Bike vs Car fuel economy - help please

I'm currently having a debate with a friend and could use some technical details to prove why a bike is generally more economical than a car...unless i'm actually wrong?


Any help is appreciated,
Cheers Dave

depends on the car, if itsa modern diesel compaed to a SS600 or 1000cc the car will be more ecconomical most of the time in most driving conditions.

It is unlikley to beat a 125 in the city though.

I have a 6r a 307 Hdi and a mondeo 1,8TD. Out of them the Oug is best on fuel and the bike worst. BUT that is cos i ride the bike at high revs and low gears most of the time. If i was to sit at 70 on the motorway i would probably do a comparible MPG to the pug.

Erm a 2L car can at a push get a real world 35MPG (none of this lab test crap) I never had less that 55MPG (as much as 70MPG on motorway runs) out of the SV and even manage between 45-55MPG on the 1000cc Falco. All of those are giving it some beans too. If you thrashed the car youd get MUCH less.

Then to top it off that cars get stuck in traffic!

If he mention's diesels then you'll get 45-50MPG (On a motorway run) which is good but still no SV^^

K its just I have a pug 406 2.0 turbo and i get between 12-20 mpg and the sv650 figures are at 42-50 or something on the suzuki website. (That's with me driving resonably btw) the car is quite old which is most likely why, i'm not talking about buying the most economical cars.

surely using F=ma because say my car is 1000kg, so to get an accelaration of 1m per second you need 1000N force, whereas for a 100kg bike (just using figures that are simple here) to get 1m per second acceleration you need 100N, obviously there are other inputs too like the fact a bike revs quite high compared to a car?

Am i complete talking out of my rear hole?

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

If he mention's diesels then you'll get 45-50MPG (On a motorway run) which is good but still no SV^^

i can get 45 MPg out of the 307 on a bad day, even on a 90mph Mway run its tipping 50MPG

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

Erm a 2L car can at a push get a real world 35MPG (none of this lab test crap) I never had less that 55MPG (as much as 70MPG on motorway runs) out of the SV and even manage between 45-55MPG on the 1000cc Falco. All of those are giving it some beans too. If you thrashed the car youd get MUCH less.

Then to top it off that cars get stuck in traffic!

If he mention's diesels then you'll get 45-50MPG (On a motorway run) which is good but still no SV^^

I dunno how you got that out of an SV - I always got around 40 and never more. God knows what the RSV gives me (not worked it out yet) but it ain't gonna be good!

As per signiture...

I get 50ish MPG on the SV (all a/b roads)
and 16-18MPG with my car lol, its a no brainer really! Tho both are fun in their own ways.


Oh and here is a useful site for working out MPG

http://www.robinwhite.fsnet.co.uk/co...mit2=Calculate

[Balky001]

There's so many variables ot this but looking at averages I think the 'offical' combined average mpg for the SV is 40. What's the average car, 30 for petrol, 45 for diesel? You can carry 4 to 5 people in an average car and still see a combined 20mpg.

[the_lone_wolf]

you guys must truly rag your cars...

1.8l diesel focus, gets 30-45 mpg just running around the island, and 55-60 on a motorway run even fully loaded, the SV did the same on it's long run to cornwall and back, but around the island i tend to be harsh with the throttle so whatever 120miles to the flashing light is would be typical

Err - yer typical bike like the SV is about 170kg. The average European car is just under 1300kg. That's why bikes use less fuel .

If you want to get technical the measure of efficiency development Engineers express use is how much fuel an engine uses per unit of work done (in g / kWh). Bikes are bloody awful in this respect, but you can argue that even though cars can carry five people typically they only have one person in most of the time.

So the answer's yes......and no.

All clear?