Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Fuel range & fuel economy on America's & Speedies

Apologies if this subject has already been thrashed to death but as a new owner of an '06 America, I'm extremely interested in what fellow owners of America's and Speedmasters (especially the carb models) get as far distance travelled until reserve then how far you get on reserve? My 0.6 model has the 16.6 litre tank and I generally consider myself a pretty conservative rider as far as fuel consumption goes so if I can get some fuel economy figures from fellow users it will give me a better indication of what I might expect from mine?
Thanks in advance,
John Quinnell
Sydney Australia

I'm averaging about 48mpg for 'general' riding.

However, yesterday's road trip at 85-90mph, bit of a headwind, saw just 120m out of the tank..

I generally get 150 miles (242km) before reserve.That is on mid grade fuel here in the US. Not sure how octane ratings translate from country to country or what different fuels are available.

I get 240km to reserve on mid-grade no ethanol. less with ethanol.

Thats funny because thats is what I have two of them, carb'd 06 Americas . Before I did any mods to them I got an average of 45 mpg. using premium, I always use premium.
After the first modifications in which I removed the snorkel put in uni filter, installed 130 jets, and installed open exhaust. I got about 43 mpg, but I was pretty lean. So I opened her back up and put in thruxton needles with 1mm shims then I got terrible about 39 mpg, then I was way rich. So I drilled out the bottom of the airbox still to rich and the fuel mileage suffered. Now I have taken the shims out. I am getting pretty close to 43 mpgs now which takes me about 140 miles. Untill I have to switch to reserve. Then I find a station close by, I dont risk it as I have run out of gas on the highway at night .
The absolute best I ever got. I was Just tooling around town and on some old lake roads was 50 mpgs. That was a one time only affair though .
I almost forgot I ride like I am trying to out escape the end of the world that has a dramatic effect on fuel mileage .

My mpg on my 06 with kn filter,bubs pipes,ai removed and 2 sizes up from stock jets gets between 40 and 45 mpg I have gotten higher better mpg but that is during the best riding temps of about 70 deg,I dont get that avg temp around here very much at all.

I use to average about 52, then they mandated that we use E-15 gas year round, now I average about 48.

I'm the Heavy Hand of the group.
I get 33mpg at 100mph.
Around town it goes up to about 34mpg.
Speed Safe.

I get about 240 Klms. before I turn on the reserve.

Thats using standard unleaded fuel here in OZ.

Thats on a 2004 Speedmaster.

My 07 speedy gets usually around 150 before reserve..and nearly 50 before push mode.. lol depending on how heavy the wrist and conditions.. i expect anywhere from 178-200 miles on a tank. .hope this helps.. lol your milage may vary ...
when i get to reserve .. i "refresh the fuel" before going too much farther..

I get around 50 miles per imperial gallon.

I dont like the ping-ing but I think I get a little better mileage out of premium. Probably not enough really justify it. I also only go to shell or exxon too, maybe for no real reason

Thanks for all your comments on fuel economy & range. It really gave me some ball park figures to base my bike on.
The weather being superb, I ended up my bike for a 250 km trip today and in doing so tested the fuel consumption it gets. I covered motorways, freeways, twisty stuff and heavy traffic and when converted after filling up I got 20.63 km/l - 4.848 l/100 km - 58.27 mpg. I'm an extremely gentle rider on the throttle so that may have some bearing on these figures. I'm pretty pleased with the results and at least now I have an idea of the bikes touring range. 270 kms before I hit reserve then another 72 kms before I have to get off and push. Those results were based on running my America on Shell 98 octane V-Power.

BTW, since I switched to the Procom Igniter, I've been using
87 octane with no pinging or problems.

i'm getting 38mpg. snorkle removed no idea what jets and tors. i think i need to replace the main and pilot jets as this bike was owned by someone who did not ride and i think they have alot of goo in them. all my other bonnies got between 42 and 53 mpg.

Yank them down and clean her up. Have an eye of those jets they could be all wrong.

Last summer comming home from Nelson I filled up in Nordegg,I did go on reserve but wanted to push it and I got over 53 miles to the gallon on regular.I was likley averaging 75 mph.When I arrived home I still had over half a gallon left in the tank.I thought I'd be makin a phone call.

That's pretty cool Marty, especially considering your bike's been all suped up and stuff!

I was geting 270kms out of my 09 speedie before the fuel light came on. now that i have changed pipes[thunderbike NZ],im geting 290-300

Since I've owned my 05 Speedy, I've considered 230klm's out of a tank before reserve pretty good. With all the variations in carb settings there have been times I've got more out of a tank and and other times less but one setting that stuck out amongst all the others was when using the Thruxton needles.

Personally with my bike they were very thirsty little bugg#rs but if others use them and are happy, then great.

I'll now be interested to work out what my new settings work out as in the consumption stakes.

my 2008 std speedmaster returns 171 mls before reserve using town riding and out in the sticks

Note that some of the higher numbers here are because of the larger imperial gallon.

2005 Speedy 240km's to reserve riding round town.
265 km's on long consistent runs (pre engine mod).
904 kit installed 2 weeks ago, 135 mains, KN filter in hacked airbox...251 km's and still not on reserve. 98 Octane BP.

my mostly stock 05 speedmaster got 43-44 mpg consistantly. the current motor configuration gets about 39-40 mpg. And I always have a heavy hand.