Low Fuel Milage  By  lain (Read 1,536 times)

Yes 60 mpg at below 40 mph. Over 40 mph it drops and at a steady 55+ can drop to 45 mpg.

Yes the Piaggio 200 to 300 cc bikes can get better mileage than the GY6 150 especially at speeds over 40 mph. The GY6 150 cc is at its peak mpg at between 30 to 35 mph while the Piaggio 200 to 300 cc bikes are at their peak mpg at 40 to 55 mph. I get much better fuel economy overall on my 250 than I did on my Lance/Znen 150 GY6 since most roads where I ride have 40 to 60 mph speed limits. Where I ride, a GY6 150 would be past its max speed for peak efficiency while the 200 to 300 cc bikes are in their peak efficiency zone at those speeds.

With a 0.8 gallon tank you have around 102 ounces of gas which at 50 mpg gives you 0.39 miles per ounce or gets you 10 miles for every 26 ounces of gas. You will consume about ninety ounces of gas at 35 miles leaving around 12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) in the tank which will look almost bone dry in the oblong flat tank under the floorboards. You will be out of gas when you hit 40 miles. Even if you can increase fuel economy to 60 mpg you will need to stop for gas before you hit 43 miles since you will only gain about 8 miles per 0.8 gallon tank of fuel.

The more upright tank will probable let you run it closer to empty but we are only talking about 102 ounces total fuel and using the last 12 ounces at this point or less than 10 miles difference.

The bottle needs to be rated for gasoline. Water bottles especially if they are environmentally friendly can turn to putty if used for gasoline.

You are going through the same frustration that I had with the Lance/Znen 150. At around 30 mph with little stop and go I could get as much as 64 mpg after I put in the Hoca variator and really tuned the CVT after pristinely cleaning up the fuel system and setting the valves to perfection however the norm at 45+ mph was 50 mpg.

When I looked at my fuel logs I found with the floor board tank I actually had a whopping 1.3 gallon so I had that backwards (senior citizen trying to remember specs from 5 years ago) and even that is unacceptable if you ride daily to commute. Yes I was always fearful of running out of gas at 1.3 gallons while at 0.8 I would have been paranoid. The trade off with the floorboard tank is that you need a fuel pump which can lean out at high speeds.

After running the Lance 150 from September 2010 to April 2011 at I walked into an Aprilia dealer on a lark and found the Sport City 250 with a 2.4 gallon tank that got better fuel economy than the Lance and was interstate capable. The better fuel economy and lower monthly cost to keep it on the road actually made up for the payments. The running joke was that with the Lance it would have been less work to just get a part time job to pay for the gas to drive my van to work every day. In the past 30,000 miles it has cost less to keep the Aprilia running than it did to own the Lance from 3,744.0 miles on the odometer when I bought it to 6,746.8 miles when I traded it in. With the Lance it was a constant bleeding of cracked heads (multiple), cracked mufflers (multiple), failed ignition pickup, bad belts, fuel pump impacted by ethanol so it couldn't keep up, monthly oil changes, failed mirror mounts, fender mounts failing, starter electronics failing, CDI failures, clutch failures, gearbox failures,
worn out variator, etc. At 30,000 miles I still do not need any engine work and the variator along with the clutch are still almost like new. The only problem I have had was the last belt which I purchased from a local Vespa dealer was old stock and failed after 2,000 miles so I have to clean that up and I am now resolved to purchase belts only from a large high volume dealer and not a small local shop that lets belts sit for years hanging on hooks expose to sunlight.

On the Lance sometimes the valves would need monthly adjustments. If I used regular gas they would sink into the head faster and require more frequent adjustments.

Sometimes despite your best efforts they still settle for a while especially if they have been running lean and hot in the past so keep an eye on them.

A few early oil changes may not be a bad idea if the oil looked particularly bad when you first got it.