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qwertydude · 09-24-2013, 03:10 AM

Disengaging engine braking on a scooter is dangerous. The brakes tend to be somewhat small in size and scooters, especially the larger kinds, tend to be heavier than motorcycles. So you have high weight and small brakes. Combine those two features with a permanent coasting ability and you'll smoke your brakes on a long downhill. Once the brakes fade you're basically dead meat since scooters also can't lean round corners as greatly as motorcycles.

That extra 5% you gain from coasting certainly isn't worth the risk. There's a reason why it's not implemented in cars or motorcycles with automatic transmissions even though it's a feature that can easily be incorporated. Engine braking is a safety feature.

And as for fuel injection efficiency, there's no carbed bike that can beat a fuel injected engine system that's purpose built for efficiency, problem is most motorcycles aren't built for all out fuel efficiency. The best fuel efficiency examples being Honda. They're famous for knowing how to extract fuel efficiency AND performance out of an engine. The old Honda Metropolitan with a carburetor got about 100 mpg and was rated for about as much. I know this because I used to own one and it got on the money 100 mpg and with a taller CVT could be pushed to 110 mpg. The new one with fuel injection is rated for 117 mpg. To also put it into perspective the Honda Elite 110 with injection gets 107 mpg. That's better than the Metropolitan and it's got 110 cc's of power good for 55 mph, no way you'd get a Metropolitan up to those speeds without serious reliability killing and MPG killing mods.

I actually recently bought a Honda NC700x. And let me tell you there is no carbed 50 hp motorcycle on the planet that can touch it's fuel efficiency. I regularly get 70 mpg just normal driving and commuting. And have even seen as high as 85 mpg if I'm careful and not going fast on the freeways.

I used to have a GS500F it was carbed and got pretty close in MPG at 65 mpg regularly but that had a +3 front sprocket which totally killed acceleration and it also only had 47 hp down 4 hp compared to my NC700x.

Also when measuring MPG the biggest mistake with Chinese scooters is overly optimistic odometers. Every Chinese scooter I've ever ridden had odometers pretty much as optimistic as the speedometers. I'd find the correction factor by plotting in at least a 10 mile course on level ground on Google Earth and following it without deviation and noting how much further the odometer read vs what Google Earth calculated.

With that my BMS V9 Evo got a miserable 70 mpg stock when I thought it was getting 82 mpg before correcting for the odometer error. My Buddy 125 when corrected only got 85 mpg, not the 90 most people reported. So far my MPG king had to be my Honda Metropolitan at 100 mpg and my absolute favorite my Sym Wolf 150. It gets 95 mpg even riding on the freeway top speed 75 mph GPS confirmed. City riding it gets a whopping 105 mpg.

09-24-2013, 03:10 AM	#13
qwertydude Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 139	Disengaging engine braking on a scooter is dangerous. The brakes tend to be somewhat small in size and scooters, especially the larger kinds, tend to be heavier than motorcycles. So you have high weight and small brakes. Combine those two features with a permanent coasting ability and you'll smoke your brakes on a long downhill. Once the brakes fade you're basically dead meat since scooters also can't lean round corners as greatly as motorcycles. That extra 5% you gain from coasting certainly isn't worth the risk. There's a reason why it's not implemented in cars or motorcycles with automatic transmissions even though it's a feature that can easily be incorporated. Engine braking is a safety feature. And as for fuel injection efficiency, there's no carbed bike that can beat a fuel injected engine system that's purpose built for efficiency, problem is most motorcycles aren't built for all out fuel efficiency. The best fuel efficiency examples being Honda. They're famous for knowing how to extract fuel efficiency AND performance out of an engine. The old Honda Metropolitan with a carburetor got about 100 mpg and was rated for about as much. I know this because I used to own one and it got on the money 100 mpg and with a taller CVT could be pushed to 110 mpg. The new one with fuel injection is rated for 117 mpg. To also put it into perspective the Honda Elite 110 with injection gets 107 mpg. That's better than the Metropolitan and it's got 110 cc's of power good for 55 mph, no way you'd get a Metropolitan up to those speeds without serious reliability killing and MPG killing mods. I actually recently bought a Honda NC700x. And let me tell you there is no carbed 50 hp motorcycle on the planet that can touch it's fuel efficiency. I regularly get 70 mpg just normal driving and commuting. And have even seen as high as 85 mpg if I'm careful and not going fast on the freeways. I used to have a GS500F it was carbed and got pretty close in MPG at 65 mpg regularly but that had a +3 front sprocket which totally killed acceleration and it also only had 47 hp down 4 hp compared to my NC700x. Also when measuring MPG the biggest mistake with Chinese scooters is overly optimistic odometers. Every Chinese scooter I've ever ridden had odometers pretty much as optimistic as the speedometers. I'd find the correction factor by plotting in at least a 10 mile course on level ground on Google Earth and following it without deviation and noting how much further the odometer read vs what Google Earth calculated. With that my BMS V9 Evo got a miserable 70 mpg stock when I thought it was getting 82 mpg before correcting for the odometer error. My Buddy 125 when corrected only got 85 mpg, not the 90 most people reported. So far my MPG king had to be my Honda Metropolitan at 100 mpg and my absolute favorite my Sym Wolf 150. It gets 95 mpg even riding on the freeway top speed 75 mph GPS confirmed. City riding it gets a whopping 105 mpg.
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