So I just did a read through the thread about fuel mileage on a Street Bob, and everybody seems to be getting about 150-170 miles or so to a tank.

I just filled up and got 70 miles to 3.17 gallons, or 106 miles to a full tank. This seems terrible! A full size 1500 pickup gets this kind of mileage! I ride it hard around downtown Calgary, but like come on.

I bought my bike used and it came with short shots on it without any O2 sensors. The guy I got it from seemed like quite the DIY chop and bob kind of guy. So my question is, if the pipes were installed with no O2 sensors, maybe no proper fuelpak and re-tune, could this be screwing up my fuel injection that badly?

Thanks,
Bryan

 

Yeah, but it's a lot more fun than driving a 1500 pickup.
Seriously, that's pretty bad. No matter how hard I ride mine I never got under 30 mpg. I can't see how just changing pipes would do that.
Gotta look into it a little more. What do you mean "maybe" no fuelpak? You need to look under the seat. Some tuners, like the power commander, eliminate the O2 sensors. If there is something like that it might not be set up right.
How does it run? What do the plugs look like?
You also have find out if it has the stock intake/filter.

 

I been getting a consistent 46mpg out of my carbed 02 Wide glide 88'. I fill up at 180 miles and still not hit reserve yet

I had the same bad mileage when first got mine due to a carb problem. Came out to 27mpg and barely 100 miles on full tank. Anyway what I'm getting at is the spark plugs will tell the story when mileage that bad. Mine were soaked with fuel.

 

I bet he had done some thing as well with the ECM. I no longer use O2 sensors either on my scooter as i have it tuned with the power vision tuner way to rich for closed loop. But i am still in the upper 30's to almost 40 MPG. If he does have a flash programmer he used to rewrite it i ask him for that device.

 

That does sound way too low. I have Short Shots on my SB and it's tuned pretty rich and I still get mid 40s on the highway.

 

My bike was getting 32mpg as a plain 120R Superglide and went down to 22mpg once the turbo was installed. The extreme performance is worth it though.

 

Your numbers match my street Bob too. The lousy city mileage I attribute to hard acceleration and breaking. I'm not racing around mad man, but I do like the pull the bike gives of the line and I'm sure that burns fuel. Open hwy in a tall gear is much better

 

You definitely need a tune

I have a PCV with O2 sensors removed, air cleaner and short shots. Pure around town riding most of the time (to and from work) I get 34-37 hot rodding around, 37-40 if I take it easy (rarely) and 48-50 straight highway. I fill up at around 150 miles with all the city riding and I have hit 205 miles on a tank of highway riding and filled it back up with 4.2 gallons, which was the first time I've let it go that low and I was anticipating the sputter, but never happened....lol!

 

Your numbers match my street Bob too. The lousy city mileage I attribute to hard acceleration and breaking. I'm not racing around mad man, but I do like the pull the bike gives of the line and I'm sure that burns fuel. Open hwy in a tall gear is much better

 

I found mileage varies significantly with different octane-rated gasoline (bike is 96ci with aftermarket airfilter, V&H pipe, and fuelpak).

A tank of low octane (91) gets me a hundred and thirty miles or thereabouts, and high octane (98) nearly double that.

Both figures are about half again on highway trips.
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