I thought worrying about fuel consuption was for cars, get on it and ride it!! (just make sure you've got enough juice in the tank)
I'd love to just 'get on and ride it' for the hell of it, but unfortunately redundancy and a around a 50% drop in my previous salary just does'nt allow for burning 20 quid's worth of fuel on a whim. Most of my riding is commuting, because I can kind of justify the fuel, but I have to budget for 'fun fuel' unfortunately :Grumpy: The main reason for my question though was to find out just how rich the bike might running (which I know it is), prior to pulling the carbs apart during the Winter and trying to figure out what might be worn or in need of adjustment. A baseline figure from the responses so far, seems to be around 45-50mpg (which is what I'd initially guessed it ought to be) and gives me good cause to strip the carbs seeing as I'm only averaging 36mpg on a 12mile commute and a best ever of 42 mpg on longer runs! Better economy will mean more 'fun miles'
From what you are describing it could well be that the emulsion tube has gone oval causing over fueling. Mine was returning similar sorts of figures, but the real giveaway if you like was that I could start the beast on no choke even in the depths of winter. I've fitted a replacement set of emulsion tubes which are nickle plated for additional surface hardness and fitted titanium needles. The whole lot came as package from the states.
That's why I need half choke at least, now.......... ...........but......I fitted new OEM tubes and then I found out that Dynojet needles are harder than OEM, so I guess I shall be able to start without choke in another 1000 miles or so.
Hi mrc998, That's just the sort of advice I was kind of looking for, many thanks I kinda thought that's the sort of thing that would be causing this as I've never needed more than half-choke or a bit of throttle to start from cold - although it won't idle well until it's really hot. I managed to pick up a couple of bargain jet needles on FleaBay whilst everyone else was watching the Big Kickabout recently , but will start trawling for replacement emulsion tubes too now :Watching:
Hi Samurai, The kit I bought came from Factory Pro see here Ducati 900ss/cr/sp Factory Pro 800 869-0497 13440181a
I take it everyone knows that if you have Dynojet kits fitted, Dynojet will replace worn needles free of charge??
Just looked at my service history, dynojet kit fitted at 30,000 miles. My emulsion tubes are believed to be original (no evidance of them being changed in the service history)and have been checked by Made in Italy Motorbikes and found to be OK. The bike is now on 50,000 miles. Only need half choke to start, and I get about 120 miles out of £15 of petrol. The bike is tuned by me( no expert) and is running stage 2 kit K&N filter with open Scopion exhaust. I might have some tubes here if you want me to have a look I will, let me know, I think I've got 3 or 4 pairs here.
Lumbux.........your bike and mine seem to be set-up pretty similarly.......half choke is normal unless really cold weather. As my fuel sender doesn't work (always on) I use the 100 mile trip meter rule and every time I fill up it takes say, £9 to £9.50 of fuel, which works out to about 58 - 60 mpg.
I would rather rely on 'will' than 'could'...........my days of pushing bikes to the petrol station are long gone..........
