Trying To Avoid That Sinking Feeling...

[jagjeep]

Riding a Valkyrie is a fantastic event on any day if you can remember one thing. “Don’t override it’s gas tank”.

Since my current 2002 Valkyrie (GL1500CT) is not my first, you would think I’d have it all worked out and not over ride it’s gas limits but being on the road enjoying the great springtime weather, engine sounds, fresh air, etc., I have to admit forgetting the “gas mileage thing” and getting a sinking feeling in my stomach hearing the engine sputter and stall because of gas starvation. Bending over to the gas valve, switching to the 1.1 gallon reserve and then hearing it come to life again is always reassuring but only briefly. Now it’s time to mentally kick myself for not paying attention to where the nearest gas station was.

QUESTION: Have any of you riding a Valkyrie trike worked out ways to improve low gas mileage issues? I began keeping track of the gas mileage for a few months and it seemed to average around 27 mpg until I increased the tire air pressures (41 psi front & 28 psi rears) and kept the speed below 60 mph (which is not easy to do.). When doing this it went up a little to 29 mpg.

I have to admit I’m sure I added to the problem when I installed a rather large 21 inch Rifle windscreen and Baker air wings. Note: The windscreen and air wings eliminated nearly all wind buffeting problems but I’m sure increased wind resistance. Also, the Valkyrie has the standard plugs (DPR7EA-9) BX/10NGK recently installed. The trike kit is a Roadsmith.

I know there have been a lot of post here in Trike Talk about “gas mileage” issues but not that many dealing specifically with Valkyrie trikes.
Any and all suggestions will be most appreciated.
Thanks a million.
Jagjeep

 

[keepinon]

Thanks for the thread. Jagjeep & I have discussed this issue, just wanted to add my experiences.

Like him, I can only average in the mid-20's for fuel mileage. I thought it was perhaps because of performance upgrades (exhaust, larger carb jets (for all 6 carbs) 4* trigger wheel), and I do love 'em, it's just when riding/traveling with other bikes/trikes, many don't want to stop at 100 miles or sooner for fuel. That's one of my reasons for mostly solo trips.

But, on the rides I participated in at the Texas Trike Reunion, mostly slow twisties, I averaged mid-30's a couple times. On the way home, back to mid-20's at 70-75 mph. Like JJ, I have a large shield, fork lowers & Baker air-wings. On one of my trips to W. Tx last summer, fighting a good head wind running south of Lubbock, I only got 19 mpg. What's aggravating with the low mileage, I don't experience any loss of performance, the engine never seems to struggle, that would indicate low mileage. These beasts just plow thru it all.

I do carry a small one gallon fuel container in the trunk. Just in case. The five gallon main never seems like enough. I'd love to find (an affordable) Interstate tank, 7 gallons, but have not done so yet. I'm putting together a trailer for some trips this summer so I'm anxious to see what that does to the fuel situation.

@Jagjeep, I haven't yet tried the other spark plugs....


keepinon

 

[1800 06 Champion Trike]

Wow, although I don't have a Valk, I get 34-35 at freeway speeds of 65-75 mph with my GW/Champion Trike.
I'd get a good tuneup and see if that will help.

 

[skuuter]

It is what it is.....Horsepower isn't a "Good Buddy" to gas Mileage, especially on "Multi-Carbureted Engines"...having owned two Honda VTX1800C Bikes, 80 to 100 mile gas stops (for safety/still has around 1.5 gallons when the gas light pops on) are required most of the time. It's a concession for all that "Twist-the-Throttle-Fun".......ThumbUp

 

[JaysGone]

I found the best way not to override my fuel tank with my 99 Valk was to fill up every 140-150 miles.
In my own defense I did have an extra large over sized windshield.
I never did have to use the reserve and never found out my max miles.
It also never did better then 30 miles to the gallon so it was pretty easy to keep track of.

Unfortunately my 2010 GL1800 powered Motor Trike isn't any better mpg wise.
Only difference is a larger tank.
I start looking for gas at the 165 mile mark.
180 miles is my max distance traveled.
I got 32 mpg once and average 29-30.
Honda tells me there is nothing wrong with that mpg all things considered.
Nothing to adjust other then my wrist motion.

 

[Calgary]

I found the best way not to override my fuel tank with my 99 Valk was to fill up every 140-150 miles.
In my own defense I did have an extra large over sized windshield.
I never did have to use the reserve and never found out my max miles.
It also never did better then 30 miles to the gallon so it was pretty easy to keep track of.

