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View Full Version : Week of October 18th - October 24th 2010 (Nat Avg $2.84)


Right Lane Cruiser
10-18-2010, 06:49 AM
Week three of October and we are well into the low morning temperatures here in MN! I hope everyone gets a good start to the week. :)

Wet roads and traffic worked against me today but I managed to just top the triple digit barrier.

42F, no wind, wet roads and overcast:


100.5mpg for 15.0mi (Home to work)

The tank is steady at 99.8mpg over 465.4mi with 13 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

epurvee
10-18-2010, 08:25 AM
Crazy stupid traffic this morning. Cars were backed up almost a mile on my route. When I got to where the bottle neck stopped, there was nothing there. Nothing. Cars were just slowing down at that spot and it backed everything up. Maybe what ever it was cleared up by the time I got there, but go figure. Considering that horrible stretch I'm pleased with this mornings commute. The commute back home was very good. In less than perfect conditions, I had good numbers going home.

65.3 MPG / 11.0 Miles
60.9 MPG / 11.3 Miles

PaleMelanesian
10-18-2010, 09:11 AM
I'm running low, and having a little trouble on bump-starts. It sputters for a few seconds before catching. The low fuel light is fading in and out. 985 miles. Kilo is within reach for sure.

Friday was a disappointing 75.x mpg home. Again, where did the mpg go? The weather should have given much better results.

71.2 this morning, 60F. School dropoff cuts my numbers down a notch.

The tank is down to 78.7 / 985 miles. It's been depressing to watch my tank average drop a tenth or two every day for over a month now. I had 86 mpg early on.

lxmike
10-18-2010, 10:36 AM
The tank is down to 78.7 / 985 miles. It's been depressing to watch my tank average drop a tenth or two every day for over a month now. I had 86 mpg early on.

Andrew, in your fuel logs you show you changed from using straight gas to E-10, Did you change stations or maybe they changed where they get there gas from??

PaleMelanesian
10-18-2010, 10:43 AM
There was only one supplier in the area with straight gas, and they went to E10 a few months ago. :( There were three stations that sold their fuel.

Side note: The three stations were Shell, Exxon, and Texaco. I don't think it really matters what gas you buy. I've seen the same truck filling two of them on the same day.

Right Lane Cruiser
10-18-2010, 10:47 AM
Andrew, we're getting to the time of year where we just have to be happy we are still putting up tanks that are above the lifetime FE of the vehicle. :p

Keep up the good work!! :thumbs_up:

PaleMelanesian
10-18-2010, 01:19 PM
I drove 15 miles for fun, to reach the 1000 mark. 81.2 mpg. I filled up.

I filled 10.921 gallons until fuel was sitting in the filler. Wouldn't take any more. Drove to another station and click-click-clicked at it until I got another 0.954 gallons in there.

That's way out of calibration, and now my best ever mpg tank is an error. :(

84.3 mpg / 1001 miles / 11.875 gal. :woot:

SG: 79.8 mpg / 1001 miles / 12.707 gal.

Right Lane Cruiser
10-18-2010, 04:22 PM
Nice work, Andrew! That's a pleasant surprise. :)

I had a rough time of it getting home with all the traffic. Lower temperatures weren't much of a help, either but at least the tank average is back in the triple digits again. :p

54F, 8mph cross/headwind from the WNW, sunny:


104.1mpg for 15.3mi (Work to home)

The tank is now back up to 100.1mpg over 480.8mi with 13 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

Day Total: 102.2mpg over 30.4mi

PaleMelanesian
10-18-2010, 04:24 PM
Sean - are you on a more standard workday schedule now? Does that put you in worse traffic?

Right Lane Cruiser
10-18-2010, 05:19 PM
I'm shifted forward one hour so I now get to work just after 6:30 and leave a few minutes before 3:00 -- the traffic is a little worse at those times of day but mostly it is that the new route just has worse congestion in locations that are difficult to finesse. On the flip side, it is a good 9mi shorter each direction and takes a lot less time to travel than the old route.

Trade-offs!

Right Lane Cruiser
10-19-2010, 06:51 AM
Some days I have to wonder what I did to get on somebody's hit list. :p

Extra rude tailgaters this morning with a completely daft driver in front of me for the last half mile. The one I typically do engine off into my slot. :( I pull in behind him and he brake checks me down to 15mph? Then slowly pulls into my parking slot... sits there for about 2min, then drives off at 10mph?? :confused:

I don't know what THAT was about, but it wasn't a nice start to the day. :(

42F, 4mph headwind from the SW, clear:


97.5mpg for 15.0mi (Home to work)

The tank is steady at 100.1mpg over 495.9mi with 12 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

I'll need at least 103mpg on the way home to best the tank average for the day.

