we bore carbs, we port, we pipe, we reed, we big bore, we clutch so it can rev at 7800 or 8000 r.p.m. from 30 m.p.h. to 100 m.p.h. do we/you all really think the fuel mileage is a big priority? i mean unless your toteing the family at 30 m.p.h along the trail do we really care??????? i mean throw in nine or ten gallons, give her hell, when she's close to empty fill her up. we spend all this money on our sleds and worry about a couple gallons of gas??????? i'm sorry i'm done now with that, just a thaught. i'd pay five bucks a gallon to run mine!!!!!1

i agree, got to have the power but sometimes you are not close enough to the gas and have to siphon, thank god for the new 4 strokes , they have the extra gas lol

If you are racing on the the lake, who cares! But if you are on a extended trail ride,it maters!

I wonder if those belly aching about milage drive a VW? I doubt it, more than likely a 4x4 that gets 10-14 mpg.

Its time for those that whine to get a FAN or learn to manage what they have available to them because I didn't buy an 800 for the milage!

:withstupid: That's why I drive a 500 and not an 800, I do 95% trail riding. Fuel, sled and insurance are all less with the 500, but it still boogies on the trail.

Decent fuel consumption is important when trail ridding. When you ride after 6:00pm a lot of small gas stations are closed. If I can't get 80 miles to a tank it takes away a lot of ridding options. Don't get me wrong I ride an MXZ 800 only because Doo doesn’t have anything bigger in this chassis. More compression, big bore, bigger ports, clutching for more rpm all this means is you need a "tour buddy" and a riding buddy with a four stroke.

Hummmm if only I could convince him to buy a blue sled.

SWRules

:withstupid:

When trail riding, its about the biggest priority. Nothing worse than cutting a night ride short, due to someone being low on gas. When I had my AC 580, I was always that guy.
With my 700 triple, I am never that guy anymore, and I still get great performance.

It all depends on what type of riding you do. Typically the guys with all the mods, aren't the guys doing high mileage touring.

FishHog

I only worry about fuel mileage as it relates to time riding. I agree it is tough to get fuel late at night and it is always sad to cut your ride short because 1 sled is low. We carry cans but it still would require a trip to the truck for fuel. I'd rather the weight penalty of having a few extra gallons on board than have to come in early.

On a few occasions we have come in on fumes limpin along. I carry a siphon line just in case we need to transfer some fuel to the low sled and get back. We've been lucky so far.

I have noticed that mileage, sled size and mods are not always related. Some of the worse sleds out there appear to be the smaller stock 500-600's.

My 521 Plus is easier on gas than our old 377 Safari though. Go figure!

I could care less about MPG, just as long as I am not getting 2-3 miles to the gallon and I get to a gas station before running out.

Yes mileage is a big concern for all the reasons already stated.My wife also rides with me and with the price of gas filling up two sleds with gas and oil gets expensive in a hurry.Don't get me wrong I know you gotta pay to play and I don't mind a sled thats harder on gas If your getting a big return in performance.What really hurts is when somebody can kick your ### out on the lake and then after a few hours riding you pull in and fill up and he takes $6 or $7 bucks less to fill up than you do.He just got his lunch for free.Nobody wants a sled thats a pig on gas if he's doing much trail riding.If your just blasting up and down a lake,who cares?

Try riding in quebec where gas stops are often more than 100 miles apart!!!! Gas mileage is the only thing on your mind when youve got 20 miles to go, are in the middle of nowhere and the gas gauge reads "E". Not everyone rides where theres a gas station every 20 miles.

Very true tt670 , when we ride in northern ontario we come into alot of the towns with the needle on E not moving. It makes for a stressfull last few miles. This year with the clutch and needle updates we should see some improvement. I also added a rear rack to bring a jerry can this year. ;)

It always irked me that my expedition pulling a 4-place enclosed trailer would get better milage than my machZ :angry:

Originally posted by ARCTICZRT600@Dec 24 2002, 09:04 AM
I could care less about MPG, just as long as I am not getting 2-3 miles to the gallon and I get to a gas station before running out.
Looks like you do care about gas mileage. :doh:

Depending on how I ride my MXZ will get 10-12 MPG,not bad. 10 MPG or better is acceptable to me. I enjoy riding with my wife,but everytime we go on a weekend trip it cost me about $500.00. So I guess MPG should be a factor in how much I spend in a weekend of riding. Never had a problem with almost running out of gas,just money ???

Gas milage is a big priority for me, I like to ride to much where there is no gas stations, and I ride with my wife and when you go to the pump it does get expensive filling up two sleds.

I used to not really care about the mileage for my 440zx.
It would cost me $22 [Canadian] to go 62 miles thru this trail to the next fuel stop.
After building the clutch kit for my sled, I got to enjoy waaaay better clutching and super mileage.
My mileage went down to $16 [Canadian] per same trip. Now I get the same mileage as 600 mxz's and Edge-X's and sometimes beat them at the pump.

Now I do care of my mileage....I save between $20 to $25 / weekend now, and it adds up after 2000 miles. :thumbsup:

TT & Perm', I've heard guys comment that they wouldn't ride in northern Ontario because it's hard to get gas :withstupid: :doh: I asked him who told them that. The guy said his dealer. I asked him if his dealer had ever been up there. He said no he hadn't. I told him the guy didn't know what he was talking about.

I've made 3 trips up there over 1100 miles of riding each time & no problems getting gas. Just plan your stops & top up when you can.