Unfortunately my 2010 GL1800 powered Motor Trike isn't any better mpg wise.
Only difference is a larger tank.
I start looking for gas at the 165 mile mark.
180 miles is my max distance traveled.
I got 32 mpg once and average 29-30.
Honda tells me there is nothing wrong with that mpg all things considered.
Nothing to adjust other then my wrist motion.

Triking a Gl1800 does take it's toll on gas mileage.

On two wheels I pretty much counted on getting 240 miles to a tank!

 

[skuuter]

It's the FUN Folks, it's the FUN........why I still own a Comfortable Scooter capable of 76 mpg at 70+ mph 2-up if need be...I can do a 400 mile day for less than $20...."but" the "More Horsepower, More Displacement VTX1800C" has it's place also, as have the Trikes we've owned...it's the FUN.....ThumbUp

 

[keepinon]

It is what it is.....Horsepower isn't a "Good Buddy" to gas Mileage, especially on "Multi-Carbureted Engines"...having owned two Honda VTX1800C Bikes, 80 to 100 mile gas stops (for safety/still has around 1.5 gallons when the gas light pops on) are required most of the time. It's a concession for all that "Twist-the-Throttle-Fun".......ThumbUp

LOL, yeah, I know. But it sure is fun! A friends X18C is the only bike that runs, fuel wise, comparable to the Valk. ... and it is relatable to the right wrist.

I found the best way not to override my fuel tank with my 99 Valk was to fill up every 140-150 miles.
In my own defense I did have an extra large over sized windshield.
I never did have to use the reserve and never found out my max miles.
It also never did better then 30 miles to the gallon so it was pretty easy to keep track of.

I'd love to get 30 mpg. Yours must have been the Interstate. And I suppose that is my primary lament, the amount of fuel carried. At a swap meet a few months ago, I picked up a 4 gallon Tour Tank. I haven't yet mounted it, concerns about the weight on the luggage carrier, and that much fuel sitting on the very rear of the trike. I am thinking of a smaller one.

The only thing I have yet to try, is the service manual suggests a different spark plug for extended high speed driving, from DPR7EA to DPR8EA, which I will change this week, tho it may be a while before I get to test them on the road.

 

[JaysGone]

Triking a Gl1800 does take it's toll on gas mileage.

On two wheels I pretty much counted on getting 240 miles to a tank!

Honestly with a Valkyrie I don't think that's ever going to happen.
Not with its gearing.
That's 40 mpg.
Ive gotten that with my 1700 cc V-Twin RoadStar.
It averages 43 mpg. Half the horse power though.

 

[Solidbob]

To bad you can't change gearing, I assume the Interstate model is geared higher for highway travel. No reason to have a screaming highway bike like the older Spyders, maybe the diff gears can be changed to decrease RPM and increase mileage some. I was unaware the Valk was geared differently. If the diff is the same as the wing, there's plenty of trike take-offs cheap so you could change the whole diff. Just an idea....

:Coffee:

 

[jagjeep]

To bad you can't change gearing, I assume the Interstate model is geared higher for highway travel. No reason to have a screaming highway bike like the older Spyders, maybe the diff gears can be changed to decrease RPM and increase mileage some. I was unaware the Valk was geared differently. If the diff is the same as the wing, there's plenty of trike take-offs cheap so you could change the whole diff. Just an idea....

:Coffee:

"Interesting Solidbob"...

I wonder if ROADSMITH has ideas for upgrading their equipment to increase gas mileage?

Jagjeep

 

[Solidbob]

I can answer that / NOPE!! They keep to ratios that try to keep the speedo correct at speed. And they do based on each model they build.

 

[keepinon]

Just for information, all Valks, Interstate, tourer & standard use the same final drive, same gear ratio. Which is the same as the 1500 'Wing, tho the Wing's cases are different where the drive shaft bolts up. All ring & pinion gears are the same tooth count. Ring gears will interchange but not the pinion. (the wing uses a smaller bearing on the pilot end of the pinion)

So I guess all the 1500's are the same final drive ratio.

 

[Roadsmith Trikes]

jagjeep, just wanted to let you know that we've been following the conversation and everyone has been fairly accurate in their assessment of the situation. The Valkyrie is a notoriously fast motorcycle but, as mentioned earlier, that does come at a price. Solidbob is correct in that we design and manufacture each kit to match the exist gearing on the motorcycle thereby avoiding the need for any speedometer recalibration. Other than keeping your tires properly inflated and all the mechanical components in good order, the only other option is to lay low on the throttle... but then why would you want to do that? It IS a Valkyrie, after all! Ride safe and let us know if we can help in any other way.