PaleMelanesian
10-19-2010, 07:57 AM
I stopped on the way home for more gas. Only 0.376 gallons more, so it really is full.

Updated fill numbers: 1003 miles, 12.251 gallons = 81.9 mpg.


Then, 83.4 mpg home and 78.2 this morning. 78 is a good home-school-work run.

epurvee
10-19-2010, 08:00 AM
Had to take a different route to work to drop some stuff off at my daughter's daycare but I still got decent numbers this morning. I think that grill block is having some positive effects on my overall commute. I have 300 miles on this tank so far averaging 63.1 MPG so I think I will break 60 this tank with no problem.

Had my best commute home to date when considering the sgii adjustments.

68.1 MPG / 12.4 Miles Home to daycare to work
62.3 MPG / 11.3 Miles work to home

LinuxGold
10-19-2010, 08:57 AM
This tank is awful -- bad weather (cold temp, a lot of winds and rain) now approaching half on the gauge @ 200 miles... :(

Right Lane Cruiser
10-19-2010, 04:23 PM
Well, I managed to make the mark on the way home.

59F, 10mph cross/tailwind from the WSW, sunny:


104.8mpg for 15.4mi (Work to home)

The tank is steady at 100.1mpg over 511.3mi with 12 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

Day Total: 101.0mpg over 30.4mi

Die2self
10-19-2010, 09:15 PM
:thumbs_up: RLC way to pull it out of the bag

Last week was 24.5 mpg over 132.1 miles
with a best in Commute from work 27.7 over 13 miles

26.2 mpg for yesterday

23.2 mpg for today

working about 1/2 the actual tank now with 268.5 miles (~24.5 MPG)

ItsNotAboutTheMoney
10-19-2010, 09:58 PM
Date|Time|Description|Miles|mpg|gpCm|soc|*F|Prpn|Wind|Notes
10/18|07:31|Work (S)|20.6|54.7|1.83|5|43||0-WNW 12.7|
10/18|17:50|Home (N)|20.8|57.9|1.73|5|48||W 6.9|
10/19|07:41|Work (S)|20.6|47.2|2.12|4|32||SW 4.6|Tires up to 41/39. Freezing. Forced to warm up to clear windshield*
10/19|17:40|Work to Friend (S)|17.0|54.5|1.83|6|45||SSW 3.5|
10/19|21:27|Friend to Home (N)|37.9|67.0|1.49|4|37||SSW 3.5|Phew!
10/20|07:41|Work (S)|20.6|52.0|1.92|6|36||S 4.6|Freezing again. But this time scrape, defrost and wipers were enough
10/20|17:35|Home (N)|20.8|63.5|1.57|4|55||S 4.6|
||Week Total|210.9|70.1|1.43|||||


* I had scraped the windshield and then pumped the tires up to 41/39. I didn't realize it was still freezing so got in the car and discovered that I couldn't see. I ended up sitting in the car waiting for it to defrost the windshield. At the 10 mile mark where I've usually in the mid 40s I was at 35 instead! Thankfully I had the extra trip to my friend's house to keep my day above average. However, if this is the shape of things to come my days won't be above average much longer. Still, I have just over 2 months to go before the 1 year anniversary so at least I'll be "hyper" overall.

Right Lane Cruiser
10-19-2010, 10:16 PM
Thanks, Jason! :)

RobertSmalls
10-19-2010, 10:18 PM
Winter's here in Buffalo as well, though we haven't had a hard frost yet. Moved my license plate to its winter position, such that 80% of my grille is blocked. I'll actually want to cut it down to just a few square inches of opening for Jan-Mar. Now that I have MIMA, that's yet another tool I can use to stave off overheating, if my cooling system should find itself overwhelmed.

I accidentally left my heater controls at "hot" (fan off), so the car didn't even fully warm up during the 6mi charge depleting round trip I took today.

Right Lane Cruiser
10-19-2010, 10:29 PM
Robert, I actually have my Insight grill openings completely blocked off in the winter if the daytime highs don't get above 25F or so. On my old route I used to need to have the heater on when it got close to 20F for the last section of my route home but my new route is so much shorter I don't anticipate any issues at all.

