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wayupdere
08-16-2008, 07:10 PM
First Post!

I picked up my 2008 xb12scg 2 weeks ago, have been religious about break-in, and will pass 500 miles by the end of the day. Live in Arizona, pulled chaps out of mothballs, frame is finally cool.

It’s as fun as I thought it would be.

At first, I was troubled about having to feather the throttle so the engine wouldn’t die from idle. My dealer said “well, the Buell’s throttle can’t be goosed.” I finally realized that letting the engine warm up generally resolves my throttle blah. Duh.

My concern is MPG. The dealer said they tweaked the brains when I brought it in for the throttle issue. I’m getting about 14mpg less in urban and 20mpg less in highway than EPA estimates. I generally cruse between 2200 and 3800 RPM, rev once when taking off from a stop, and rev at each downshift when stopping. These are lifelong habits and have serious doubts that my engine’s drinking problem is substantially related.

Sound familiar to anyone? I wanted to get some opinions before I tool back to the dealer and watch them squirm over why my bike is 34% less fuel efficient than Buell advertises.

Thx.

FIDOSOL
08-16-2008, 07:15 PM
I've never heard of that, sounds like they screwed something up. There is no excuse for that at all. Only thing I can think of is...are you trying to run an alternative fuel? You have to run premium fuel. Not E85 or any of that other junk that's out there. Even that wouldn't explain a 1/3 loss in MPG's...

Thaloc
08-16-2008, 07:16 PM
I just picked up a '08 XB12R at the start of the season, and was getting really bad mpg the first 1k miles also. I just hit 3.6k miles and am getting about 130 miles to the tank riding hard. Id say give it till 1k-1.5k miles before giving it much worry, during the break in period its going to be low. Is everything stock?

bad juju
08-16-2008, 07:43 PM
i live in phoenix and i work for ridenow!but as many know its a major coorperation and they also own chester's harley,arrowhead harley,and chandler h-d.i dont talk to those guys.cuase im on the import side but i graduated with a guy he was in my harley class and he was top tech.he works for chandler h-d he says the guys at chandler are top notch.but i have never had any experiances with them i got a 1200s model sportster but took it back to cali for storage cuase i cant afford too bikes.it sounds like the dealerships fooled up.

LeFox
08-17-2008, 10:35 AM
i would wait till the bike is broken in to measure & compare it to what buell advertises.

Phrogg
08-17-2008, 01:01 PM
I've read a lot on badweatherbike's forums that the 08 have not been getting the mpg that your looking for due to a screw up in the ecm. Which buell has stated that they will be comming out with a fix for that in the 09s. You are not the only 08 that is having mileage problems in with your buell.

The Tin Man
08-17-2008, 09:50 PM
Wayupdere, how much oil are you going thru?

dave_xb12r
08-18-2008, 12:03 AM
as far as the your throttle issue goes, a breather re-route should fix that problem. Its cheap and easy.

mrdozer2you
08-18-2008, 01:10 PM
The dealer said they tweaked the brains when I brought it in for the throttle issue.

Could the possibly have fattened up the Fuel mix? The bikes generally run lean from the factory, maybe they tweaked the A/F mix a little. As LeFox said, let the bike break in and see if it improves.

bajabomber87
09-23-2008, 07:51 PM
How did they even tweak the computer or AF mix at all? My dealer says it cant be done yet because there is no software to change the ecm.