Every Ordinary Biker Can Get an Extraordinary Mileage!

I wish to share my experience with you in regards of exceptional mileage. I used to know a person some 7 years before, I am not in touch with him anymore. He had a Hero Honda CBZ (not the CBZ extreme). While all others I knew were only getting a mileage not more than 32 kmpl, he said his was 53 plus in the city. This was unbelievable for most of my friends as some of them had even splendors that gave less than that. His claims were even more than the manufacturer’s and rather well over it.

He even went on to prove it to most of them. He had great knowledge about bikes and has even been called upon by some of my friends to repair their bike. He gave them suggestions and guidelines too in order for them to avoid certain repairs. I was not so close to him but I remember very well what all he said about his bike and his driving…

  • He had no fancy additions on his bike. Some of the basic additions too were missing. There was no saree guard, no boxes on the side, no bags on the fuel tank, no crash guard even and not even rear view mirrors. He said that all these reduced 7 kgs of weight from his bike.
  • He says he always fills fuel half tank only. His explanation was too technical for me. All that I remember about that is that he saying that the fuel tends to expand and filling full tank was not correct.
  • He said he never uses the clutch when driving. I know what he means. This was one of his direct claims for better mileage. His driving was very different from any of my other friends. I had sat pillion to him a couple of times. Even during turns he never slows down drastically. Instead he starts slowing down from a distance itself dradually and never even shifts down the gear. He releases the throttle and applies minimal break but never shifts down while making a turn.
  • He said he always drove only in the 3rd gear in city traffic. He never goes to gear 4 and claimed that this eliminated the need to shift down. He claimed that between the 3rd and 4th gears the bike differs only in top speed and the mileage is more or less the same.
  • On higways he was totally different. He always speeds up to over 80 kmph and never shifts down or breaks suddenly other than in emergency.
  • On one ocassion he challenged a friend of mine that his driving will improve mileage in my friend’s bike without making any other changes. He knew how my friend drove and challenged him to show a betterment of atleast 4 kmpl but ended up winning the challenge hands down showing an increase in mileage of 7 kmpl.

None of us ever doubted that he was a great driver but what we all were unsure was that which of these above attributes actually attributed to his mammoth mileage, one that even would have made the manufacturer proud? Some of the above information might have been useful to you too. Also if any of you experts can explain the above points and their contributions to better mileage, it will be very helpful to me and anybody else who reads it too.

I had a colleague who had a TVS Victor. He was getting a mileage of around 95 kmpl on highways. While the Overdrive magazine’s road tests of TVS Victor actually suggested a lesser mileage, he was always either getting the manufacturer’s claim or bettering it. While the other guy I talked about was very hard to understand, this guy was fairly straight forward. He maintained a speed of 40 kmph. As days passed he started going past 60 kmph and his bike’s mileage dropped quite drastically but was still somewhere in 80’s. Does driving 40 kmph help improve mileage?

– Vikram