I don't ..... really care to much about it , But I can't seem to pass a gas station on the Mach-z .... hahaha that's what my trip is , '' from station to station '' But I get there fast .... if it's mpg I'm looking for I'll take the Phazer out ... :sly:

gas cheap here, 48 cents a liter, plus if u farm u get extra 15 cents off. ut that will change soon to i think

I have been north countless times Revrnd and the big problem is that there is NOTHING inbetween towns, no stores, no houses . !!! Your sled is more fuel conservative than ours, and chances are you spend less time in the powder. It seems the average distance betweens most towns up there is over 100 kliks which pushes us to the limit as the powder eats up lots of gas. We have never run out, but have come very close many times. I certainly wouldnt let it scare me away from the area :)

Originally posted by Mighty RX-1@Dec 24 2002, 11:53 AM
It always irked me that my expedition pulling a 4-place enclosed trailer would get better milage than my machZ *:angry:
You're kidding, right. My '97 would do 8 MPG if I was lucky (really lucky) pulling my enclosed at 65MPH. The 2 Machs are having a bad day if they get less than 11 miles per gallon. I'm hoping my '03 Expy is better, It's my backup hauler, if I need it.

Mark :thumbsup:

I don't really care about what I spend in fuel. What concerns me is what my range is. If I have to ride 15 miles of trail to get to the powder and the hills I want to be able to play around and do some boondocking before I have to head back to the truck. If my miles(kilometers) per tank is low then I have less time for fun. Alot of places I ride don't have the option of gas stations so we pack a few extra gallons on the back of our sleds. Do I care about fuel efficiency? You bet I do. Just not because of the cost. Merry Christmas all. Have a safe and fun holiday season. Jack

Perm, I think you took my comment the wrong way. I wasn't implying that gas was easy to find up there. I know when there were 2 trails between Hearst & Hornepayne, the gas guzzlers went by way of Mooseland where there was gas. The other trail was about 95 miles of nothing.

You guys obviously know the gas situation & make the correct preparations. I would never steer anyone away from sledding in northern Ontario just because gas isn't readily available.

Looking forword,, I will accept the MPG,,, just want to know my RANGE between fillups. Will carry extra gas if necesary :)

Eventhough I don't like spending the extra $$ for a sled that can't get good gas milege, my primary concern is not running out of fuel and spoiling my day and imposing on my riding buddies time trying to tow a sled to a fuel stop. So when it comes down to it, M.P.G. does matter assuming that fuel stops are not overly abudant. My .02 :sarcasm:

in a way we all care about mpg...i just wish doo would have put a bigger tank on the zx,the zr's hold 3 gallons more,38 litres is way to small,id like a 15 gallon tank for when your out on the power lines busting trail

The thing that sucks the most is spending $60-$100 to get to where the snow is on a 3- 5 hour drive pulling a trailer. My brother inlaw has artic cats and his 550 and 800zl's use almost twice as much as our 500 and 600 mxz' do. Fuel mileage is important on long rides, but most we do are short and during the morning and day. Don't like riding real late when the drunks are on the trails and only thing open are bars.

Originally posted by Troll@Dec 24 2002, 07:00 PM
Looking forword,, I will accept the MPG,,, just want to know my RANGE between fillups. Will carry extra gas if necesary :)
Troll,your range should be up to 130 miles w/ your 500. Maybe more if you dont pin it all the time. ;)

I recently bought a 2002 Legend 800, Great sled ,MILEAGE SUCKS, my calculations show this thing is only getting 3.7KM'S per liter (8 MPG. ?).Anybody else ride one of these? What kind of mileage do you get? Any input would be helpfull. We have a northern Ontario trip planned , and even if i add a TOUR BUDDY i dont think i will make the fuel stops.

dont be saying you wanna fun 5 dollar a gallon gas... i gotta do that till i get my low octane heads in.. its expensive and you cant get 110 octane on the trails.

I did a 136miles trip last week-end Port-Cartier to Baie-Comeau with my old rusty brown 1986
pantera 440 lc and it took around 7.5 gal of fuel...so if I do count right it does around 18miles per gallon :thumbsup: ...not so bad...crusing at around 40-50mph with some straight shot at 70mph. 220km with 30liters of gas. 7km per liter...tell me if am wrong...Feel sad for this guy with the legend 800...but he has more confort and power than me .But in those small trails you cant go faster so who needs all that power?? Im on a very tight budget so I just cant afford it if I want to enjoy the sport. So for me fuel milage is very important. And where I ride gas station are very far from one to the other...at .85c a liter. :angry:

I dont care so much about mph as i do the price of gas. Ten years ago i could get gas for .90 a gallon now i'm paying $1.60, it's getting rediculous and it probably isn't going to get any better, give me cheaper gas and i don't care if i get 3mpg.

Last year I was getting 9-10 mpg with my 01 MXZ 800. I went with an RK Tek head, piston kit, and his cylinder porting. Dropped main jet size from 500's to 430's. I have a lot more power than last year and I am getting 15-16 mpg to boot. I am still a little rich on bottom and top end. I am getting better fuel economy than all the 600's I ride with! I am no longer the reason why we are hunting for gas stations. Thanks Kelsey.

I look at it this way...I just paid $1.50 for a lousy bottle of water (or pepsi). Why in the world would I cry about paying $1.56 for a gal. of gas!

Trapper

What gas station closes at 6 P.M.? Thats crazy if they do