How are you mounting the license plate up higher? Are you actually attaching to the hood in some fashion? :confused:

RobertSmalls
10-19-2010, 10:54 PM
RLC,

I've permanently blocked 100% of my upper grille and half of my lower grille in fiberglass. I threw out the dead weight front license bracket, and I just screw my plate to the bumper cover. In the winter, it's in front of the lower grille opening on the driver's side. In the summer, it's in front of the lower grille block on the passenger's side.

Right Lane Cruiser
10-20-2010, 06:43 AM
Ah. Thanks for the explanation. I've got my lower grill 100% blocked year round and fill in the top with pipe insulation when it gets cold enough.

47F (43F windchill), 9mph crosswind from the W, clear:


98.2mpg for 15.0mi (Home to work)

The tank is steady at 100.1mpg over 526.3mi with 12 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

epurvee
10-20-2010, 07:48 AM
Had to take my daughter to day car this morning so I couldn't take my good route to work. Didn't fare too bad though.
Good commute back home, and tank is still at 63 MPG!

67.1 MPG / 12.3 Miles home to daycare to work
60.2 MPG / 11.2 Miles work to home

PaleMelanesian
10-20-2010, 07:59 AM
Had to take my daughter to day car this morning
You might be a hypermiler if... ;)

---------------------------

84.3 mpg home, 10.7 miles, 80 degrees
76.9 / 12.6 this morning, 65 degrees

The new tank is at 80.2 / 45.5 miles.

epurvee
10-20-2010, 05:32 PM
Heh! I would have hoped to work in fas or some other term :)

Right Lane Cruiser
10-20-2010, 06:05 PM
Man, that trip home was terrible. :( I was held up late in the office while they replaced my laptop (which I didn't want them to do anyway... darned lifecycle stuff) so I had to take the highway to get to my doctor's appointment on time. Throw in stupid strong winds and you've got a recipe for totally uninspiring mileage. :( :(

Oh well. :p

63F, 23-39mph headwind from the WNW, sunny:


82.2mpg for 9.5mi (Work to doctor's office :eek: :ccry:)
115.1mpg for 4.2mi (Doctor's office to home)

The tank is back down to 99.8mpg over 540.1mi with 12 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

Day Total: 94.0mpg for 28.8mi :ccry:

On the plus side, the final leg shows I haven't lost my touch... and my lifetime mileage just ticked up to 92.8mpg. :)

RobertSmalls
10-20-2010, 06:50 PM
YKYAH if 82mpg makes you sad.

I feel for you, RLC, I pulled a disappointing 79mpg * 32mi round trip. Finally, a trip long enough that I can travel most of the way in lean burn, and we get blasted by high winds. Soon, it'll be cold enough that I'll struggle to break 60mpg.

Also got stuck behind a pickup truck who knocked me out of LB with his not-quite-DWL speed variations on the gently rolling terrain. I blew past him with MIMA when a sufficiently large opening appeared.

Right Lane Cruiser
10-20-2010, 07:20 PM
:o I shouldn't complain but I've set the bar kinda high for myself. :o

Are you still running just the stock pack or have you augmented with extra batteries?

RobertSmalls
10-20-2010, 07:44 PM
It's still stock, and I probably won't ever upgrade it. A 50-cell lithium pack + BMS would be expensive enough that I'd want to see a proper EV mode, which just isn't going to happen via the IMA motor. So it's full (ph)EV or nothing!

Right Lane Cruiser
10-20-2010, 07:59 PM
:thumbs_up: I'm of pretty much the same opinion.

Oainac
10-20-2010, 08:31 PM
Today's numbers...

Stupid rain, ruining my biking fun. :(
Home - School (Jazz Band Practice) 22.6MPG over 2.6Mi
School - Home 23.5MPG over 2.6Mi

Well at least I carpooled so I don't have to feel so bad about these numbers.
One less car was making the short trip.

Right Lane Cruiser
10-21-2010, 07:23 AM
Cold and windy with unfortunate traffic stops. :p

39F (32F windchill), 9mph crosswind from the WNW, clear:


96.5mpg for 15.0mi (Home to work)

The tank average is back down to 99.6mpg over 555.1mi with 11 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

epurvee
10-21-2010, 07:39 AM
Another day of taking my daughter to daycare, and this time I didn't get some of the good breaks I've been getting on lights and with those additional complete stops mileage was worse this morning. I guess I shouldn't be too unhappy but I'm disappointed.
Now the ride home was a downright complete disaster. I picked the worst route to go pick my daughter up from daycare. In Augusta there can be some hills. I happened to pick the route with a gradual hill that went on for approx 2 miles. That with the stop and go traffic, even with P&G was horrible.

