xs 1100 special gas milage

[gk45241]

milage

"120miles on a tank. i do about 100miles,then fill up. getting 32-38 mpg."

I am about the same. I was figuring from close to a full fill up to the red light is right about 118-120 miles.

not sure how many miles or what is left yet once the light starts peaking through.

Gary

[DGXSER]

Hey Gary,

From when the light comes on full, I'd guess about 10-15 miles. But I'd suggest finding the first available. Pushing these things sucks!!

[BigDick]

if I'm going on a ride somewhere, all highway miles, I'll get 110 or so out of a tank. That's before my red reserve light comes on. Now 6 blocks, one way to work and back and I'll get 60-70 from the same amount of gas.

I assume the difference is in all the warm up times and time spent idling.

[motoman]

I rode some 146miles and had to flip to reserve at 140.....fueled back up at 4.2gal. Guess it could be possible that petcock towers may be a culprip having to go to reserve that soon having the large tank....any ideas?

[3Phase]

Gary: don't want to hijack your thread, you can try this on your Special, too.

....any ideas?

Brant, the midrange might be running rich so try some different jet needles. I put the adjustable '79 needles with the clip in the stock #3 position in my '80 carbs and the midrange power/gas mileage went up. I still have some more tuning to do but the bike runs great.

You're supposed to tune CV carburetors from the top down beginning with the main jet but all you can buy is main jets and pilot jets -- no needles or emulsion tubes for the midrange tuning step! Mikuni sucks for supplying tuning parts unless you're an O.E.M. and you're going to order 100,000 parts.

[xs11lover]

With a special tank I get about 110 miles before I flip to reserve. That seems to be what they all have done. Maybe a little more on the highway if you drive in fifth at 70mph for a long time.

[CatatonicBug]

Oi! It's not much fun riding more than 100 miles anyway! Now that I've finally got mine to do 35-42 MPG now it's just not comfortable riding for 200 miles in the saddle. More tuning to come, maybe another seat.

It's all about preparation! I always take an Aleve before I start a long ride, and that seems to help a TON! That, and make sure you move around in the seat from the start. Don't wait until you start to feel sore. Gotta have highway pegs too - they really take the strain off the butt muscles. I rode 700 miles in one day (half of it in the rain) this Spring, and could have kept riding when I got to my destination. Stock seat, and at the time, I still had my original (29-y/o) seat cover!

[redbone]

like the rest of you guys, i usually make it about 115 miles before reserve on my special, but have made it as far as 135 miles with good quality [no ethanol] premium 93 gasoline. altho that is hard to find anymore.

[dbeardslee]

On long rides...

It's all about preparation!

But for us older guys it's all about Preparation H .

[motoman]

Thanks 3Phase.....you got the midrange part right. Idle circuit is a tad on the rich side, which reflects on midrange. Issue I was questioning was having to go to reserve and only putting in a bit over 4gal............that makes for a long-legged reserve considering an almost six and a half gallon tank. Just was figuring there may be and issue associated with the petcock towers. Other than that, got it close to its old self. Overall smoothness is more noticable too since installing the cam-chain self adjuster. 34-35mpg is acceptable for now........dinkin' with carbs again at this point would be cutting into riding time....

[3Phase]

It's all about preparation!

Oh, I'm prepared but 180 miles in the saddle between fill-ups is more stressful than the 120 miles I was doing and it's not all about the seat < > seat interface. I just got back from another run out to Arizona and riding with the traffic and the 120F heat is just plain stressful because the fairing channels the heat off the road and the engine straight onto my head and upper body. It is a a lot hotter than 120F. On the bright side I averaged 44 mpg on this trip and the B&M Supercooler oil cooler I put on worked great in the heat and the long uphill grades!

On the down side the main ignition hot wire from the battery broke off the back of the ignition switch at 70 mph at the start of a 1/2 mile long 2-lane freeway transition with no shoulders. That was fun.

But for us older guys it's all about Preparation H .

Thankfully, I do not have that problem, yet!

Thanks 3Phase.....you got the midrange part right.
[...]
34-35mpg is acceptable for now........dinkin' with carbs again at this point would be cutting into riding time....

I hear you 100% about cutting into the riding time. I'm prepping for another attempt to ride up to Washington, Canada, Utah and Colorado and I'd hate to rip the bike apart at this stage and try to tune.

The short, sharp needles Yamaha used in the later bikes come on the main jet too soon and the late-model vacuum advance has less overall advance. I think they 'tuned' the midrange by using a fast, short, vacuum advance curve with undersized 110 main jets and short needles to fuel the beast and keep the stoplight hoppers happy but keep emissions down. Sustained high speed runs with 110 jets made the bile run hot so they are a little too lean.

The '78/'79 needles work better with larger main jets (115 outer/120 inner on mine) and I put on a '79 vacuum advance for good measure, too -- goes like stink, has good power all the way up to [censored] mph continuous and gets good gas mileage to boot.

[TopCatGr58]

Gotta needle ya!

Hey Scott,

Where did you get the 78-79 needles from? Did you get used ones from another bank of carbs, or did you get the ones from Z-1 enterprises, or GeorgeFix on ebay??

Did you see Bullet's recent post about the FIX vac. adv., and it's limited travel and quicker/less vac. required range?? Do you remember how much throw the 79 vac. adv. has vs. your removed 80-81 one?

Glad to hear the oil cooler did it's job, sorry about the ig. wire! Timing is everything!
T.C.

[3Phase]

T.C., I got the needles from a set of '79 carbs that came with 'Old Faithful', the '79 Standard parts bike that I bought. They have the O.E.M. 5GZ6 part number for the '78/'79 needles and I think there's another set lurking in a box with two sets of late-model carbs. Unfortunately, one has a bent tip so I only have three spares.

I just got back from Arizona and I'm still pretty well baked but I'm catching up on the forum so I'll look for a vacuum advance thread when I finish this post. I don't remember off the top of my head how much more advance the '79 vacuum pot has but it's a significant amount; more than 10 degrees, I think. I'll measure the '79/'80 pots with my calipers and a vacuum pump and post back the differences.

[Bullet]

Did you see Bullet's recent post about the FIX vac. adv., and it's limited travel and quicker/less vac. required range?? Do you remember how much throw the 79 vac. adv. has vs. your removed 80-81 one?

I should add ..

All the stock vacuum advance I have kicking around ( 79F, 79SF, 80SG) are all the same travel length ..

The only one that is different and shorter travel is the service bulletin part.

I still may try the service bulletin part out just to see what it does to the perfomance...

I am averaging about 15.5 km's per liter of gas.. which is about 45 mpg
( Imperial gallon )

[motoman]

3Phase, if some of your upcoming riding includes Colo., a stop at my place will get ya' a shower, meals, a real bed, and a man cave for the scoot.