So what are you doing?

[busa-boy33]

To save gas...

Well I'm doing my part and something I never thought I would ever do.. slow down.. yup.. and I get passed by 10 cars this morning for just doing the posted speed limit.

If anyone in here drives a diesel I feel sorry for you.. Did you guys read where the White House wants to sue OPEC??? I doubt that will help us out any and would more then likely make matters worse.

Have you guys started noticing there are more bikes now on the roads? Around here I see a few more then normal.

[inspiron]

I'm taking the train into the city instead of driving. My "drive" is 5 minutes each way to get to the train station, then I spend 20 minutes on the train to get into the city.

Granted, I have to drive to a meeting in Zürich tonight, but I can claim $0.50 per kilometer back on my expenses for that.

I would love to ride the bike, but the weather had been ugly the past week or so - we've had almost no sun, and it constantly looks like it's about to rain.

[busa-boy33]

Yeah, we are under the wet stuff here for the rest of the week. I am also thinking of riding a different bike other then my busa. Having to buy a new back tire every 5k miles really isn't helping me much.
I have dad's bike but really don't want to run the miles up on it. So, I guess I may be in the market for a small bike like a Honda Shadow or something.

[amvince]

I can tell you one thng I don't do as many little errands as I used to. I try to make a plan and get everything done in one trip if possible. I am starting to think I will ride the Ninja 250 I bought for my wife back and forth to work more than I thought. I've also noticed more small cars showing up on the road.

[busa-boy33]

I keep hearing mutterings about ppl experimenting with the hydrogen running cars again. One guy I work with swears up and down his friend has such a car but he is currently working out some small details to getting it running just right. I doubt it but I do see people possibly going to some extreme measures to avoid gas stations.

[themeatmanlandry]

themeatman has been riding his bike to work on days when it is possible (i.e. no meetings to go to, no rain, no stuff to haul on the way home), and I slowed down months ago in my truck. I can't seem to harness my inner ape when I get on the bike, but it still gets 45 mpg or so. The truck (a Dodge Ram 1500, 3.9L V6, 5spd) gets 22-23 mpg.

I'm slowly turning the Bandit into my commuter bike. When these tires are gone, I'm going to spoon on some touring tires for better longevity. That should help make the bike a more economical alternative to the truck (sport bikes eat up much of the gas savings in new tires every 3000 miles).

Another thing I do is I consolidate errands.

[Thundurburd]

It's the House of Representatives that wants to sue OPEC. Read story here. This looks like a bad idea to me.

As for me, I'll be doing more errands on my bike.

[tricker]

wtf are they thinking? let me guess... they're going to invade them soon afterwards? Oh crap political talk.. carry on..

*runs away in fear of causing political talk to occur*

[buster]

....and so who would impose the outcome of the hearing on countries such as Iran, Saudi, Angola, Algeria and Venezuela? and Indeed Iraq?

[Clint]

I just don't drive much. Most people do absolutely no trip planning. They just jump in and go whenever they think of something. I have a Tacoma that I bought in June 2006 that has just over 13,000 miles on it.

WRT slowing down, that's only effective at speeds over about 65 mph. Your car is most efficient from approximately 45-55 mph, so slowing down near or below those speeds gains nothing. Reducing rates of acceleration is far more effective. Ease in, ease out.

[tricker]

i've put almost 30k miles on my crv in about 1 3/4 years.. but that includes a few trips.. other than that i've barely been driving it now

[jgreth]

Originally Posted by RowdyRed94

I just don't drive much. Most people do absolutely no trip planning. They just jump in and go whenever they think of something. I have a Tacoma that I bought in June 2006 that has just over 13,000 miles on it.

WRT slowing down, that's only effective at speeds over about 65 mph. Your car is most efficient from approximately 45-55 mph, so slowing down near or below those speeds gains nothing. Reducing rates of acceleration is far more effective. Ease in, ease out.

Precisely this. It's all about RPMs not speed. Most cars have a tachometer. Keep those RPMs under 2.5 ( more like under 2 if you can help it ) for the best efficiency. This varies by make/model of course.