62.0 MPG / 12.3 Miles home to daycare to work
49.2 MPG / 12.7 Miles work to daycare to home

PaleMelanesian
10-21-2010, 08:05 AM
74.5 / 10.6 - home last night. ??? 84 the day before, in similar conditions. I can think of places I misjudged and lost some mpg, but only 5 mpg or so. Where'd the rest go? Bah!
76.5 / 12.5 - home-school-work this morning. 60 degrees and foggy.

The tank is down to 78.6 / 69 miles.

Right Lane Cruiser
10-21-2010, 06:12 PM
52F, 8mph headwind from the WNW, sunny:


106.9mpg for 15.3mi (Work to home)

The tank is back up to 99.8mpg over 570.5mi with 11 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

Day Total: 101.5mpg over 30.4mi

Oainac
10-21-2010, 07:15 PM
Ugg... drove to school today.
22MPG on the way there.
17MPG on the way home.

I need to get a timer for my block heater and install a grill block.

alvaro84
10-21-2010, 07:56 PM
Did not fill up this week so far, the tank I started last week back from East Hungary was enough for a 135km road trip in the neighbourhood and the weekly commute.
Weather was nice this week, I got rain only on the first night.
However, mornings are pretty cold. Clouds kept temperature up at ~6-8C in the beginning, but it went down yesterday and today it's freezing. Good that I brought a pair of extra pants.

Tomorrow we're off to the East again. Probably not much of these trips left, which is good. We're both tired of them, it would be much better to enjoy my days off. I hope we won't get morning frost at the weekend, we should leave quite early.

alvaro84
10-22-2010, 05:06 AM
The way back proved much longer than usual (~40 vs 25km). The battery died in my colleague's Transalp so I gave him a lift - we're doing bikepooling :D

And it was really freezing. I gave up sleeping for now, so my feet are not that cold anymore :D

Right Lane Cruiser
10-22-2010, 06:59 AM
It's getting a bit chilly here, too! That makes getting the big numbers a lot harder, and my clutch mod is acting up, too. I had the console apart yesterday after getting home because my FAS button was getting flaky and the clutch mod stopped working. I got the button re-soldered but the clutch mod seemed to be working (tested cranking the engine with the switch engaged and disengaged without touching the clutch pedal). It wasn't working at all this morning so I've got a switch or solder join issue. :p

32F, 3mph headwind from the S, clear:


94.0mpg for 15.0mi (Home to work)

The tank is back down to 99.6mpg over 585.6mi with 10 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

epurvee
10-22-2010, 07:59 AM
Woo hoo! Great commute this morning. Unburdened from taking my daughter to daycare I was free to use my good route again and got the best numbers I have had when factoring in the adjustments made to the sgii.
Great commute back home too!

79.9 MPG / 11.0 Miles home to work
60.2 MPG / 11.3 Miles work to home

PaleMelanesian
10-22-2010, 08:41 AM
Temps ~80, falling to mid-60's overnight

mpg / miles
79.0 / 10.5 - home last night. A wreck and looky-loo slow traffic on the worst uphill segment killed my excellent start. Just before the wreck I saw 100 on the SG. :D
88.6 / 8.9 - to music practice after dinner
74.3 / 9.2 - home, late
76.3 / 12.5 - this morning, home-school-work

The tank is now at 78.7 / 110 miles.

ItsNotAboutTheMoney
10-22-2010, 03:49 PM
[Date|Time|Description|Miles|mpg|gpCm|soc|*F|Prpn|Wind|Notes
10/18|07:31|Work (S)|20.6|54.7|1.83|5|43||0-WNW 12.7|
10/18|17:50|Home (N)|20.8|57.9|1.73|5|48||W 6.9|
10/19|07:41|Work (S)|20.6|47.2|2.12|4|32||SW 4.6|Tires up to 41/39. Freezing. Forced to warm up to clear windshield*
10/19|17:40|Work to Friend (S)|17.0|54.5|1.83|6|45||SSW 3.5|
10/19|21:27|Friend to Home (N)|37.9|67.0|1.49|4|37||SSW 3.5|Phew!
10/20|07:41|Work (S)|20.6|52.0|1.92|6|36||S 4.6|Freezing again. But this time scrape, defrost and wipers were enough
10/20|17:35|Home (N)|20.8|63.5|1.57|4|55||S 4.6|
10/21|07:38|Work (S)|20.6|53.5|1.87|6|50||S 5-calm|
10/21|17:45|Home (N)|20.8|59.0|1.69|4|50||SW 3.5-6.9|
10/22|07:35|Work (S)|20.6|51.2|1.95|5|37|light rain|SSW 3.5-6.9|
10/22|15:15|Home (N)|21.9|61.2|1.63|6|45||WNW 15|Via vet: took I95
||Week Total|294.8|98.0|1.02|||||


