gas milage

[adaptolife]

Adding all that weight and parasitic drag kills acceleration and milage. The Ghost Wheels I use weigh 65#, and even with a race-ready motor, I still get 38mpg.

[berngren]

I have the 2009 RSV Hannigan conversion. When it was a two wheeler I was getting 42 - 44 mpg. Not bad for 1300cc V4 engine. These bike are made to be opened up. The 1st two gears are sleepers. So you have to whine them out. 3rd and 4th gears are the ones that pick up speed. 5th which I hardly use is the smooth gear. I can whine 3rd to 70 and 4th can hit 100 with no problem.

Since I converted the bike I get about 28 to 34 depend on how I'm riding and the conditions of the whether. (Winds, etc) If I consistently open it up the gas mileage drop tremendously. (24 mpg) If I ride normally 30 to 34. Highway and local about 30. With the added weight of about 320+ lbs that is not too bad.

The gears have dropped with the added weight. We know about the 1st 2 gears. 3rd drop to 60 and 4th to about 80 to 85. 5th gear i use if necessary between 75 - 80.

So it comes down to how the trike is maintain, riding habits, road condition, speeds, and weather. Even if you have the same trike it doesn't mean that both should get the same MPG. It depends on the person who is riding the trike. How he or she is riding and maintaining the trike among other things.

[glmarker]

I might add that some of it may very well be speedo error. The basic wing is know to read 5% or more fast, giving high MPH readings. So if you are getting 38 MPG untriked, the reality is 36 MPG. My 2012 MT Adventure conversion speedo read more than 5% slow, reflecting about 30MPG. After adjusting for the slow speedo, reality is about 32 MPG, which is only a 4MPG drop for the trike conversion.

What I am most unhappiest about is the slow speedo. If I set the speedo at 70MPH on the highway, I pass 3 of 4 cars. Need to set the speedo at 65 in 70 zones just to flow with traffic (and we know traffic exceeds the posted limits).

[EarlJr]

I haven't triked mine yet, I'm talking to the shop now get bids for CSC Cobra. So the mileage they advertise about loosing 3 to 5 mpg is a bunch of bull? I currently get anywhere from 40 to 45 now on my 02 GL1800.

[Blondie Gal]

. . . it comes down to how the trike is maintain, riding habits, road condition, speeds, and weather. Even if you have the same trike it doesn't mean that both should get the same MPG. It depends on the person who is riding the trike. How he or she is riding and maintaining the trike among other things.

Earl, Bernie hit it exactly right - mileage depends on many things, so you have to make your decision based on a lot of variables. We do love our CSC kit, but our experiences may be totally different from yours. We ride 2-up for long trips (and we're not skinny), carrying a fully loaded trailer. You may ride singly without a trailer . . . you'll just have to work it out to see . . .

[Shimpy]

I did a Champion conversion on my 2010 wing and went from 40 to 35mpg. Researching it I found that the rear ratio made my Champion driveshaft turn an extra 1/4 revolution for each tire revolution compared to factory so it's geared lower. In other words my engine needs to run faster to achieve the same speed, or using more fuel in addition to more drag due to the wider profile of a trike.
Losing some mileage in my opinion is far overcome by the advantages of riding a trike.

[adaptolife]

Better milage? You bought a 2-wheeler, doubled its weight getting it triked, doubled the parasitic drag, doubled the rolling resistance. Of course, now you can haul much more stuff, and pull a trailer. Why worry about milage? Now a Prius, there's some nice milage. Put a trunk on the roof, some fat performance tires, and before you know it, 26mpg.

[TexasGuy]

Had a 2000 GW with CSC that averaged 36 mpg (it's the trike in my pic). Have recently traded it for a 2008 GW with Motor Trike. Best I can tell with only two tanks under my belt is I"m now getting about 30 mpg. That's a mixture of city & highway driving. I did get it up to 75 one day (on a 70 mhp road) just to try it out, but I avoid freeways like the plague and run secondary roads exclusively.

One thing that helps is using cruise control as much as possible.