[KD57]

I parked the big 4x4 dually diesel, and bought a plain old 1/2 ton Ford to drive on wet or cold days, otherwise I'm on the bike.

[themeatmanlandry]

Originally Posted by jgreth

Precisely this. It's all about RPMs not speed. Most cars have a tachometer. Keep those RPMs under 2.5 ( more like under 2 if you can help it ) for the best efficiency. This varies by make/model of course.

While RPMs are considered "The Golden Rule of Gas Mileage" tehy don't cover all bases. For instance, the force of the air resistance on a vehicle is proportional to he square of the velocity, so going twice as fast results in four times the resistance, hence the vastly greater fuel economy at 50 mph versus 65 mph. As a general rule, I do the following to increase my gas mileage:

-Take off slowly
-Never take the tach above 2 grand
-Never take the truck above 54 mph

Thes principles took my old Dodge truck (130K miles) from 18 mpg (468 miles per 26-gallon tank of gas, costing around $95) to 23 mpg (598 miles per $95 tank).

[jgreth]

Even when you have more air resistance, in order to maintain the same speed it would require more RPMs, no? Therefore wouldn't the golden rule still apply?

[themeatmanlandry]

Originally Posted by jgreth

Even when you have more air resistance, in order to maintain the same speed it would require more RPMs, no? Therefore wouldn't the golden rule still apply?

No.

You may find yourself lulled into a false sense of security by assuming that staying below a certain RPM would get you the best gas mileage. My truck'll go way faster than 54 mph without going over 2K RPM. If I used the 2K RPM argument globally, I'd be screwing myself out of some gas mileage by throwing my gas away fighting air resistance.

I use the RPM rule when shifting and the max speed rule once I get into overdrive.

Another thing I do: Anticipate lights. I'm looking WAY down the road. If I see a light that I'm pretty sure I'll hit, I put it in neutral and coast. THis way, the RPMs drop to 1K and I'm still cruising at speed. Mucho savings to be had there. I don't cut the engine off, but some will do that. I just don't think wasting a starter is a smart way to save.

[jgreth]

Originally Posted by themeatmanlandry

No.

You may find yourself lulled into a false sense of security by assuming that staying below a certain RPM would get you the best gas mileage. My truck'll go way faster than 54 mph without going over 2K RPM. If I used the 2K RPM argument globally, I'd be screwing myself out of some gas mileage by throwing my gas away fighting air resistance.

I use the RPM rule when shifting and the max speed rule once I get into overdrive.

Another thing I do: Anticipate lights. I'm looking WAY down the road. If I see a light that I'm pretty sure I'll hit, I put it in neutral and coast. THis way, the RPMs drop to 1K and I'm still cruising at speed. Mucho savings to be had there. I don't cut the engine off, but some will do that. I just don't think wasting a starter is a smart way to save.

I think we're just looking at it from two angles but we're looking at the same thing. You're talking about keeping the speeds lower (which in turn keeps RPMs down). I'm talking about maintaining a speed and the RPMs to maintain said speed against resisting forces....

We're both saying the same thing basically though, in that ultimately you ARE keeping the RPMs down to a minimum. Yeah there is definitely a point of the optimal RPMs vs speed ( when taking all forces into account ) though.

Edit: I didn't mean that by staying under X RPM that you're going to be at the ideal efficiency. When you're in your final gear, you want to keep it as low as possible.

[tricker]

[themeatmanlandry]

. . . but I'm not using the tach to set my max speed, and my max speed isn't set in order to keep the tach low. The low tach is just incidental to the 54 mph top speed, which came from some quick research (admittedly generalized for the average car, but readily available).

FWIW, I would use a lower speed if the tach were going over 2K at 54 mph, but that's not what's happening here. Regardless of what the tach says, I set my top speed at 54 mph to lessen the amount of gas spent on wind resistance, which piles up quickly above 50 mph.

[themeatmanlandry]

Originally Posted by tricker

Oh, hush!!!