Bush rides Harley-Davidson One - How green are motorcycles

| | Comments (0)

pmkbush.jpgThe Harley-Davidson Softtail Deluxe President Bush was revving this past Wednesday at the Harley-Davidson plant in Springettsbury Township probably gets about 42-50 mpg. (2006 figure) with it's 1584 cc twin-V air-cooled engine. The Harley-Davidson site doesn't list mileage for a 2007 model yet.

pmk919.jpgMy other green machine is a 2002 Honda 919 motorcycle. Although a 919cc engine on a 427 lb. chassis isn't exactly an economy cycle, I can squeeze close to 60 mpg out of it if I nurse it along ( Low 50's is more typical). However, it's hard sometimes to nurse along a 110 hp engine between your knees. It drops into the 40's if you are really evil. It's an interesting discovery that a Toyota Prius or Honda Civic Hybrid probably gets better mileage than most of the motorcycles on the road.

You usually don't see mileage listed at motorcycle dealers, it's not required as with cars. Fuel economy hasn't been a major concern for a population used to 15 mpg consumption rates of SUVs and for the most part motorcycles are considered a pleasure vehicle to polish and ride on weekends.

Motorcycles with tiny/efficient engines are popular in countries with high fuel prices and areas with a limited fuel supply. Royal Enfield of India once made a single cylinder diesel motorcycle called the Bullet that I recall from memory got around 120mpg.

Two interesting sites list the mileage of motorcycles; one allows the user to add their own mileage estimates.
http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/MotorcycleFuelEconomyGuide/
http://www.sportrider.com/bikes/146_weights_measurements/

An interesting U.S. made standout: The Buell Blast, made by Harley-Davidson, is a 492cc single cylinder motorcycle that gets 69 mpg city/73 highway. The one cylinder air-cooled engine in the Buell Blast is basically half of a Harley v-twin engine with a Harley carburetor feeding the gas. Honda doesn't list mileage for their twin cylinder 234cc Rebel and Nighthawk, nor does Kawasaki for a twin cylinder 248cc Ninja but 60's to 70's are a good guess if you don't ride it like an idiot.

pmkscoot1.jpg
Scooters are different from motorcycles in that they weigh less, have smaller wheels and have tiny engines. A 50cc scooter may get 80-100 mpg. Small diameter wheels on scooters make them somewhat unstable at high speeds; combined with small motors they are generally suited to speeds under 50 mph.

Note: A 1000cc engine is the same as a 1 liter engine.

Link here to see my videos and the still images that go with them.
Link here to see my current still photo archive.
Link to my other blog entries in Photoblog

Leave a comment


Type the characters you see in the picture above.

Powered by Movable Type 4.25

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Paul Kuehnel published on August 19, 2006 10:30 PM.

Testing the magical powers of hybrid car batteries – long-term test was the previous entry in this blog.

The flow of energy is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.