 

[Ayatolla of Rockin' Rolla]

Well Brethern,I have had a "rule of thumb"that I have followed for the last 40 yrs of motorcycling & that is to always stop to refuel re-hydrate & refresh every 100 miles.This includes riding with a group with various sizes of gas tanks or riding 2-up with various sizes of bladders !

So the drill goes,,,, while emptying one tank,you top off the other,& every body is happy ! :laugh: :laugh:

 

[jagjeep]

Sounds like a common sense rule to me unless your riding buddies are card carrying members of the "iron butt" gang and want to ride until they drop...

Jagjeep

Well Brethern,I have had a "rule of thumb"that I have followed for the last 40 yrs of motorcycling & that is to always stop to refuel re-hydrate & refresh every 100 miles.This includes riding with a group with various sizes of gas tanks or riding 2-up with various sizes of bladders !

So the drill goes,,,, while emptying one tank,you top off the other,& every body is happy ! :laugh: :laugh:

 

[skuuter]

Well Brethern,I have had a "rule of thumb"that I have followed for the last 40 yrs of motorcycling & that is to always stop to refuel re-hydrate & refresh every 100 miles.This includes riding with a group with various sizes of gas tanks or riding 2-up with various sizes of bladders !

So the drill goes,,,, while emptying one tank,you top off the other,& every body is happy ! :laugh: :laugh:

Yep, this generally works well and keeps most reasonably happy if riding with Your Spouse or Others.....if by myself, I generally ride until I need gas.....ThumbUp

 

[grumpy]

I will put my $.02 in here & I am no expert. I had a Valk Interstate trike & in over 60K miles the best I could get was mid 30s. That was slow twisties. I won't even say what the worst was. Too painful. WIND. Usual was about 30, 2 up, 70-75. The Valk's carbs run on the slow speed jets until about 3000 rpm then transition quickly to the main jets. By 3300 fuel consumption is rapidly rising. If you can keep the rpm below 3200 you can get fairly good mileage. The only way of doing that & still riding 75 & up is to lower the rpm to speed ratio. One way of doing that is to change the final drive gearing. The final drive on the Valk is 2.93:1. I was able to have a 2.73:1 (biggest ring that will fit)ring&pinion installed in my 7.5" Ford diff by the manufacturer. If your rear end is large enough you should be able to get something like 2.52:1 ring & pinion set which will make a significant difference. Don't have any idea of the cost of that. Increasing the diameter of the rear tires will also lower the rpm to speed ratio. Whether there is room for big enough tires to really make a big difference will depend on the conversion you have. About $200-300 depending on tire size. None of these changes will affect your speedometer accuracy as that is taken off the front wheel. The other way of "avoiding that sinking feeling"--more gas--involves, well, a bigger tank. If you go over to the VRCC board & do some searching there was a thread about a guy who had his stock Valk tank widened to about an 8 gallon capacity IIRC. Or another tank. There is a fellow in Moses Lake, WA who makes belly tanks for the Valk. Something like R&M Works? Somewhere around $400. He may be able to fabricate one to work on your trike. I talked to him about making one for mine, but he would have to have trike on site for an unknown period of time & I decided not to go that way. Hope this is of some help. Stan

 

[WalterM817]

A few years ago there was a gearing kit you could buy for the Valk.
It was made in Italy and sold as a kit. It was about 2000 bucks if I remember correctly.
I was interested because I didn't care for the milage although I loved the Bike. You had to pull the engine split the cases grind out a portion of the case for clearance ,reinstall the gear kit ,reassemble the engine and reinstall it in the bike. The gas milage was supposed to be fantastic and was geared to where the performance of the bike wasn't affected very much at all.
I was all set to do it,great idea. Then got to thinking ……. 2 grand to gain 6-8 mpg. You can buy quite a bit of gas for 2000 bucks in a bike.

The thing that got me thinking about it at all was one day went to my brothers place 140 miles away, filled up before leaving running into a terrible headwind steady all the way. I was running about 75-80 as we were in a bit of a hurry. Two up of course. Ran 130 miles to the exit to his place and got the old smoothly slowing down feeling,reached down for reserve and found I had left it on reserve back at the pump before we left. The bikes were brand new then and two guys on the service road rolled up and asked if it was the new Valkyrie? Said yeah! They asked how it ran? I said it ran better with gas in it. They had a can with them and ran to get gas. I was basically on the off ramp to the gas station at 130 miles. After that I paid more attention to the tank knob and found out under better conditions I could still only count on 150-160 miles per tank! That's not great but I've been all over the country with this bike since .You just have to watch.

