Why are motorbikes so fuel inefficient if they weigh so little and have comparably small engine capacity?
A couple of reasons. They put a lot of horsepower into a small engine size. That 1800cc car motor only makes about 100 horsepower. Several motorcycle engines make more power than that. They do this because that is what people want. When people are looking for a 600cc motorbike, they want the fastest one, not the slowest one. It takes fuel to make horsepower so this hurts the fuel economy. The 12 year old car motor is computer controlled with electronic fuel injection. The bike has one or more carburetors. A carburetor is not as fuel efficient as electronic fuel injection. The computer controlled ignition in the car is much more efficient at controlling the ignition timing than the relatively simple electronic ignition on the motorcycle engine. People tend to be a lot heavier on the throttle on a motorcycle than on a bike. Another thing that is not considered about the fuel efficiency of a motorcycle is that a motorcycle can carry a maximum of 2 people. My compact car can carry 5 people
As mentioned above, there are more factors than just weight and engine size that determine fuel efficiency. Some of the factors include: – Rolling resistance, brake drag and similar linear friction. – Coefficient of drag (bikes tend to be like bricks in this area where as a car has an average CoD of approx .30), Aerodynamic forces and air density – Friction and resistance of engine components – Engines state of tune – Efficiency of fuel delivery system – Engine RPM (i.e. getting on it) You can own motorcycles that get very good gas mileage, however they will perform proportionally. E.G. a Kawi Ninja 250 gets somewhere between 55 – 65 mpg and it will have better performance to a Hyundai Accent that gets 25 – 30 mpg.
you have had a lot of answers here and i agree with them all as a biker of more than 20 years standing i just have a couple of extra suggestions to add the first is do you want a sports bike or a touring bike as a touring bike is a lot more fuel efficient than a touring bike if you want a touring bike might i suggest a B M W they tend to rev at approx 1000 rpm lower than a lot of bikes and are fuel efficient and can be a joy to ride I am on my 5th BMW and would not change now
just remember EPA con trolls determine avg mpg 20 yrs ago your 1.8 would have gotten less mileage bikes are still fighting the tech needed to produce better mpg its to costly IE. the new gsx 1000 European EPA ready the price went up a lot . I don’t know what 600 you have but even with a Yoshi pipe my old 2001 zx6r still got close to 60 mpg no matter the ridding ,excluding red line to red line all out back roads for 300 miles .Check your idle is around 1000 to 1300 ,tire pressure, chain lube very frequently,clean your air filter often,if its carbed jets can help ,just remember performance add ons flow air better IE adding more fuel usage.keep your tach at just the right power band not to high not to low. and their are no middle grad fuels in Japan use 90 or better that’s what their built to use .
If your bikes power output is the same as your car then it will burn as much fuel, plain and simple.there is only a fixed amount of energy in a litre of petrol. of course some engines are more efficient(ie: they convert more of that available energy into motion and waste less as heat/ noise) but the other overwhelming factor is drag.The Cd of cars is much lower.Does your bike have a fairing?, that would help.Do you ride upright wearing a big baggy over suit?Is there a wind breaking sail on the back ( also known as a Top Box). I am sure if you kept the revs down and drove with small throttle openings you could get quite good consumption especially as you can filter through congestion whereas cars have to keep stopping. A few years ago I found myself with only £5 worth of fuel in my bike in the middle of the night.I managed to ride from Northampton to Scarborough on a Laverda Mirage 1200. You should have seen the confused look on the policeman’s face as I went past him at 35mph on the mo
