85mpg on my F650gs
 

I'm not sure about how effective those modifications would be. Personally I would recommend trying XFT before you go through the hassle. I use to get around 65 mpg on my bike. now I get 85. no super modifications needed. I suppose it could get even better if I could remember to make a point of it while riding.

Freight trains can move a ton of freight 400 miles on a gallon of fuel.

I joined for the same reason. You can imagine what my fellow Harley VRodders say when I ask about fuel efficiency mods. ;)

I like to hyper mile muscle cars and power cruisers. :D

Oh, I forgot this post from 3 years ago... well, after that 3 years I saw the ill effect, a busted clutch dropout bearing. On a bike with about 111,000km by then. Most riders will never see such mileage, so I don't see it too worrying :p

The next thing I'm curious is the longevity of the second set of clutch plates. They're fine now and already older than the ones I got replaced in the times I still used engine braking (71,000km vs 46,000 on the first set).

Then the life of the new dropout bearing :D

And I hypermile a 650cc single. Not a power cruiser, but not a usual tool for the task either. But she's not too bad at FE, and much fun too.

I tried to hypermile my Harley Super Glide for a period of time, but just gave up. Seems to get the same mileage, no matter what I do, unless I lug it in 6th gear going 45 MPH.

What about the 'common sense' part? Don't over-accelerate just to brake later, heed speed limits, try to time lights, avoid braking, coast when you have to slow down? I don't believe they don't have any effect :confused:

(This is the subset I use in bad weather and some long trips, when I just don't want to play with things like P&G and FAS)

And I noticed that (on a large, manual transmission bike) the 'eggshell approach' is just contra-productive. It always gives me worse FE than twisting that throttle well to accelerate. Then I shift early - but I can't rule it out that even this is unnecessary.

I do shift early, and try to coast to stops, but I have several things standing in my way. #1. harley's published mileage for my model states "with 180 lb rider in laboratory conditions". I'm about 240lb, I don't ride in a lab, I can't find ethanol free premium, and the previous owner put a performance intake, performance exhaust, and a performance tune on it. I feel lucky to average 40-45 MPG.

And yes, you're right. being really soft on the throttle does seem to result in worse mileage than just getting the acceleration over with.

I know how you feel. I have a Harley V-Rod and get the same responses as you as to fuel efficiency. I bought the V-rod because I see the potential of having a bike that gets better fuel economy than a civic and still be faster than a Corvette.