 

[JaysGone]

I'd love to get 30 mpg. Yours must have been the Interstate. And I suppose that is my primary lament, the amount of fuel carried. At a swap meet a few months ago, I picked up a 4 gallon Tour Tank. I haven't yet mounted it, concerns about the weight on the luggage carrier, and that much fuel sitting on the very rear of the trike. I am thinking of a smaller one.

The only thing I have yet to try, is the service manual suggests a different spark plug for extended high speed driving, from DPR7EA to DPR8EA, which I will change this week, tho it may be a while before I get to test them on the road.

Nope mine was a Standard.
I rebuilt it from a non running bike as a project and lost my butt on the sale.
A fun bike if ever there was but for a 60 year old to do stupid things because he could.
Wasn't the best bike for me.Too much power.


Day I brought it home non running $3500

2nd pic 3 grand more and 7 months of fun fixing it up
Finished and sold to a guy in Norway $4650............oh well.

 

[keepinon]

Yeah, these things grow on you. I'd always rode & re-habbed 'Wings for many years, until I bought this '97. Been sitting up for 4 years, the guy that bought it was afraid his son's would get it & get in trouble. LOL Had 36k miles, I rode it to 96K & got an offer I couldn't refuse.

[/URL]

The last one I did, a '98, was sold summer before last. A strictly for profit re-hab.

[/URL]

Since then, I've done a couple of Shadow 1100's, but haven't found a Valk to work on. Probably just as well, I'm getting older, too.

ETA: I bought a VTX1300 last month to rehab. Got the engine right, now want to paint. I'd like to keep it a while, always nice to have a two wheeler around.

 

[skuuter]

Wow, some Great Looking 2-Wheelers added to this Thread....ThumbUp

 

[keepinon]

Wow, some Great Looking 2-Wheelers added to this Thread....ThumbUp

Yeah, if only I could convince the wife I needed a dozen or so bikes... :laugh:

There's a few more I've rehabbed in my album.

 

[skuuter]

Yeah, if only I could convince the wife I needed a dozen or so bikes... :laugh:

There's a few more I've rehabbed in my album.

I totally understand..."been there too".........all my life.....:laugh::10:

 

[JaysGone]

My rebuilding days are over.
I wanted to trike the Valk and well just didn't get around to it.
I still have my RoadStar for when the need for 2 wheels comes along.
Which isn't very often these days.
Im happy with the GW trike.
Never thought I would actually, a pleasant surprise.
I just wish the dang thing had some personality though.
Seems every ones 1800 tupperware is the same plastic as mine.
Not a heck of a lot to mod on these beasts.
I find it does ever thing so well its actually boring.

 

[cjmitch]

On two wheels I pretty much counted on getting 240 miles to a tank!

On my 05 Mtrike I get 114 miles to a 1/2 a tank
Start counting at full and stop counting when the needle covers the 1/2 tank white line
.

so whats that about 30+/- mpg
114 / 3.3 = 34.5mpg

 

[jagjeep]

Thanks a million everyone !
Your postings have been very interesting and informative.
Even though I've not been a longtime member of "Trike Talk", I've come to you several times and have been extremely impressed with all your help and suggestions.
"Trike Talk" is definitely the place to go to for help...
Again, thanks.
Jagjeep

Riding a Valkyrie is a fantastic event on any day if you can remember one thing. “Don’t override it’s gas tank”.

Since my current 2002 Valkyrie (GL1500CT) is not my first, you would think I’d have it all worked out and not over ride it’s gas limits but being on the road enjoying the great springtime weather, engine sounds, fresh air, etc., I have to admit forgetting the “gas mileage thing” and getting a sinking feeling in my stomach hearing the engine sputter and stall because of gas starvation. Bending over to the gas valve, switching to the 1.1 gallon reserve and then hearing it come to life again is always reassuring but only briefly. Now it’s time to mentally kick myself for not paying attention to where the nearest gas station was.

QUESTION: Have any of you riding a Valkyrie trike worked out ways to improve low gas mileage issues? I began keeping track of the gas mileage for a few months and it seemed to average around 27 mpg until I increased the tire air pressures (41 psi front & 28 psi rears) and kept the speed below 60 mph (which is not easy to do.). When doing this it went up a little to 29 mpg.

I have to admit I’m sure I added to the problem when I installed a rather large 21 inch Rifle windscreen and Baker air wings. Note: The windscreen and air wings eliminated nearly all wind buffeting problems but I’m sure increased wind resistance. Also, the Valkyrie has the standard plugs (DPR7EA-9) BX/10NGK recently installed. The trike kit is a Roadsmith.

I know there have been a lot of post here in Trike Talk about “gas mileage” issues but not that many dealing specifically with Valkyrie trikes.
Any and all suggestions will be most appreciated.
Thanks a million.
Jagjeep