* I had scraped the windshield and then pumped the tires up to 41/39. I didn't realize it was still freezing so got in the car and discovered that I couldn't see. I ended up sitting in the car waiting for it to defrost the windshield. At the 10 mile mark where I've usually in the mid 40s I was at 35 instead! Thankfully I had the extra trip to my friend's house to keep my day above average. However, if this is the shape of things to come my days won't be above average much longer. Still, I have just over 2 months to go before the 1 year anniversary so at least I'll be "hyper" overall.[/QUOTE]

Right Lane Cruiser
10-22-2010, 03:57 PM
^-- I think you might need to recalculate that week total mpg.

Warmer temps and a tailwind sure help to pull the day average up!

67F, 13-17mph tailwind from the S, sunny:


110.2mpg for 15.3mi (Work to home)

The tank is back up to 99.8mpg over 601.0mpg with 10 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

Day Total: 101.5mpg over 30.4mi

That drive home was far from perfect... way too many red lights, but I pulled through anyway. I also found that my clutch mod switch was working again (intermittently) and decided it must just have dirty contacts inside. It is the power switch from an old computer powersuply that sat in my garage for over 3 years. :o

alvaro84
10-25-2010, 02:17 AM
I almost could reach 3l/100km with last week's commuter tank (3.02 is the end), I don't see it too bad considering the temperature and that ~160km of the 484 was 2-up. Going under 3l (or even over 80mpg) would have been no problem by normal commuting.

Then I made a short tank, fully 2-up, started the East trip in ~3C (yes, we were cold) and did not top up the tank to get the low fuel light by the time we arrive to our destination. I was quite afraid of the way back (it gets cold after sunset and rain was possible too) so I decided to dress up so much that it would be a PITA to stop to refuel. It was another PITA to get on/off the bike because the luggage occupied the back seat too.

Of course I forgot about the earplugs before building the heated gloves together with my cordura coat and raincoat and realized that it's impossible to put them in my ears with gloves, but I made some negative pressure through my eustachian tube that effectively dampened the wind noise. It's like a new technique to me :D And went slower than usual, of course. And despite the lower speed (usually ~90km/h by speedo, with some DWL and lower PSL roads so it varied) I ran this 295km much faster than anytime before... (interesting how close I got to a friend's time who took advantage of the 130km/h PSL - we're both between 3 and 4 hours...)

Traffic was quite dense as I approached Budapest (people going back from weekend) so I became afraid of getting into traffic jams inside - plus I was not cold at all so going into the city lost its appeal - therefore I took the bypass along M31 and M0.
At ~200km I had to straighten my legs and excercise my right wrist. I'm thankful to hypermiling to know of Pulse&Glide, it comes handy when I want to release the throttle :) And I'm thankful for M31 which was quite empty and I did not interfere with anyone with my exercises :D

I only got 4 short showers on the way back so the wool blanket stayed dry on the back seat :)

Today I may have to give a lift to shiNIN who stayed at the East while I had to go to work this morning - she may come (by train) after the last bus to our village (which leaves at ~8pm) so we have to rely on individual transport for the last 20km.

The middle, 2-up tank became 3.39l/100km, I'm not impressed with it at all...
The last is unknown ATM (no low fuel light at 322km).

Right Lane Cruiser
10-25-2010, 06:54 AM
I don't normally drive on weekends but we had a wedding to attend on Saturday that specifically stated no children allowed (:confused: We had them at our wedding!), so I picked up a baby sitter in the early afternoon. My wife dropped her off when we got back late in the evening.

10/23/2010

54F, 8mph wind from the ENE, overcast:


103.1mpg for 12.0mi (Home to pick up baby sitter and back)

The tank rose to 100.1mpg over 613.0mi with 10 of 20 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.

PaleMelanesian
10-25-2010, 08:17 AM
I don't understand that new trend. Weddings are family events at the most fundamental level.

Congrats on reattaining 100.

I got 87.7 going home on Friday.



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