Carb's and Choke

Well I finally got round to working on the bike and pulling the carbs off, that was after I gave Alex a hand with his bike and looked at this clutch. He has a Aprilia Caponard, which has a hydrolic clutch and judging by the colour of the fluid we took out it hadn't been serviced in rather a while. So just run some more fluid through the system until it ran clean and made sure that we got the expected resistance from the leaver. We did the rear brake as well as the front looked and felt just fine.

Then on to the carbs on the SV650, why I am I sorting them? Simple, bike it running so, rough almost like its being starved of fuel on the rear. Which when we last looked at it with the top off it look like it did as the rear jet seemed to be blowing out almost no fuel compared to the front. After taking them off my other SV in the back garden we found out the reason. Removing the carbs and then the carb choke cables showed the choke to the rear had rusted and snapped. Which rather explains the problem, choke did nothing and probably didn't help the rest off the running, including the noticed increase fuel cost.
No of this was a real problem compared to the weather, which was the most changeable I've ever seen... Kind of went like this. Work on bike, rain, go indoors. Work on bike, hail, go indoors. Work on bike, snow, go indoors. Work on bike freezing rain and wind, give up and go indoors. I never got the carbs back on due to the weather, so this will get done Monday.

Current Averages for Fuel

Averages:
BP Ultimate (97 ron):
Mpg 51.46 KM per Litre:18.21 Pence per mile:8.61 £11.87 137.7 miles
Shell Optimax (97 ron):
Mpg 52.87 KM per Litre:18.11 Pence per mile:8.27 £11.75 142.2 miles
Sainsbury's Super Unleaded (97 ron):
Mpg 51.56 KM per Litre:18.25 Pence per mile:8.12 £11.61 139.5 miles
Sainsbury's Unleaded (95 ron):
Mpg 50.37 KM per Litre:17.83 Pence per mile:8.24 £10.88 132 miles

Why I'm a Cold Stranded Tw@t.

Why you might ask? Well cus I'm stuck in Farnborough with my bike with a flat battery for the second time. I left my feckin' heat grips on when I got to work (i know wire then in properly) and got recovery out to start it. Then what do I got and do, get 2 miles down the road and realise I left my ear plugs out. Stop keep the engine running, sort myself out and pull away and bloody stall it. Oh bloody @rse, its half seven now and I finished work at five thirty.
Have found a router to log my XDA on to though, how hard is WEP to turn on?

Cont...
Then I got all the way to the A3M near Waterloville (about 36 miles from my starting point and about 4 miles from home) and ran out of fuel. Managed to get hold of someone with a petrol can and got home about 22:45, when I live 40 miles from work and I left at 17:30.

My legs hurt, my feet ache, and I'm getting pain from my knees.

Fuel Wars

Well the latest Supermarket fuel wars are still going on, with the price of unleaded dropping to a new low of 86.9 ppl. Something I haven't seen in a while, so much so I was shocked when I saw the sign riding to another petrol station to confrim the price wasn't a mistake (would have gone back if it was). I hope it stays like this as its saving me a few bob each month.

Running on Fumes

Even though my fuel experiment is on hold at the moment while I wait for warmer weather, I'm still doing other things. The last one was seeing how far I can get on a 'tank' of petrol. The SV has a fuel system that states when the light starts flashing you need to start looking for more fuel. Once it moves on to solid its time to find petrol or stand at the side of the road. I've never been sure how far I can get before I really need to fill up so I had a little test.
137 miles fuel light started to flash.
160 miles fuel light goes solid.
182 miles I stop at petrol station and fill up, apart from the shocking price all seems fine. And the bike take 15.58 Litres, in a 16 Litre tank. So 0.42 Litres left, little bit more than what you'll find in a can of cola.
(Mpg 53.1) KM per Litre:18.8 Pence per mile:8.38

Sainsbury's Unleaded

Thought I'd best start using normal unleaded fuel so that I get some sort of 'marker' figures, so here are some results from using Sainsbury's Unleaded @ 90.9 ppl.

(Mpg 48.92) KM per Litre:17.31 Pence per mile:8.45 £11.24 for 133miles
(Mpg 48.69) KM per Litre:17.23 Pence per mile:8.49 £11.12 for 131miles
(Mpg 50.55) KM per Litre:17.89 Pence per mile:8.17 £10.79 for 132 miles
(Mpg 53.33) KM per Litre:18.88 Pence per mile:7.83 £10.35 for 132 miles
This last one was at 91.9ppl.

This is due to change now as fuels gone up again and the cheapest unleaded I can find at the moment is Asda. If your having trouble looking for cheap fuel then have a look at this website:
http://www.petrolprices.com/

Sainsbury's Again

(Mpg 50.97) KM per Litre:18.04 Pence per mile:8.20 126.8 miles for £10.39

Also they are now selling Lindt Chocolate eggs, which the wife rather loves...

Pushing though the Fuel

Well I'm still using the Sainsburys Super, though the MPG seems to pretty much do what it likes.
Last night I pushed the bike a bit on my journey home and did rather a distance and yet its the best result so far.
The day before seems pretty much the same even though I think I was taking it rather easy.

(Mpg 56.63) KM per Litre:20.04 Pence per mile:7.38 155.6 Miles for £13.12
(Mpg 50.52) KM per Litre:17.88 Pence per mile:8.27 138.8 Miles for £11.41

Sainsbury's Super

I've started filling up with Sainsburys Super Unleaded, with the the first set of figures being the last of the Morrisons fuel being used up and then this next batch the Sainsburys lot. Though I have had the bike standing and and reving at the weeked, so the figures are going to be a little out at first.
(Mpg 49.69) KM per Litre:17.59 Pence per mile:8.41 128 miles for £10.76
(Mpg 50.01) KM per Litre:17.7 Pence per mile:8.35 148.5 miles for £12.41
light on at 141.

