All but the octane would/should make a difference. The Feejer doesn't have a knock sensor, hence no timing retard, so octane wouldn't affect mileage to any degree.
Just got done with a 700 mile trip in the White Mountains of N.H. Got high 40's in the mountains, on the trip back home I was at 222 miles and put 4.9 gallons in to refill. Just curious, what do you refer to as the "brink"? Is that to where the gas just hit the botton of the little sleeve in the tank or do you continue to fill past that another inch or so to the top of the actual tank? That would seem messy and hard to fill to that point...
Octane makes no difference whatsoever. Nor will cans, as they are not the restriction - the catalytic converter is. I don't see how different brands of tires will change anything either, assuming you stay in the sport-touring category. Tire pressure could definitely make a difference, however, albeit a very small one.
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Jay, as you bring out, temperature and humidity are serious bad boys when it comes to power and efficiency. Helicopter pilots can really tell you a lot on this subject. IMO you can't just look at elevation without factoring in temp and humidity at the As far as octane goes, I agree that octane by itself probably has little effect on mileage but the same octane rating on the pump at different gas stations sure can. Not only do different companies make different blends, they make different blends for different regions of the country for different seasons. Tires can make a difference because they "can" have different diameters and the compounds can have different rolling friction values. In theory, the ME880 should have an effect on mileage, don't know what that would be but if it were the same as a PR under the same conditions that would be very surprising. With all that being said, what you do with your right wrist has more effect on mileage than anything.
This post inspired me to look it up again in the manual, now it's burned into my brain. So before hitting reserve, 270 miles? with a heavy throttle hand. Usually when I'm down to the last bar I look for a place to gas up, so I loose probably 100kms by not burning up the reserve.
Once I recorded 68 miles on reserve, since then I use 60 as the standard once the blinking lite comes one, and that will occure between 219-239, depending on gas and how I am riding. Once the reserve light starts blinking, I maintain 70-75mph for the next 60 miles or gas station some where near there. I now use the GPS to locate gas stations near the 280 mile mark. I could have gone 300 many times over the last 20,000 miles but figure riding on that last .3 gal is risky. I quite often put in 5.9-6.3 gals.
