XR650L fuel mileage

[XR650L - Winbob]

Just bought a 2000 XR650L, totally stock. After a month I realize that I only do about 80 miles of a full gaz tank.

Is it normal?

I have red that the XR650L was supposed to do about 50 miles/gallon, times 2,8G thats about 140 miles. But I only do half of that. I ride very normally, only done street ride yet and use a full tank with the reserve until almost the last drop.

[wbagwell]

Do you mean 80 miles until you hit reserve or 80 miles until you're absolutely dry?

80 miles until reserve on the stock tank is exactly what nearly everyone reports, mine used to hit reserve at 80 miles like clockwork. You hit reserve after using 2.2 gallons, supposedly, so that's about 36 MPG. Not bad, but not great either.

It is possible to get 50 MPG with this bike, but not under normal riding conditions. If you put road tires on, a small windscreen, drop a few teeth on the rear sprocket and ride at 55 miles per hour without ever really getting on the gas hard, I have heard of people who achieve that.

With a bike that lacks aerodynamic flow like this, the more you keep your highway speed down the more successful you'll be at keeping it efficient. Trail riding also will not give you great mileage, since it usually requires short bursts of lots of throttle, which'll eat up your fuel as well.

What kind of riding do you expect to be doing?

[XR650L - Winbob]

I do about 77 miles with the complete tank including the reserve. I mostly use it on surban streets, but also occasionnaly do trail and forest rides. I not too hard on the trottle nor speed, on the highway Im about at 60mph.

Since I mostly use it on the streets gaz comsumpsion is not too painful.

When I will do a forest ride I'll have too carry another 2 gallons, I'm "designing" myself a aluminium tail rack.

I had just finished my home made SkidPlate for about 20$.

[Story Leavesley]

Here's an easy test you can perform to see where your problem lies.

Next time you run the tank dry, measure exactly how much gas it takes to fill it back up. If the amount is close to 2.8 gallons, then you're getting very poor gas mileage. Several things can cause poor gas mileage including lower gearing, dragging brakes, oversized jets, bad carb floats.

If the amount of gas to fill the tank is much less than 2.8 gallons, then you might look at things like an obstructed gas tank filler or a faulty petcock.

Story

[wbagwell]

You can get a 5.2 or a 4.7 gallon tank for this bike rather than building a tail rack to hold extra fuel! That's a really messy way to deal with limited fuel capacity.

try
http://www.acerbis.com
or
http://www.imsproducts.com/

Pictures of the fuel tank on my bike and info at:
http://www.geocities.com/wwbagwell

Best of luck,
Wright

[RichLees]

I'm amazed by the low mpg! even with weeny US gallons, I regularly got 50-55mpUSg on a Dominator and thought the L had the same engine, carb etc. am I mistaken? I'm planning to make a long-ranger. my XR400 does better than 36mpUSg
Richard

[gozell]

My dommie does about 15.5km on a litre of petrol, to me this seems quite a bit considering similar 1 cil I've owned before always use to run around the 20km/l and even a 850cc TDM does about 17km/l. So Im wondering why? Its a 97 model with 12000km's
Any Ideas?

[wbagwell]

I'm not sure why this bike doesn't get better mileage - it's certianly not related to high horsepower output!

In comparison to your XR400, it's awfully heavy, so starting all that extra weight from a stop would explain why the 400 gets better mileage, but in comparison to say, other 650s or my R1150 GS - I have no explanation except that it has poor aerodynamics and that the bike hasn't changed in ten years, save a few negligible things here and there. Maybe it's just a dated design and has dated performance. Perhaps Honda's next revision on the bike will cure these problems.

Anyone know what a stock 650R gets in comparison?

Wright

[This message has been edited by wbagwell (edited 24 June 2002).]

[Jason Smolka]

May I brag a bit about the little brother of the XR650L? My XR250L on a fully loaded 1600 mile trip once got 85 miles to the gallon, tank after puny tank. I think I found all my gas money for that trip under the couch cushions, I was thrilled especially since I was doing 75 to 85 mph, wound out big time on much of the trip. I do however realize big mileage bennefits by spending significant time in a speed skier's tuck peering over the bars. I can add 15+ mph to the speed of the thing fully loaded or going uphill or into a headwind by using the "crunch and tuck" technique. I know that was on my side for that fun ride. Man you could melt a frying pan on that engine case! As the bike has aged I have noticed a little less mind blowing mileage I think, but it's still way up there with the shrimpiest of motors but plenty powerful! May I suggest the bullet-proof quarter litre! 30,000 miles with tons of abuse and never once even thought of letting me down mechanically, but high altitudes, fully loaded can occasionally force one into the Slow Lane, oh well, you can catch up on the downside! Can't win em all!

[Der4real]

Just topped of my tank on my 2001 650l went a 116 miles on 2.26 gallons. Freeway and town riding. Pretty agressive, 51.32 miles to the gallon. Not bad at all

[Squily]

16km/l touring with highway speeds around 110km/h. sorry, too lazy to convert to miles/gallon. no use in discussing rang on the tank, as it had a long range tank (22l?)

that's what I got and that was pretty much in line with my XR600, XR350 and other bikes and normal running conditions. And I'm a big bloke (the 650L struggled to reach 125km/h with me on it), so smaller guys should get better fuel efficiency.

[*Touring Ted*]

It depends on your state of tuning, how you load it up, how you gear it up and how and where you ride it.

Road riding with light luggage on highways at 60mph I get about 45mpg. That's with a Dynajet kit and a full FMF exhaust system.

Even though my jets are bigger than stock, the power and usability is better so I think it balances out.

At the end of the day, it's a very capable, simple offroad road bike which 'can' sit all day on the motorway if you need it to.

[baldman1]

Wow that is awful mileage, something is not right there. I just finished a trip through Central America on my 01 XR650L. Loaded up it weighed in at about 500 lbs. I got about 48 mpg so with my 4.7 gallon Clarke tank I got about 220 miles before I ran dry. Gearing was stock and I fitted the bike with an FMF Q4 exhaust, removed all the smog stuff and installed an oil cooler. When on paved roads I averaged 60 to 70 mph and slower on dirt / sandy roads.

[*Touring Ted*]

Originally Posted by baldman1

Wow that is awful mileage, something is not right there. I just finished a trip through Central America on my 01 XR650L. Loaded up it weighed in at about 500 lbs. I got about 48 mpg so with my 4.7 gallon Clarke tank I got about 220 miles before I ran dry. Gearing was stock and I fitted the bike with an FMF Q4 exhaust, removed all the smog stuff and installed an oil cooler. When on paved roads I averaged 60 to 70 mph and slower on dirt / sandy roads.

Was that with standard jetting ??

[baldman1]

No jetting was not stock, I did the "Dave Mods" to the carburetor. Makes the bike run so much better.
Dave's XR650L Carb Mods on 4Strokes.com Honda Technical