soft condition fuel efficiency question

[Wildfire]

Today after work I am riding my friend's place in the Narrow Hills from La Ronge. It's raining and the cut across is washed out after the Wapaweka turn.

Long story short: I have 175km of potentially sloppy soft gravel between where I am and where I am going. There is no cell coverage and since I will be on the bike I won't have a radio. There is little traffic on these roads. You could spend all night without a vehicle going by.

Should I be worried about fuel? I know the bike is capable of nearly double that distance taking it easy on good roads in good conditions. Has anyone gone far enough in wet soft conditions to comment on how it affected fuel efficiency? Is it silly to worry about it when going such a short distance?


This is just one of the reasons I don't like not having a 500+ km range...

 

[L.B.S.]

I think it sounds like you will be going rather slower than screamingly fast under these conditions? As long as you are not spending the entire time revving to redline spinning your rear tire, you might get even better mpg's than a similar smooth highway trip, lol. With my NC, it's all about speed, bottom line. The slower I go in one continuous distance, the more spectacular the mileage.

A lot of times I will get significantly better mpgs going slow in gravel, than I will at the speed limit on a perfect paved highway.

If you are the slightest bit concerned still, throw a 1 litre MSR fuel bottle with some gas in it in the frunk or strap it to the rear grab rail. I'm sure you won't have a problem though.

 

[Wildfire]

Less than screamingly fast is right. I am hoping that I can get there in 3 hours of riding which will get me there right around dark.

I have been watching the various thunderstorms building up and it looks like most of them are forming north, south, and east of my route.

Wish me luck!

 

[JamesD]

Dirt takes more fuel than pavement... at the same speed. Speed has a much greater impact on MPG though so you should get better mileage than you usually see.
An extra liter for piece of mind never hurts though.

 

[L.B.S.]

Less than screamingly fast is right. I am hoping that I can get there in 3 hours of riding which will get me there right around dark.

I have been watching the various thunderstorms building up and it looks like most of them are forming north, south, and east of my route.

Wish me luck!

Have a safe and fun time!

 

[Nofear2trek]

Long story short: I have 175km of potentially sloppy soft gravel between where I am and where I am going. There is no cell coverage and since I will be on the bike I won't have a radio. There is little traffic on these roads. You could spend all night without a vehicle going by.

I recommend Rotopax fuel cans and a Spot Gen3 Global Satelite GPS Messenger (SPOT SATELLITE MESSENGER :: HOME PAGE), or something similar, to take the worry out of being marooned while out of cell contact.

Ray

 

[ld_rider]

Long story short: I have 175km

About 109 miles....

Fill up the tank and keep it under 130 km/h and and you will be fine.

 

[Wildfire]

Like most of you guys have said it turned out to be a non-issue. The road was really good for the first 100km or so then progressively got softer and sloppier. I spent the last hour on the gravel standing up.

I made pretty good time and got to where I was going in just over 2.5 hrs. That translates to averaging 74km/h.

I topped up at 185km and used 7.8 liters. 4.2 l/100km for this leg of the trip. On pavement I have been averaging 3.9 since I added the Madstad and put on the 50/50 tires. That's less than a 10% increase in fuel used and I can easily live with that.