I’m ashamed of you Kevin! Instead of driving your offspring to sports and other socially interactive events why don’t you sit them down in front of the telly or computer like most other parents?

“My Suzuki Burgman 400 gets 75 mpg on a bad day and does 100 mph on the highway.

Posted by: Mark”

Yep. Although my Yamaha FJR goes faster :)
As to Kevin’s comment, my 2003 mountaineer AWD gets horrible gas mileage. But, it’s paid off, and only sees occasional use compared to the bike.

So I guess my average 6.2 litres per 100km (44mpg) for the last 4 years in my BMW on German Autobahns is pretty good then?
I tried the go-slow for one week a few years ago and got 57mpg but going slow on the Autobahns is just too dangerous!!

Top work though Kevin. I realise how different it is in the U.S.

Steve.

If you’re balancing between a road bike and a car, you might want to publish THOSE numbers, too. How many miles do you do on the bike between fill-ups for the SUV?

That’s how you lord it over us scooter-types. Mind you, I am hopelessly aggressive off the line on mine, and I’m still getting 62mpg, but for a milk run where you might take a bicycle, I take the scooter. If I kept my speed below the vaunted 35mph mark (that’s where you’re spending more fuel on overcoming drag instead of the sheer weight of the bike,) I’d probably do even better, but I just don’t have the patience, and neither do the commuters behind me. C’est la vie…

I always figured driving super fast and thereby minimizing my time on the road seemed to be the best in terms of fuel usage, gas emissions and also avoiding drunk drivers.

but since i haven’t driven more than a couple days in almost a year, my theories may be a bit outdated now. :-)

Mark, that’s great mileage and if I could get away with a Vespa or Suzuki like you have, I surely would. Unfortunately from a vehicle standpoint that’s not possible for me. We’re a family of four and our kids have activities all over the place. Plus we live in VERY rural community where at least one AWD or 4WD is a must. The Ford Escape Hybrid was too small for our needs so we ended up with what I think is the best vehicle for our needs. For local single trips in good weather, I get on my Trek road bike, but that’s the best I can do.

My Suzuki Burgman 400 gets 75 mpg on a bad day and does 100 mph on the highway.

That’s a shame on the Hybrid trip reporting Mickey. My 2005 has an in-dash 7-inch display that shows fuel consumption up to 99.9 mpg, although the graphical bars top out at 60 mpg. I also have a nice display option that shows when the engine is in use vs. either (or both) of the two electrical motors. Here’s a VERY old pic from 2006: http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/blogger/5476/585/1600/100_19391.JPG

Two other tips:
1. Fast accelerations seem to reduce MPG hugely.
2. Hilly routes are worse than flat routes.

Unfortunately the Toyota Camry Hybrid only reports up to 40 MPG for a trip, and even though I can often pin it over 40 MPG I get information from the times I don’t. There is an instantaneous reading, but I can’t watch that because I’m driving. There is also a tank average, but it involves too much history to be useful except for long trips (where 55 MPH speed limits give about 45 MPG and 65 MPH speed limits give about 37 MPG).

Spending some time with such feedback teaches skills useful in other cars too. Raising the trip report to show over 40 MPG would make such learning even better.