Fuel Consumption

[kevcollyer]

I've just got my first Firestorm, and I reckon my fuel economy is worse than yours! I filled it to the brim last time I put fuel in, and the light came on today at 73 miles. Do you lot get 80-120 miles PER TANK (ie. until it stops) or until the light comes on? The previous owner (who I truly believe was a decent bloke) reckons there's about 20 miles left after the light comes on, which would make it 90 odd miles to a tank for me. It's a '99 bike, so does that mean it's a smaller tank than later bikes? Most of my riding has been in town centre 30mph areas, but not at busy times of day. Incidentally, I'm not worried about the fuel economy, having owned cars like a 2.3 Saab turbo and 4.0 Jeep before, I'm just curious, and wondering if it could point to the carbs need sorting or something similar.
Cheers folks!

I got my first firestorm yesterday (aged 46) lol me that is.
Its a 99 on a T.
Brimmed it yesterday, done 92 miles (still no light on) brimmed it again today 10.50 ltrs. So that makes it 40mpg & thats riding it fast & slow.
Pretty good imo.

[Styler4077]

Two of us did Tony's work shop today.
83 miles and filled up on our runout with 8 ltrs exac. 10 miles per ltr 45 mpg. Some lanes most motorway at 80 - 90 mph on the way down.

Keith's 99 model (mines a 2000 on a 2001 plate) did 86 miles and filled up wit 8.7 ltrs. Again about 10 miles per ltr or 45 mpg'ish.

Similar miles on the way back some at a ton and mpg was 42 mpg.

Keith's carbs were balanced on the first workshop day mine have not been check as yet.

Mucking around I get 110 miles when the light comes on and put 13 ltrs in it. 38 mpg.
For sure I don't rev the nuts off it or red line it all the time, I alway use the torque it more fun and I enjoy that punch from the motor.
Overall it not bad at all.

[keepy]

I'm running Scorpion Cans, not sure if its been jetted or got standard filter (will check on next service) I do know however that its been very well looked after and serviced regualry. My fuel light came on this morning at 110.2 miles which by my Calcs:

16l tank with light coming on at 2.5l remaining @ 110.2 miles; means I'm averaging about 8.2 Miles per Litre, so my reserve should be about 20.4 miles.

The route is about 1/4 twisty A/B roads; 1/2 M56; 1/4 dual carridge with a 80 mile round trip!

The route:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&sourc ... 134338&z=9[/googlemap]

[steveb137]

GUTTED!!!

Finally managed to go for a decent ride out tonight, 1st time since carrying out the service (New plugs, air filter, oil filter and oil)

Off I go, tank to brim and fully expecting a vast improvement on my previous 83 miles before light comes on. Enjoying a good ride to Squires at Sherburn (nice SP2 CE Replica in car park ), bike sounds great and is performing great, then ... fuel light comes on after 84 miles A massive improvement of 1 mile. Any suggestions what next? I'm thinking about carb balancing. I do not want to go into too much depth at the moment as I'm hoping to fit new cans in a couple of months and I will have the bike set up on Dyno, so just looking for a quick easy fix to put me on, Any suggestions

[Pete.L]

Steve
the real question is how many litres did it take to refill the tank?
If it only took 8 litres to do 80 miles then there is nothing wrong with the engine/carburation and I'd suggest your fuel sensor is a bit keen.
On the other hand, maybe you've got to stop twanging it off the limeter and use fourth, fith and sixth gears you hooligan

Pete.l

[sirch345]

Steve
the real question is how many litres did it take to refill the tank?
If it only took 8 litres to do 80 miles then there is nothing wrong with the engine/carburation and I'd suggest your fuel sensor is a bit keen.
On the other hand, maybe you've got to stop twanging it off the limeter and use fourth, fith and sixth gears you hooligan

Pete.l

A couple of very good points there Pete I agree, especially how many litres did it take to refill the tank?

Steve,
For what it'll cost you a carb balance is worth doing especially if it's not been done for a while.
I use one of these balancers. They are a simple device and don't cost the earth but do the job all the same:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/UNIVERSAL-MOTORCY ... 35aa5e4e1a

Chris.

[steveb137]

Steve
the real question is how many litres did it take to refill the tank?
If it only took 8 litres to do 80 miles then there is nothing wrong with the engine/carburation and I'd suggest your fuel sensor is a bit keen.
On the other hand, maybe you've got to stop twanging it off the limeter and use fourth, fith and sixth gears you hooligan

Pete.l

A couple of very good points there Pete I agree, especially how many litres did it take to refill the tank?

Steve,
For what it'll cost you a carb balance is worth doing especially if it's not been done for a while.
I use one of these balancers. They are a simple device and don't cost the earth but do the job all the same:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/UNIVERSAL-MOTORCY ... 35aa5e4e1a

Chris.

Thanks for the comments guys,

Hope my sums below are right

The tank was filled with £14 of fuel @ £1.17/litre = 12 litres (2.64 gallons) give or take a Gnats p**s

This works out at just over 31miles / gallon. Reading other owners comments this seems quite low. I've ordered one of those kits and I'll give the carbs a balance, see how that goes

Any further comments / suggestions are very welcome

[Pete.L]

Cool
Well your going about it the right way Steve
A balance has got to be the next step forward. If you get a chance, open the airbox and look underneath at the carb and see if you can get a half tidy view of the needles. If they have rings for circlips showing around the top (fat end) it's been jetted by a previous owner and might need resetting, if the needle are smooth, you're a hooligan and need to slow down that's the original Honda


Pete.l

[steveb137]

Carb balancing kit from e-bay arrived this morning. Seems simple enough
After much fiddling about (why do they put things in the most awkward places ), burning hands and dropping the blanking plug which took about 30 mins and a magnet to retrieve, I got the kit set up. Surprise surprise, the carbs were balanced . The little metal balls were directly in line, I do not know how accurate this kit is but it is very easy to use I didn't get chance to look into the carbs to examine the jets but i'm guessing they must have been changed at some stage. I guess i'll just have to put up withpoor fuel consumption until I can change the cans and get it set up on a dyno.

[AMCQ46]

May be the main jets, or the air filter.

I had 6 yrs running with K&N filter and a dYNOjET kit, then to fix the 5000rpm hole in the power curve, I returned to the stock filter. When I did this, the red light milage dropped from 100+ to 85 miles, clearly the DJ kit was too rich for the stock filter set up.

I cant tell you what the best jetting is for the stock filter, as I just fitted a BMC road filter [USA import only], and I now have no 5000rpm hole, and the red light is back up to 100+miles [16ltr tank], so I have stopped fiddling.

so if you take the filter out and the carbs, you need to check if you have the dynoJet kit fitted and what main jets, from there we can work out what needs to be done.

AMQ