Fuel Effiency

You guys primarily taking it easy on back roads? Spool up that little twin on the Interstates (especially fighting Westerlies) and you'll hit 40mpg or less.
 
Riding interstate back to Colorado from our gathering in Pigeon Forge I got about 36 mpg at 75 mph with headwinds. I was getting about 180 miles to a tank with the Kansas headwinds. Up here in the back roads of Colorado's mountains I got around 51mpg. Of course I tip the scales at about 225. At Freeway speed that V twin is turning some rpms but it can do it all daylong.
 
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My NT yielded 67 mpg on the BRP and 37 mpg crossing the Dakotas in a strong headwind.

That was a limiting factor just one time. It’s about 180 miles from Pierre SD to Sturgis SD with no gas station in between. I probably could have made it especially if I slowed down. But who wants to do that. I took a different route that had gas available. I remember one year they had a fuel truck stationed on that stretch during Sturgis week because the Harleys couldn’t make the 180 miles. But I had my Concours C10 then with a 7+ gallon tank.
 
I have always been interested in fuel economy...there was even in the last century a competiion called the Mobile gas economy run that made good MPG a sport.
But with gas so cheep in the states, its all basically for interest and fun.....I like the new telemetry on bikes and espeically cars to see how MPG varies with wind direction and vehicle speed.
My NT was probably a 45-50 mpg machine loaded down with a bunch of junk that made me happy. The VFR does a tad better. The FJR a tad worse. My late 19 year old Matrix did about 38 around town and mild road driving on gasoline. 2800 lbs. My new AWD crosstrek at 3300 plus pounds is gonna do about 33 (I havent made it into 8th gear yet so road milage is still unknown.)
The vast majority of people I know dont give a crap about MPG or the environment...only that they think they want to be "Mr T." and drive a big pickup that sucks gas. But with gas so cheep, they dont care. In fact, I dont think they would care if gas hits $10 a gallon. They would just blame the other guy and pay the $10.
 
We've come a long way since my 1986 F 150 which got about 18 mpg to my 2016 F 150 which gets about 20 mpg. The old 1976 had a 300 CID in-line 6 and 4-speed on the floor compared to the 5L V8 with a 6-speed automatic in the 2016. The V8 has way more hp but the old 6 had great torque. The old truck weighed more and carried a heaver load than the new one which rides better. The average highway speeds have gotten higher in the last 40 years. But in 40 years of progress we only came up 2 mpg in an F150?????
 
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I would like to branch off a little here. why does my AVG MPG read and hover about 60.5 mpg when at best my excel sheet tells me 53.1 mpg? I mean if I was getting 60+ mpg, on the highway commute, I would be kicking my heels every day.
 
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