More Morrisons

(Mpg 48.36) KM per Litre:17.12 Pence per mile:8.36 160miles! for £13.37

Now I took the back way home last night and as the fuel drained away the bike seemed to run rougher and rougher, with it managing to stall 3 times! So i might be changing the fuel rather soon as its been running bad since I started using this Morrisons stuff, maybe justcoincidencee.
Another thing to note is its been rather windy this week so I imagine that didn't help. Did had a lovely ride home last night...Addedd another 20 miles but what the hell, drunk a bit more fuel too...Butt it all seemed to be flowing well last night, all smooth like. The old skill is coming back.

Fuel light started flashing at 132 miles.
Went solid at 155 miles.

More fuel from Morrisons

(Mpg 50.89) KM per Litre:18.01 Pence per mile:7.94 122.8 miles for £9.75

Cheap Fuel

In order to balance things out I've decided that it time to use some 'cheap' fuel, namely some stuff from Morrisons for these reasons:
1. Because it on my route home.
2. I don't have to take a long detour/delay to get there.
3. I have a 'fuel saving' card from Morrisons.
4. Its cheap, cheap, cheap...

So is the cheap store fuel better price per litre then the 'premium' Branded fuel???

(Mpg 50.55) KM per Litre:17.89 Pence per mile:8.00 150 miles for £12

(Mpg 51.71) KM per Litre:18.3 Pence per mile:7.81 138.9 miles for £10.86

So at the moment it looks like I get less mpg but this is balanced out by the lower pence per mile. Though the weather is not as cold, it has been rather wet and windy.

6 more days of Optimax

13th morning
(Mpg 51.9) KM per Litre:18.37 Pence per mile:8.14 £11.15 137 m.
13th evening
(Mpg 50.75) KM per Litre:17.96 Pence per mile:8.32 £11.65 140 m.
14th
(Mpg 50.12) KM per Litre:17.74 Pence per mile:8.43 £11.88 141 m, light came on at 137 m.
15th
(Mpg 53.38) KM per Litre:18.89 Pence per mile:7.91 £11.31 142.9 m.
16th
(Mpg 52.05) KM per Litre:18.42 Pence per mile:8.11 £11.21 138.2 m.
22nd
(Mpg 49.51) KM per Litre:17.52 Pence per mile:8.62 £13.27 154 m fuel gone up to 93.9 ppl.

Most of these figures have been on days that are cold but dry, maybe one or 2 trips with rain. Also the last figure was with 15 miles of running about in Portsmouth getting a new tyre, then running the bike at home sorting the Scottoiler out. So this would have damaged the figures a little.
Another thing I would like to point out is that the Optimax has been pushed a little more in the SV, with me running the bike between 6-7,000rpm in most gears. So I could have got much better fuel figures.
The Average Fuel details has also been updated and I'll be looking round for another fuel to test before I do a final unleaded test. Might try Sainsburys up the road as they have a Super Unleaded.

Day 8 Last of the BP....

Filled up at Shell this morning with Optimax so these are the last of the BP figures.

(Mpg 50.56) KM per Litre:17.89 Pence per mile:8.35

Cost £10.01 for 130.9 miles... been runing the bike hard just lately so that explains the mpg drop. The shell is also cheaper at 92.9 ppl.
Will be updating the Averages at the top as soon as I get some free time...

Day 7

Still wet and not so cold...

(Mpg 52.57) KM per Litre:18.6 Pence per mile:8.55 £12.09 141.3 miles...

Might try to see how long I can run it before the light comes on when I'm taking it easy. As the only time its appeared at the moment is when I've raged. As I only used 12 llitresof fuel I should have another llitresbefore the light comes on. So atleast another 10 miles of tank range. Oh and the fuel price had gone up. its now 98.9 ppl rather then 96.9 ppl.

Day 6 Coldish and a little wet.

(Mpg 53.34) KM per Litre:18.88 Pence per mile:8.26 £11.24 for 136.1 miles

Normally riding, not trying hard to conserve fuel, but not ragging it.

Day 5 bit warmer.

(Mpg 48.41) KM per Litre:17.13 Pence per mile:9.10 136.1 Miles £12.38

Light came on a 131.8.
Still been riding the bike a bit hard, so I'll see how things improve as I ease off again. Maybe even get that magic 60mpg.
I've been told by a friend that works at BP if I keep the fuel in there long enough then it should clean the engine and improve the mpg more. So one more week and then its on to the Optimax or Tesco Super.

Day 4

Still cold.
Well after riding the bike how I felt I seem to have manged to get the reserve light to come on, it was at 133.4 miles and I did take some back roads home. I've been running the bike alot harder then the last few days, so lets see how it affected the MPG.

(Mpg 47.27) KM per Litre:16.73 Pence per mile:9.32 for 135.8miles £12.66

So it looks like I lost about 5 miles per gallon, not bad. Hopefully when the weather warms up this figure should go up as the engine is now at it most inefficient.

Day 3 on the SV

(Mpg 53.92) KM per Litre:19.08 Pence per mile:8.17 for 139 miles £11.35.

So same distance, same journey, similar weather (cold/ice but dry) may have ridden the bike a little harder and still a saving.

Fuel Experiment on the SV

Day 1 on the SV, 120 miles
(Mpg 40.05) KM per Litre:14.18 Pence per mile:11.00 £13.20
This was with what ever fuel was left in the bike and the fuel light came on at about 110 miles, not very good figures, though much better then the old GT

Day 2 on the SV.
(Mpg 53.2) KM per Litre:18.86 Pence per mile:8.27 £11.50
So this is the figures I got from filling up this morning after 138 miles and no fuel light. Much better, even with 3 litres of normal unleaded.