Kawasaki KLR Forum banner

What kind of Gas Mileage y'all gettin?

12K views 28 replies 14 participants last post by  Markk9 
#1 ·
Chiefs, with 6400 miles on her, my 08 just gave 50 MPG on my last tank of fuel. Im pretty pleased with that since it was sadly, all in town. Evrything on its stock.

Made me wonder what kind of mileage y'all are gettin.
 
#3 ·
My 08 has 7k mi on it now. I usually get around 55mpg if I don't rev past 4k rpm. If I shift at 5-6k rpm, the mileage drops to 50 mpg.
Now, if I restrain myself and shift at 3k rpm thru the gears, and limit spd to 60mph (4krpm with 38t rear) I have gotten as good as 62.5mpg, but that takes a lot of restraint. Much more fun getting 52 or so mpg.
 
#9 ·
15/45 sprockets and getting 55-61 mpg up to about 70 mph, maybe 50 mpg at higher speeds. I have gotten a low of 45 pushing a 50+ mph head wind. That was a rough uncomfortable ride on that day with gust to 70 mph that would almost swat the front wheel out from under the bike. I got off the main roads and took the back roads home because the 4 wheelers couldn't stay in their lanes.
 
#15 ·
DOn't know



I have an 06 with 12K and use a 16T front and a 43 rear. I run Michilin t66 tires and keep them hard. I get 52 tops without the panniers and 46 with them on. Those are highway.

I only dream of 60mpg.
 
#11 ·
Yeah, I'm getting nowhere near as good as you guys either. I hit reserve between 180 and 190 on the tripmeter. My commute is a short freeway jaunt, a lot of stop and go at around 40. And it's pretty windy here. And I ride hard, but still...
 
#12 ·
I can't find the thread now but on the KLRWORLD forum there was a discussion about riding techniques vs. fuel mileage. From reading it the most effective riding technique to improve fuel mileage was shifting earlier and letting the torque do the work of accelerating. On a stock KLR the maximum torque occurs at 4,300 rpm. Most of the people were saying they were getting low mileage were shifting around 5,000 rpm, especially in the lower gears. Shifting at about 4,000 rpm according to those who tried it improved mileage considerably while sacrificing only a little in acceleration. I started riding on thumpers way back when they were vibro massages and got into the habit of shifting early so I wouldn't vibrate my eyes out. This habit has stuck with me over the years even with the smooth KLR. So I guess inadvertently I had been riding the economical way from the beginning.
 
#14 ·
I run into this issue every time I try obtaining this kind of info on my vehicles. I've only logged 2 tanks (just got it) w/4500 on the ticker of a 08. The 1st tank @ 46.3 MPG & the 2nd ( trying to improve it by riding style) 42.5 MPG !!! JEEPS, my 1976 850 Norton would deliver 42 MPG constantly ! I just wonder when I see very high reports if we are all working with the same math !
 
#17 ·
Harley,

I did pick up about 4mpg with the panniers and 6mpg without them. It will run 70mph at around 5000 rpm. That's seventy measured with my garmin, the speedos on the KLR's are notoriously off. When my speedo says 65mph the GPS says 61.5. Ever wonder why it seems that people are always on your ass?

16 works well and I still use the bike in some rough terrain. You have to be good with the clutch if you get yourself into a tight spot but I keep it moving fast enough to avoid getting stuck.

A 17 sounds like the ticket if all I was going to do was road ride but I'd be a little leery of getting into the mud and sand if I were geared any higher.
 
#18 ·
Thanks Hardy : You pushed me over the edge, I'm a mileage weenie so I'm going to run a 17 T on street tires. Then when I have other plans I'll change the rubber to something more appropriate as well as the ft sprocket back to the 15 T BUT I'm thinking hard about picking up a 14 T as well !!
 
#19 ·
More mpg



Dude, I am King of the mileage weenie's, I want to have the Anchorage Harley shop use their exhaust dynometer to properly set my carb and stock pipe up for top results this spring.

I know this will sound a little far out but........I had an 81 KZ 1100 set up by the best tech I know after mounting a 4 into 1 Kirker pipe. He used mercury gauges to sync the carbs and drilled the headers (all four) and placed a probe leading to an exhaust dyno into each pipe. He then commenced to adjust the primary air jet to achieve a 90% efficiency burn of the octane entering the cylinders. He said that was as good as it could get and the results were as follows;

You have to trust me on this, first trip was to Gander Newfoundland from Central Pennsylvania and the measured mpg at 70mph was 72! I am not B.S.ing you man, 72!

The bike had an unusual low end torque and was the fastest thing I've ever owned.

I never forgot that experience and believe that all the carb / pipe tinkering in the world will not yield top results with out the ability to measure the octane being blown out the head pipe!

What do you think?
 
#20 ·
I us my KLR mostly to and from work (a 24 hr shift) so I almost always have my saddlebags on and often a tailbag aswell. Still, compared to what you all are saying it sounds like I need to find a good mechanic to tune this thing. I may also change the front sprocket to a 17 T if that will help. (the only off road I do is dirt roads- logging roads, forest service roads etc) How involved is it to change one out? I'm not totally inept but I'm no mechanic either and I haven't owned or worked on a bike since '79
 
#23 ·
Sbrogdon : You did not post what you are getting ?? So it's hard to reply, but as I posted earlier I think a lot of discrepancies are caused by the new math !!:64a:
Hardy : I hear U, The old school 4 bangers were great. The fastest I ever owned was a 750 triple 2 stroke. Do U think you are going to get any MPG out of the KLR ?? Keep me posted. :50: Harley
 
#21 ·
Piece of cake, buy yourself a Clymer Manual; eBay, search KLR 650, there are always some for sale @ $19.95 make sure you get the correct year Manual for your bike.

Follow the instructions carefully, you save $$
 
#22 ·
Regarding my post concerning the Exhaust Dyno;

You will save a bundle if you remove the carb and drill out the pocket to reach the air mixture jet yourself. You can buy a tricky little thumb screw to put in instead of the existing screw from [TPI motorcycles.com]

Do this before you seek a Dyno shop.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Shifting under 4,000 should help a bit and getting in to 5th gear as soon as possible without lugging it will help also. Ie... don't ride around in 4th gear at 3,800 when you can switch to 5th and drop some rpms.

I don't pay much attention to gas mileage. If you do it'll eat at you and make you lose perspective as to why you ride. The bike will get outstanding mileage no matter how it's ridden so I just accept what I get and move on to more important things. I don't want to be riding around thinking about early shifting, not taking off overly fast, not engine breaking, etc.. etc..! I just want to ride and enjoy the bike. Paying too much attention to that other crap just takes away the fun.
 
#26 ·
We'll at least 3/4 of this is true. It's just I think 40-42 MPG is crap , for a 650 one lunger, not " outstanding ". I'd like to ride it like I stole it, & get 500 miles on a tank. :16a: That's why I'm riding again.
Well, that and wanting to be able to ride outside of the camera's view when it counts. :character00268:
 
#28 ·
Sure, It's wishful thinking. It's just what I wish I could do. I knew I was going to have to make compromises to get what I wanted, A GREEN 08 KLR 650. It's just I had hoped 50 to 60 MPG would be part of the equation. PlUS not drinking a qt of oil every 1000 miles would be nice. :18:
 
#29 ·
Before that government mandated ethanol winter blend I was between 50 to 53 mpg. After the winter blend 45 to 47 is the best I get. Only one station has a winter blend that doesn't contain ethanol, it takes close to 2 tanks of it bring the mileage back up.

Mark
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top