Splitfire plugs - update.

In Jan '04 I fitted a set of Splitfires to the Wing.

Fuel consumption to that point: 36.49mpg
(average from the previous 48,896 miles)

Fuel consumption (overall) now: 36.69mpg
(average from the previous 65,435 miles)

Err, that's, um ... 16,539 miles on 443.5 litres, or 37.29mpg on the
new plugs.

Saved ten litres of fuel in that time.

Worth every penny.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..79553../..21469.../..31308.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR'06 Points: 75 Miles: 317

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, SD belched forth and ejected the following:

Hows often do you have to change the plugs?

I do mine (ordinary NGKs) between 5,000 and 10,000 miles.

Do Splitfires last longer? I guess they do...

 

On Tue, 2 May 2006 05:37:05 +0100, Whinging Courier

snip>

16000 miles unless the bike starts running rough.

Any plugs last longer than the time you're giving them.

 

Blimey, the plug manufacturers must love you. If they need changing
that ofter someone must've swapped your engine for a 2-smoke.


--
Krusty.

http://www.muddystuff.co.uk
http://www.muddystuff.us
Off-road classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger (FOYRNB) '96 Tiger '79 Fantic 250

 

They are the third set that have been fitted, from new.

0-16k; 16-64k; 64-80k. The middle set were fine when I took them out.

I notice they're not as expensive as they were.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..79553../..21469.../..31308.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR'06 Points: 75 Miles: 317

 

Excuse my nit-picking, but is it so obvious?
If you have a certain distance to go and a certain time to do it in, could it be
more economical to accelerate and brake harder, and cruise at a lower speed?

 

What, so accelerate balls-out up to 100mph, brake to 10mph and cruise
at that? Sure, why not.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

You must be one of the 'pedantic nit-picking bastards'.
Accelerate harder, cruise at a lower speed, brake harder....
Do the maths. Its a good cure for insomnia.

 

I'd say it's bleeding obvious that gentle use of the throttle and
brake will be much more efficient than what you're suggesting. I'm not
going to do any maths at all - I don't need to, it's obvious.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

Actually, engines operate more efficiently with a wide-open throttle. They
have to do less work to suck the air into the cylinders (lower throttle
losses). Therefore up to a point, your fuel consumption might actually be
lower if you accelerate more quickly to your chosen cruising speed. Try that
one next time you're wheelying away from the lights - 'just conserving fuel,
officer'.

 

Excuse my nit-picking, but is it so obvious?
If you have a certain distance to go and a certain time to do it in,
could it be
more economical to accelerate and brake harder, and cruise at a lower speed?
[/QUOTE]
If you cruise at too low a speed you can be running less efficiently. My
cage has one of those instant readout MPG things and shows best MPG at
around 55 MPH. Below that it can get quite poor.

 

Tim wrote

If you cruise at too low a speed you can be running less efficiently. My
cage has one of those instant readout MPG things and shows best MPG at
around 55 MPH. Below that it can get quite poor.[/QUOTE]

Ultimate economy is said to come from a process that looks a lot like
accelerating quite hard up to an aerodynamically not so efficient speed
and then as long and extended cruise as can be managed, slowing down to
the point where the engine is starting to labour. A bit like driving a
cage on the M25 really.

 

Do you honestly think I consider spending £60 on spark plugs to save
£9 worth of fuel a good investment?

Cos I don't, you know.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..79553../..21469.../..31308.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR'06 Points: 75 Miles: 317

 

Driving a cage on the M25 is like sitting in a car park, so not very
fuel efficient at all.

 

Which part exactly? Maybe I'm not explaining it particularly well - but
surely you would agree that changing up a gear while maintaining a constant
speed would save fuel? This is due, in a large part, to the wider throttle
opening used to maintain that speed. Same goes for accelerating. Accelerate
from 30-60 in third gear with a half throttle. Now do the same with WOT. The
WOT acceleration is probably using less fuel per second.

Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that - wider throttle = more time
at high speed = reduction in efficiency, plus some engine mappings may
overfuel at WOT, but it's really not as clear-cut as you might think.

 

Sorry - that bit *is* bollocks. I meant to say 'less fuel per mph gained'.
Duh.

 

SD wrote

So how much have you spent, in the last 5 years say? Just asking like.

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Andy Bonwick belched forth and ejected the
following:

The recommended service intervals for a R1 is 6,000 miles. 6,000 miles!

OK, so I've got a warranty and I have to pay someone 150 quid to change
the oil and air filter in the next 1,500 miles but I'm fucked if I'm
gonna leave it 6,000 miles.

The point is I don't want it getting to the point of running rough. Last
time I changed plugs was on my ratbike and the outsides looked manky as
hell but that was because water had got down the tubey bit.

Can you really leave it 16,000 miles? Mine have got little concave bits
on the metal core bit - I forget the name of it, the bit where the spark
comes out.

Having said all that of course, the bike is still running fine.

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Krusty belched forth and ejected the following:

I suppose that's right. I used to change plugs about every month on my
2-smokes - Not because they were worn out, but because I just wanted to
try different plugs

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, SD belched forth and ejected the following:

I was just trying to work out if the saving in fuel was more than the
difference in price between splitfires and ordinary plugs.