ok, i admit it... im a newbie
 

hey all...

im jj. from NH. vegan. cyclist (road & cyclocross).

i like sitting by the fireplace and long walks on the beach.


just traded in my saab (22mpg) for a Yaris (last tank 41mpg) and i love it!!!
i do alot of traveling for bike races, and my gas bill was getting out of control.
this should help :)

good trade. The gas and constant repairs got to me too. I traded a altima for a civic.

Welcome.

One good way to help your gas milage it to put the bike in the car if you can and not up on the rack.

Welcome

The Yaris invasion continues. DUN DUN DUNnnnnnn....

That's a good thing.

I think cyclists may have some advantage when it comes to driving efficiently, since when you ride, you're thinking strategically about efficiency all the time.

And you're already highly aware of the effect of tire pressure on rolling resistance... And you "get" the effect of aerodynamic drag on a fundamental level.

Welcome to the site!

Welcome to yet another new Yaris owner. :)

hahaha... too funny, because even before i became 'fuel efficient' i would think like a bike racer... ie: stay out of the wind.... recover on this downhill... draft the truck.... good time to pass.... outsprint this guy to the town line marker :) etc.

i know.. i will try it for the first few races of the season & see how it goes. it will be a VERY tight fit with:

girlfriend
bike
4 wheels
trainer
gear pack with a ton of gear
food cooler
pressurized bike washer
tool box

due to the nature of cyclocross races, i have to pack 80% of what i own for each race. it was tough even with the bike on the roof :)

Or, in recreationally cycling or commuting: e.g. lots of coasting - don't pedal all the way up to a stop sign, or lights, etc.

Or, using the gears to keep the most efficient cadence (RPM) for the load. The list goes on and on.

Mountain biking is also a great way to develop a good understanding of friction & traction that you can intuitively apply to driving in dodgy conditions (snow, gravel).

If it doesn't fit inside, a rear mounted rack is better than the roof: stick it in the wake behind the car where it makes little difference, instead of in the airflow over the roof (where it also increases frontal area).

im scared of getting rear ended. i care more about the Pegoretti on the back than the new car. :)

Funny - I know more guys who have lost bikes off their top carriers: one in a garage entrance (crunch!), 2 highway speed involuntary "dismounts". Don't know anyone who's had one pancaked in a rear-ender. Though I'm sure it's happened somewhere!

ouch!

any idea how much mpg i would loose with a bike ontop??
how about with just the rack & fairing?

i have a rear hatch rack waiting for me at the shop... but i was waiting to see about the roof attatchments..

who knows. i got 6 weeks before my doc allows me to race anyways. its been a loooong summer of no riding :(

Without a real test it's hard to say, but I'm willing to bet you could lose around 5 MPG with a roof-mounted bike.

Ouch, yup. Amazingly one only ended up with a bit of rash & a torn saddle (though it was a dh mountain bike). The owner watched in the mirror, horrified as is bounced & kartwheeled behind him. Luckily it bounced right off the road so it didn't get run over by anyone else.

5% is the most quoted figure for the roof rack FE penalty. Though it's really impossible to generalize. It'll be very different depending on the car, the rack style & the load.

See:

https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=1554

Hi, I'm ben, I'll be living in NH. I'm vegan! We'll have to schedule a meet!

I'm glad so many yarii are showing up, shows there's actually a new car to be reckoned with! (too bad it's no echo)

where you living in NH??
im in manch.

let me knwo where you are... we can meet up. ill give you a list of good veggie friend rest.

too funny as a friend of mine, (vegan, cyclist, that i met online) from NJ just moved up here for the summer.

I'll be living in the east wheelock dorms at dartmouth, in hanover. I have no idea when manchester is though, :p

I just became vegan, so I'm still trying to sort things out, but yeah, I'm excited. (I'm a runner though)

Mmm, I got a little off track from the FE game, but my best advice would be to pick up a scangauge!!!!!

ur about 45mins west of me. manch is in the middle of the state. between you and the seacoast...

i got some friends from out there.. ill find out whats what for you in regards to restaurants...

