Tips for Economy Run

[segt]

Good morning all,
Our Western Australian Veteran Motorcycle Club (www.vmccwa.com) runs an annual economy run of about 50 miles in May each year. as a newish member I would like to make sure my 16M does well. The winner last year was a 1947 AJS 350 cc with a result of 105 mpg.
Any tips anyone on how to improve econmomy of an AJS heavyweight single?.
Cheers

[Eric]

Push it for half the journey.

[Charles]

You could always try gearing a little higher by putting a gearbox or crank sprocket on with more teeth. Should save fuel but will hit your pocket and time as you might need either a longer primary or drive chain but can probably get away with changing just one of those, even if you change both sprockets.

Using ridiculously high tyre pressures would help as well. Of course, performance and handling would be affected by these changes.

regards
Charles

[TommoT]

105 miles/gall. not bad!

Apart from making sure that both ignition timing and carburettor settings are spot, you might want to try to drop the needle a notch or two. You might even get away with a smaller main jet. Don't go full throttle to or from the event, since a lean mixture could be hard on your piston.

Driving wise, shut the engine off when going downhill (if your brakes are up to it!) and close the throttle whenever you can. On level surfaces at steady speed always try to ease off the throttle, you can often do this without loosing noticable speed or momentum. But first and foremost keep revolutions down and avoid max. accelleration.

Good luck and lets hear how it went.

Regards,

[itma]

ooh ain`t there some sarky beggers about!!
make sure you start at the top of a hill.....
seriously, this is the sort of thing 1950`s motorcycle mags got excited about.... frankly you have to cheat a bit.
run your tyres as hard as you safely can , use thin oil [30 grade] in engine and g/box; make sure your wheel bearings are nice and free and use oil in them instead of grease and remove any thing like oil seals that cause friction;make sure your brakes are`nt binding, or your chains tight. run a decent gold palladium plug in it, you can run weaker mixture with those,play with the carb to see how weak you can run it, remove all accessories, and junk as much wieght as you can, tools battery,etc not forgetting your self, heavy kit etc the rest is 90% throttle technique.
I once got over 100 mpg from a wd 350 by riding at 30 mph from arnhem to calais, on a sunny day on a flat dutch motorway when i had run out of fuel money.by god it drove me nuts!!
that said is the prize money worth all that effort? you`l only spend the next week end putting it all back again[:D]

[Rohan B.]

English bike tests of the period quoted fuel consumption figures at various speeds - down to 30 mph. Most english bikes were capable of recording around 100 mpg at 30 mph if you believe their figures - some 2 strokes were around the 150 mpg mark. AMC wouldn't allow their bikes to be tested, so no figures to hand for the early 50s. A 650 Triumph was 102 mpg, and a Vincent Black Shadow was 96 mpg.

As stated previously above, high tyre pressures, spot on tune and a gentle throttle hand are the key ingredients ?. Lying down on the tank may help a mpg or 2 - but at 30mph your credibility may suffer ?

Gently gently... Good Luck.
hopethishelps,
Rohan.

[SPRIDDLER]

You should run it on XXXX, (but don't shake up the tinny or you'll get too much froth).
Head South as much as you can - it looks to be downhill from where I am.
Good Luck!