and ride off... Slow and upshift asap... I don't go faster and ride normal until the engine is warm up a couple of miles later....

mike5100 said:

meniscus

Click to expand...

10 internet points awarded

L.B.S. said:

10 internet points awarded

Click to expand...

I thought the meniscus is in your knee?

LA_NC700X said:

When you start your bike, do you let her warm up? I never do... I give her about 10 second and ride off... Slow and upshift asap... I don't go faster and ride normal until the engine is warm up a couple of miles later....

Click to expand...

I don't spend all day warming it up, but I do let it warm up for a bit-I have a fair number of turns directly into heavy traffic areas right outside my house, and 99.9% of the time, I can't just leisurely dawdle out into the vehicle stream. I don't want to be instantly flogging the thing when I wasn't "expecting" to, to avoid some yo-yo going 70 KPH who signals right and merges left juuuuust as I let the clutch out...

I'd love to be able to start her up and take off slow and pleasant-like for a mile or so, without worry of being ravaged from behind, a slug suddenly dropped in the way of a herd of charging wildebeests.


Funny enough, with my F800ST, it was too long of a warm up time for my liking, lol. BMW wanted you to sit idling until the fan kicked on, then wait a few more minutes, before checking the oil level. It took for freaking ever to have the fan kick in!

frozenpoet said:

I thought the meniscus is in your knee?

Click to expand...

Quite so, but also thus:

Definition: A meniscus is phase boundary that has been curved because of surface tension.

ie: viewing a "level" of liquid in a glass jar/beaker/cup, with a marked line on it. When you look at the level closely, you can see the liquid curving "up" to slightly higher than the actual line you filled to.