[Officerbill]

Riding my '87 GL 1200 today I was speeding along and got enough speed to warrant OD. I'm normally in third gear since the speed and RMP are in good balance. However, my fuel economy has not been the best, cleaning and changing dirty stuff has made a difference, but still the low 30's for mpg seems low.
So, what gear do you ride in most of the time when you are not on the open rode and puttzing around town?
Bill

 

[fxrshog]

Fourth and fifth on my wing!!

 

[Chopin]

I always seem to be in fifth gear except on neighborhood streets. Why do you think we were hoping for a sixth gear on the 2011 Goldwing.

 

[detdrbuzzard]

first off what wing are you riding and then to answer your question 5th on the 1500 and on the 1200 i try to keep it at 2200rpm or above so 4th gear see most of the work until i'm going fast enough to be in 5th and 2200 rpm or more

 

[willmax]

Above 45 I'm in 5th.

 

[Eric]

I have a 1200 wing and get 37 mpg in the built up area.I use 4 gear in the built up area. Open road 2 up I get 35 mpg. I just returned from a 560 mile trip yesterday with light winds with just myself and tried slowing down to 62-65 mph and got 36 mpg. That was over a distance of 165 miles. On the last tank doing 70-75 mph over a distance of 150 miles I got 35 mpg. Eric

 

[Two Wheel Wing]

Around town I can usually pull in 4th gear. I average low to mid-fortys with my Wing..

 

[joe in calif]

Once you get over 3000 RPM's you will see a big drop in gas mileage. I usually shift around 2500 PRM's

 

[budoka]

GL engines have plenty of torque, use your higher gears all you can and your mileage should improve.

 

[dynodon]

Basically use the highest gear that won't lug the engine. I loaf around town all the time on my 1800 at 1500 or 1600 rpm. As long as you don't give the engine a lot of grip twist that low it won't hurt a thing. If you need to gas it, drop down a gear or two, but you can hammer it all you want above about 1800 rpm. You won't really lug it till you get well below 1500 rpm. (FYI, "lugging" involves a lot or throttle at very low rpm's where you can feel every power pulse pretty much and the engine labors. You want to avoid this, but just running the engine at light throttles near 1500 won't hurt a thing.).

 

[LarryinSeattle]

keep the rpms up or you won't be charging your battery.

 

[dynodon]

Larry, at what rpm will a modern cycle charge a battery? Anything above idle on a car will keep a batter charged unless you are running a 1000 watt boom box. Most of my bikes will throw a charge with aux lights, stereo, CB running and charge at 1500 or above.

My old '86 VR though, if I add in heated gloves it takes 2500.

Even if you cruise around in high gear a lot, you won't spend much time below 2000 rpm, and the give and take of city traffic means you are over that quite a bit of the time.

so I don't see using the highest comfortable gear as a problem, unless you are doing 30 mph for hours on end in top gear with lots of power drain?

 

[LarryinSeattle]

I have an amp gauge on my 94 1500 wing. Anything under 12.75 volts is considered discharging or even..... 13 or above is charging. When I am idling at 1,000 rpm, my gauge shows 12.3 or so. At 1500 rpms, my bike is running about 12.75. At 2500 rpms, my gauge shows 13.5. My battery is a new gel and my alternator is less than a year old.

With a weak battery, 12.75 is not charging enough and you could be draining your battery.

There are others here that are experts. I have just read a lot about lugging motorcycles, which causes battery drain.