BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

I have a 2010 VW TDI wagon.

It's running neck & neck with the bike on fuel efficiency, if not beating it.

Pretty sad.

What tune-up areas should I focus on?

Are you one of those guys that told your wife that the only reason that you want a bike is because it's more fuel efficient?

r12gecko wrote:What tune-up areas should I focus on?

A tune-up of your gut.

With the R12R and my commuter 335d, how aggressively I drive or ride, it seems, affects fuel efficiency most.

I get about 45 MPG from my R1200R, better if I don't get on it, but what fun is that?

Fuel economy is not why I ride it though, I ride it because it's far more fun than driving a cage. Who cares if certain cages might get the same or better MPG, they can't beat the fun factor! Unless the weather is bad.

r12gecko wrote:I have a 2010 VW TDI wagon.

It's running neck & neck with the bike on fuel efficiency, if not beating it.

Pretty sad.

What tune-up areas should I focus on?

It might be running neck & neck for fuel efficiency but not on performance, your R1200R is miles ahead = more fun. Also I bet your car is nowhere near 95grams/km CO2 as the R1200R is.
Not trying to hijack this thread but this brings me to another matter and that is road tax charges here in the UK on cars, if you car produces less than 110grams/km there is no road tax to pay, anything above that is incrementally increased to £280 per year. The idea is to migrate people to more fuel efficient cars with less CO2. Now my bike produces 95grams/km but you guessed it last year they increased road tax on bikes across the board so I have to pay something like £85. How can that be fair. Sorry about the rant.

r12gecko wrote:I have a 2010 VW TDI wagon.

It's running neck & neck with the bike on fuel efficiency, if not beating it.

Pretty sad.

What tune-up areas should I focus on?

The TDI was pretty up there in terms of fuel efficiency when I last looked at cars, so I am not that surprised. However, you didn't state what your mpg numbers are, and without that it's hard to say anything.

Your TDI ( a great car by the way) might be getting equivalent MPG as your R, but I doubt it gets to 60MPH in 4 second. You are comparing apples to oranges here, moreover, a naked bike will fight a significant drag compared to a low profile car. Plus the fact that it is air/oil cooled is not the most energy efficient design

go get a scooter!

If you want more mileage you'll do better with a 650 GS. That said I must admit that with the new "improved" DOHC engine I seem to be getting 4mpg less than with the single cam. My '09 routinely got 50mpg, the '11 gets 46mpg.

but seriously, you have 1200cc of engine there, and two large pistons needing big combustion to move them. the only way to use less gas is to short shift and be easy on the throttle. the bike has the torque to do so.

however that is really no way to ride a motorcycle, and will only save you a buck or so per tank. if it uses too much gas, you need a smaller bike or a in-line four engine (that you also short-shift).

my f650gs (single cylinder, dual spark) was GREAT on gas, as someone pointed out.

wes

I have a 2010 VW TDI wagon.
It's running neck & neck with the bike on fuel efficiency, if not beating it.
Pretty sad.
What tune-up areas should I focus on?

You need to "tune-up" your aerodynamic drag:
http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/tech/0 ... ewall.html

... or ride slowly (power required to overcome aero drag is proportional to velocity cubed):



But where's the fun in that?

Face it, the BMW boxer - in unfaired "standard" Roadster form - has poor aerodynamics, likely among the worst in motorcycling, which means the worst among road-going vehicles.

Hey, a fellow TDI'er. I have a Touareg TDI which gets 33Mpg highway which is fantastic for a mid-size SUV but it certainly doesn't have the fun factor of a bike....nice for a large vehicle but the bike is way more fun.

I get twice the gas mileage in my R1200R than my car, which happens to also have a boxer engine (Porsche Cayman S). Both are a ton of fun.

Inmaterial. Does the TDI put the grin on your face the R12R does? Does driving it help your mental health?

I have several fun cars (Porsche Cayenne, BMW-M-Coupe) - but neither of them is as much fun as the roadster, and neither of them leave me really relaxed and feeling satisfied after a day of driving. They're really just transportation.*

*= A beer at the next rally we meet at to the first person who can tell me where that line comes from.. a hint is - it was a detective series on TV..

deilenberger wrote:Inmaterial. Does the TDI put the grin on your face the R12R does? Does driving it help your mental health?

This is a really good point — after a good, long ride on the R12R, the voices in my head ebb for at least a couple of hours.

The TDI is surprisingly fun and relaxing to drive - I got the panoramic sunroof. It demands about 5 litres/100 km. I can get from Toronto to Wawa (north shore Lake Superior - 950km) on a single tank of diesel. The last gasoline boxer I had (a Subaru) was also a gas hog - but it was AWD...

Does your car have 4.5 lbs/HP? Performance comes at a cost.

r12gecko wrote:The TDI is surprisingly fun and relaxing to drive - I got the panoramic sunroof. It demands about 5 litres/100 km. I can get from Toronto to Wawa (north shore Lake Superior - 950km) on a single tank of diesel. The last gasoline boxer I had (a Subaru) was also a gas hog - but it was AWD...

That's 45 mpg, and if you get the same for your Roadster then nothing terrible is wrong. It may just be a matter of riding conditions and habits. I get around 42 mpg in winter and around 50 mpg average in summer as long as I stay out of city traffic. If I specifically ride with mpg in mind I can get 52-53 mpg on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which has no lights or stop signs and has a 45 mph speed limit. But that is not accessing the power band of the Roadster.

I don't actually know how many MPG i get on the bike nor in the car.
Who cares?

Its SOOOO much more fun on the bike.

Just tell your wife its more fuel efficient than the car, she'll never know....

My R12R get 45 Hot-Rodding and 50+ Hwy.
But my 1965 CB450 Honda gets 70 mpg.
Is my R12R out of tune ? What should I check ?