Coolant Temperature and Fuel Consumption

[Furrybiker]

Can anyone advise me on a couple of odd problems?
My Storm warms up OK in town but on a motorway the temp gauge drops to cold or just above it. I assume its the thermostat but could it be something else or "they all do that sir".

Yesterday instead of getting approx 100 miles to a tank (16 litre) on a motorway run it only returned 75 miles, light came on just after passing a service area, typical I hope this is a one off but do they vary that much? Oh and no I wasnt pushing that hard.

Thanks.

[AMCQ46]

dont sound quite right to me.

If the next tank is also down near 75miles, then you have a problem and the two observations may be linked...............Fuel cooled!

if you do a search you could get some more clues, but a few that spring to mind are:
1) sticking choke
2) damaged fuel tap diaphram
3) sticking carb floats

[motorola222]

75 miles to 16 litres thats 21mpg!!!!!

yup summet defo wrong.

my bike runs 65-75 on the motorway.

[benny hedges]

i generally cane the bollox off mine and get 100 - 110 before lampness
out of interest, do you ride a lot under 3k rpm??
they don't seem to be too fuel efficient at low rpm...

[Stratman]

Damaged diaphragm won't allow more fuel in at all, a damaged one might cause starvation but not the other way round.

Mine has always run with the gauge towards the cold side in all but really hot weather so I wouldn't be too bothered about that tbh.

I have always got 110 miles plus out of a tank.

[Furrybiker]

Thanks gentlemen, I will take it out tomorrow and see what happens, I have been running at 2-3 thousand rpm as I like the noise when it accelerates, will try more revs.

The temp gauge moved to the first marker until stuck in traffic when it went to the middle mark and the fan cut in, the gauge held at the mid point until out of traffic when it dropped back to the first mark. It was this behaviour that made me think it was the stat.

Thanks again will report back!

[BLADE-RUNNER]

Went out on mine today for the first time since i drilled out my baffles.And the light didnt on until 118 miles,my previous best was 97.Lot to be said for riding with no baffles.(And it sounded awasome too)

[JIMMYJAMES]

I had a similar problem with mine reading 1/4 on the guage at speed even though in town it goes up to half way and the fan kicks in. I spent £40 on a new thermostat (yes £40 for a stat ) and its exactly the same I however dont suffer with the fuel consumption issue and get about 100 miles on a tank.

I presume all storms run at 1/4 on the guage at speed? The new thermostat had 70degrees stamped on it which seems a little low but it is obviously the way its designed to run.

[Fireman on a Storm]

Both of the storms I've owned have run with these sort of temps!

[benny hedges]

coming through lancaster in traffic yesterday my temp was up over 1/2 way but i could smell 'hot'.
i looked down and saw my engine smoking at the back
when i pulled over to look i found that the rubber filler plug had come out of my oiler and chain oil was dropping on the exhaust!!! phew!
i think they would be better if they had a fan on both sides???
mine runs cool once i'm motoring but creeps up in traffic - i can hear the fan kick in now and then so assume it's all working normally...

[Furrybiker]

Well although I started to use more revs (4-5k) from 55 miles into the tank, I managed 95 miles partly in town before the dreaded light came on, so maybe we are getting there...

I have heard of people getting 120-130 miles out of a tank, I assume these are 19 litre tanks though, or of course they are carrying a spare gallon can!

Thanks for the advice gentlemen.

[tony.mon]

I have heard of people getting 120-130 miles out of a tank.

With a 16 litre tank?
Maybe, but they might as well be riding a Harley. (And Harleys do another 5 MPG if they're de-tassled)

If you use a Storm properly, they'll give you between 70 (track day, if you're lucky) 85 (ahem; "spirited" riding on the Queen's Highway, and 105 (usual commute stuff)

Only way to get more is to use a KM speedo!