Aww, you're awesome! We'll definately have to do something, I want to go for a ride in a yaris sometime, :p

Mehbe you can go for a push in my metro, too, ;)

i'm new to the forum as well, i'm also a yaris owner. i've got a 2006 5 dr le model with 5 spd transmission and right now it has about 15 000 km on it and i seem to be getting better mileage now that the engine is broken in.

wow
 

Yaris invasion. There is no stopping them now! Where are the Fit owners?

Only 16,000 sold in the US... compared to over 30,000 Yaris

Fit
 

I wanted to buy a fit, but they were going to charge me 19,500 for one. So I said to myself....why dont I just buy an si? So I left the dealership and decided to keep my car, after all everything still works in it.

Welcome schmeep! Don't forget to make your own intro thread!

Anyway, I think the yaris came out first, so yeah.

tomauto, that is the problem with the fit- it is too expensive, my friend has one and it is an awesome car, but he paid $23,000 (Canadian funds) for a non-sport model, compared to the $17,000 (CAD) i paid for my yaris.
he has a few features that i don't, such as auto trans and side airbags, but it is really priced out of a lot of people's range.

Don't worry about the old school, :p, that's pretty much everyone besides the yarii owners, which is part of the reason I'm so glad they're here.

the central guage is a little wierd at first, but i really prefer it now. every car i ever owned, i would have to crane my neck to look through the wheel at the guages, with the yaris, i don't.
a lot of people don't like it though, i think toyota wanted to keep the price as low as possible, so the central guage cluster was one of those things to keep costs down.

it is a real shame that toyota only offers the 1.5L petrol engine in n. america because the 1.4 L diesel apparently gets amazing mileage.

I like the central gauge - drove an Echo hatch a couple of years ago. It's different.

---

Highway bulls? :confused:

My racks are old-school: no built-in aerodynamic properties at all. I have only used them once with this car. (I have a hatchback-rack for carrying the bike).

Most factory racks these days are somewhat aero-optimized, but I agree - they're basically a waste of fuel, and about as frequently used as the off-road capabilities of most SUVs.

Except in the case of our new, vegan friend, :)

haha.
not this summer... im still recovering from a bad crash back in early spring.
tuesday was my first ride outside in almost 4 months!!!

oh my goodness!! thats insane!
i guess i will have to think more about that hatch rack, eh?

i dont mind loosing a bit of FE for the convience of having them up there and locked... but loosing 15mpg is crazy!!

oh yeah... did you have a faring on there? i have one, which would prob help a bit...

Better to look at the % loss, rather than my absolute MPG change, and apply it to your hwy baseline.

I'm going to post pics and more details later today if I get the chance. Probably split the roof rack talk into a separate thread too, since it's come up a few times recently.

EDIT: writeup & some pics posted here: https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=3016

again - thanks for the input on this...
ill have to do my own experiments at some point :)

Just signed up for the guide to crueltry-free eating, :)

yeah me too, i'd like to reduce my cruelty, maybe not get rid of it altogether though.

every bit helps :)

You know, Im lookin at my bike rack, w/fairing, and I would almost venture to say that the fairing doesnt help at all. It just increases the overall frontal area of the car. The tubes arent very big, I think a little "V" behind them to make them look like a teardrop from the side would be better. I ordered a scanguage so as soon as I get it Ill run some tests:

*bike rack w/ fairing and no bike
*bike rack w/o fairing and no bike
*no bike rack

And if the tests go by fairly quick I'll throw a bike up there as well.

Yakima makes an aero add-on for cross bars. They're about 6 to 8 inches wide, so you may need to get several in order to notice a difference. Also note in the description that the Windjammer and fairings are intended to reduce wind noise, not drag. Although to me, noise = turbulence, which usually means more drag.

check it out
https://yakima.com/Product.aspx?id=93