I had a chance to burn through a few tanks today, and finally have some fuel mileage numbers for our new bike. In the first run of the morning, 60 miles up the highway in the cold, I ended up with a whopping 36 mpg. For the second tank, it was 60 miles of tiwsties, some low-speed, and some flat-out. I ended up with 43 mpg for the second tank, which I was happy about. The third tank was another 60 miles of twisties, similar make-up of the second tank. But this time I saw 51 mpg, which I was even happier about! It had warmed up a bit, and I could also feel the engine loosening up a bit. It was getting easier and easier to get up to speed. The last tank was another 60 miles down the freeway to home, and that netted 47 mpg. It was a 10 mpg improvement over the same ride that morning, so I think the engine is really starting to break in and I'm getting more content with the mileage. With a tank of less than 2 gallons, that means my confirmed range hovers around 90 miles. I sure wish for a bit more, but don't see the cost benefit of that 3 gallon IMS tank yet. (how to calculate mileage: Fill up tank to top, reset trip odometer. Ride a bunch of miles. Fill tank up to top, as close to same level as before as possible. Take the miles on the trip odometer, and divide it by the number of gallons listed on the pump. Reset trip odometer to be ready for the next time.)
I am courious about what gas mileage you all get on your bikes. Attached below is my results. Stock 2014 CRFL. Average mileage of 0.349 L/10 km = 67.4 mpg US = 80.94 mpg British
Mine was in the high 50s to low 60s. Since the first service, valve adjustment and now almost 2k on the bike..I am getting 68MPG consistently. Ill take 68MPG any day but I wanna see 70 at least once. HAHAHA! Guess I need to baby her thru one tank of gas but she is too much fun for that.
Around 80 mpg (UK) here too, the best was just over 90. It doesn't seem to make much difference if you use a tank mainly on tarmac or gentle trails in 2nd and 3rd. I was keeping quite detailed results like above on my phone but had to replace it unexpectedly after some sort of software crash which required factory reset! It's been a bit confusing this year as I sometimes top it up from a can which is mainly for the farm Quad bike. That is appalling on fuel by comparison, seems to need filling every week after covering barely 20 miles.
@Alex - how many miles you got on your bike now? Mine has gotten better as it is about to hit 2k. Your MPG seems so low. Is the gas in Cali half water half gas OR do you ring that 250 out 24/7?
First tank I barely got 50mpg. But I wasn't exactly light on the throttle. Sounds like I might have higher MPG ahead as things break in.
First post... hope to be a good contributor here! just got my 2014 CRF250L on saturday 9/20/14 and have put 152 miles on it thus far.. Ive been through two tanks, but after the first 30 miles I was riding her pretty hard! Im at work right now after using her on my first commute of 32 miles on the highway going 75-80mph 6th gear WOT... filled the tank up this morning and i'm already down to 1/2 tank. I think the winds and non aerodynamic nature of this bike is getting me considerably lower mpg.. Having to have the throttle fully pinned on 6th gear for 30 miles straight will suck up gas quick! I feel like the 6th gear is overgeared as it takes forever to get from 75mph to 80mph. Sometimes I can get 83MPH on a minor downhill, but thats the best its getting right now! I'm sure after the first oil change she'll open up a bit more. Mind you this is all stock from top to bottom (with the exception of adding a small wolfman touring bag to the back)
A bit of an update for me ... I have about 800 miles on the clock and the engine is breaking in nicely. Since my post above I have reduced the gearing a lot, between the 17" motard wheels/tires and the 44t rear sprocket. Now I'm averaging just about 70mpg riding mostly country roads in the 40-60mph range. I'm WOT from almost every stop, and cruise around in top gear most of the time. CNGARZA: welcome!
Here's a spreadsheet with this years CRF re-fuellings. (Exported from a refuelling database app) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24428212/Refuelings_CRF250L.csv
4L/100km over 3000km. 85% highway @100 - 110km/hr. using 13tooth front sprocket and a speedo compensator. bike feels good at 100km/hr. Need some way to control handlebar vibes at high speed.
Disregard my previous post! Since that post I had the opportunity to take a long trip: My mileage wasn't anywhere close to reported. Instead I'm getting around 55 mpg, moving at about 40-60mph along some beautiful twisties in NY. Oh, and my throttle is one of those newfangled digital things ... On or off.
ive put 35,000km on my bike so far and i keep very good records of my fuel consumption, both on my bike and my car. so let me chime in mileage, i normally do L/100km since im in canada but ill convert to USA mpg just to keep it consistent. for the first 10,000km i ran the bike totally stock. best i ever got was on a 45mph/50mph 3 hr drive through kananaskis and i got 119mpg worst i ever got was popping wheels and riding like a fool i the city and got 43mpg my average consumption on road was 70mpg my average consumption off road was 55mpg now here is the important bit, after 10,000km i installed a BB-305cc, bazzaz fuel tuner, dual exhaust, air box mod, polished ports, base gasket reduction for more compression, and head porting. all work done custom by me, i also have a 38T rear sprocket and a much taller 130/90, 120/100 tire, so the added torque of the BB kit and supporting mods+ taller gearing and larger tire overall actually improved my fuel consumption. the bazzaz fuel tuner has two selectable maps, selectable via switch on my handle bar, ive got ECO and POWER map, both maps where constructed by me on my local dyno shop. best i ever got now was a on the same 45mph/50mph 3 hr drive through kananaskis and i got 135mpg (eco map) worst i ever got was popping wheels and riding like a fool i the city and got 40mpg (power map) my average consumption on road was now 82mpg (eco and power map) my average consumption off road was 64mpg (eco and power map) hope my findings are useful
i should also mention that when my bike was stock, higher octane fuel did not change consumption at all, in fact, at higher elevations ( 5000-9000ft) higher octane fuel (91/94) actually gave me worse fuel consumption then regular 87. and as most already know, higher octane fuel does not = more power. higher octane fuel only gives you more power if your engine is designed to take higher octane, AKA a higher compression motor. the crf250l comes already with such a low compression (10.7:1), and only 86 Octane required, and even after i swapped to BB305cc and smaller base gasket for higher compression, (11.3:1 calculated) i could still run regular 87 pump gas with no issues/knocking. just food for thought.
Yes, exactly! +1 There is zero benefit to running high octane fuel in our bikes. If your bike is knocking with regular fuel, then try higher octane. But in that case you most likely have a problem and should have the motor looked at.
I just did a short trip of 470 miles over three days. A combination of dirt and pavement. Used 5.7 gallons of fuel for the trip. 82.4 mpg average. Really pleased. 2015 CRF 250L all stock.