After the SGT group disbanded following our 1st annual meet, I was faced with a choice of heading home to the west, or taking in some of the Blue Ridge Parkway to the east. The Blue Ridge Parkway is 470 miles of winding, paved two lane road that follows the Blue Ridge of the Appalachian Mountains, with no towns, stop signs, traffic lights, residences, businesses, or commercial traffic for the whole way. It was a beautiful clear day, so I chose east!
I fueled up at Cherokee, NC, right near the southern entrance to the Parkway. As always, I top it off almost to the point of overflowing out the filler neck. I headed up the Parkway, and it was indeed the best weather I had ever seen up there - perfectly clear blue sky. I made a number of stops to shoot photos of the NC (some of which I'll post later). As I went along it occurred to me that this would be the ideal testing ground to see what kind of gas mileage the NC700X could achieve. I figured the it should be capable of 90 MPG. Then I thought of the line from "Back To The Future", where Marty Mcfly says, "Let's see if you bastards can do 90." (Too much time to think while riding.)
When I saw the first fuel gauge bar disappear at 110 miles, I'm thinking I'm on to something here, so I go into full hypermiling mode: minimal throttle, tucking in behind the small screen at times, top gear whenever possible, speeds around 45 MPH (which is the speed limit on the Parkway anyhow), and some coasting down hills if the bike would maintain or pick up speed on the coast. I'm on the most beautiful road east of the Rockies, so what's the hurry anyway? The gauge bars continued to disappear much later than usual as they counted down. There was some side wind that whipped around the hills in the last 50 miles, sometimes working to my advantage, sometimes to a disadvantage.
Around 255 miles on the Parkway it was getting cold, so I decided I'd better turn west toward home. I jumped off the Parkway, but luckily, the GPS guided me down some great two-laners where I could continue my hypermiling mode. The flashing fuel bar first appeared when I braked on a downhill with around 269 miles on the trip meter. At 274, it was flashing for good. I'm getting a little worried as it nears 300 miles on the tank, so I vow to gas up the very next chance I see. At 296 miles, I hit Interstate 81 and a fuel station. I filled the tank to the point of overflow, using all of 3.132 gallons, for a fuel economy of 94.6 MPG! See the photos that document the fill up.
Yes, the bastards can do 90, and I'm guessing 100 MPG is remotely possible. The two tanks that followed on my way home were 84 MPG due to slow speeds and tailwinds.
As always, Your Mileage May Vary.
Greg
I fueled up at Cherokee, NC, right near the southern entrance to the Parkway. As always, I top it off almost to the point of overflowing out the filler neck. I headed up the Parkway, and it was indeed the best weather I had ever seen up there - perfectly clear blue sky. I made a number of stops to shoot photos of the NC (some of which I'll post later). As I went along it occurred to me that this would be the ideal testing ground to see what kind of gas mileage the NC700X could achieve. I figured the it should be capable of 90 MPG. Then I thought of the line from "Back To The Future", where Marty Mcfly says, "Let's see if you bastards can do 90." (Too much time to think while riding.)
When I saw the first fuel gauge bar disappear at 110 miles, I'm thinking I'm on to something here, so I go into full hypermiling mode: minimal throttle, tucking in behind the small screen at times, top gear whenever possible, speeds around 45 MPH (which is the speed limit on the Parkway anyhow), and some coasting down hills if the bike would maintain or pick up speed on the coast. I'm on the most beautiful road east of the Rockies, so what's the hurry anyway? The gauge bars continued to disappear much later than usual as they counted down. There was some side wind that whipped around the hills in the last 50 miles, sometimes working to my advantage, sometimes to a disadvantage.
Around 255 miles on the Parkway it was getting cold, so I decided I'd better turn west toward home. I jumped off the Parkway, but luckily, the GPS guided me down some great two-laners where I could continue my hypermiling mode. The flashing fuel bar first appeared when I braked on a downhill with around 269 miles on the trip meter. At 274, it was flashing for good. I'm getting a little worried as it nears 300 miles on the tank, so I vow to gas up the very next chance I see. At 296 miles, I hit Interstate 81 and a fuel station. I filled the tank to the point of overflow, using all of 3.132 gallons, for a fuel economy of 94.6 MPG! See the photos that document the fill up.
Yes, the bastards can do 90, and I'm guessing 100 MPG is remotely possible. The two tanks that followed on my way home were 84 MPG due to slow speeds and tailwinds.
As always, Your Mileage May Vary.
Greg
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