I Guess the Super Ténéré is just a Warm Weather Bike

[KSH]

I don't understand the what you're covering up with your "weather front." It doesn't look like it covers the air inlet for the radiator. :question:

I had my bike in Colorado and rode at all different temps down to low 40's after having ridden through low 100's leaving Oklahoma and the bike returned very consistent mileage.

My bike is not giving me consistent mileage, earlier this week on a 25 degree morning operating temp dropped to 141. The air moving around the engine itself was cooling it down. And any type of restriction on the radiator would just be flirting with a serious over heating problem in warmer temps.

 

[Tremor38]

Ok, you did say that temperature is the only variable that has changed, but I have to ask this specific question just in case, so don't shoot > You're going to the same gas station and using same fuel, right?

Translation: You haven't unwittingly changed to gasahol or related ethanol mixtures, right? I had to ask just to check the block ::017:: There's alway one in the crowd with this type of question, so it might as well be me O

 

[KSH]

Ok, you did say that temperature is the only variable that has changed, but I have to ask this specific question just in case, so don't shoot > You're going to the same gas station and using same fuel, right?

Translation: You haven't unwittingly changed to gasahol or related ethanol mixtures, right? I had to ask just to check the block ::017:: There's alway one in the crowd with this type of question, so it might as well be me O

No changes have been made. Same gas station, same pump, same blend " summer fuel". Just installed weather front.

To a earlier question, fan on at 221, off at 212

 

[KSH]

Well, no thermostat's in the US.


The last full tank was 41.5 mpg, considering the cold temps and my abuse of the throttle and speedometer I am very happy.
Will just have to wait for the new thermostat to get here.

 

[KSH]

No need to waste time on the thermostat. Five degrees opening temp +/- going to significantly effect running or gas mileage? I'd hate to be in the air cooled BMW perish the thought, that probably fluctuates 100 degrees +/-. You are getting all worked up when there is no problem.

Sorry, but I have already proved temp is a big deal with this motor. It does not like to run cold.
This motor has to many sensors to keep happy.

 

[Tremor38]

Sorry, but I have already proved temp is a big deal with this motor. It does not like to run cold.
This motor has to many sensors to keep happy.

Maybe you have a thermostat intended for an SA spec bike. ::015::

 

[Tremor38]

No need to waste time on the thermostat. Five degrees opening temp +/- going to significantly effect running or gas mileage? I'd hate to be in the air cooled BMW perish the thought, that probably fluctuates 100 degrees +/-. You are getting all worked up when there is no problem.

Well, water temp obviously isn't one of the sensors used in an air-cooled BMW's EFI ::025:: I think he's not so much attacking this from an overcoming friction standpoint (140 is not that cold) as he is with the Yammie EFI sensing colder water temp and richening the mixture. ::008::

 

[KSH]

Maybe you have a thermostat intended for an SA spec bike. ::015::

;D ::003::

 

[TierHawg]

The weather has turned from summer to fall this past week. Last week my bike had temps from 180-220 while riding. My MPG for that week was 42.5 hand calculated.

During today's 15 mile commute noticed the bike was very cold blooded. The outside temps are around 45 degrees. The bike started about 140, and never got over 158 degrees. Not sure what this means, and I'll watch my Miles per Gallon over the next fill up. I did notice my previous bike (F800GS) had a drop off in fuel mileage during my winter commute last year.

 

[GrahamD]

Just for a bit of perspective.

My Strom goes from 380Km/tank warm weather to about 290Km / per tank cold weather commuting. Part of that is the 1 warm up over 30km rather than once in 600Km. part of it is the temps, but I can run lower octane and compensate a bit I have found.

Cheers
Graham

 

[switchback]

Sorry, but I have already proved temp is a big deal with this motor. It does not like to run cold.
This motor has to many sensors to keep happy.

WTF

Snowing here for the past 2 days and the bike runs great. ::021::

41.99MPG in sport mode with some 80+ mph highway, some canyons, and some dirt road

 

[KSH]

WTF

Snowing here for the past 2 days and the bike runs great. ::021::

41.99MPG in sport mode with some 80+ mph highway, some canyons, and some dirt road

What was your engine temp at ?
Mine was falling down to 144.
And 41.99 is poor mileage for this bike.

 

[switchback]

What was your engine temp at ?
Mine was falling down to 144.
And 41.99 is poor mileage for this bike.

Considering it is a 1200, only has 400 miles on it, and many 250s are getting less than 50mpg I do not share your opinion. Don't pay attention to engine temp.

 

[TierHawg]

Considering it is a 1200, only has 400 miles on it, and many 250s are getting less than 50mpg I do not share your opinion. Don't pay attention to engine temp.

I'm happy with the 42.5 MPH I got last tank. Not to bad for a 1200 CC bike riding backcountry and mountain roads. My WR250R gets only 50 MPG for the type of riding I do, so having almost 1000 more ccs I expect the mileage to be a little lower. BTW, the BMW 800 I had got around 45-50 MPH in the summer, and dropped to about 40 last winter. In a few weeks I'll have a good baseline on MPG usage during my commute to work.

 

[Tremor38]

So far my adventures on this motorcycle are mostly a 3.5 mile ride to work and a 3.5 mile ride home. So far whether it 95 degrees or 32 I've seen little difference in fuel consumption, normally 40-45 somewhere. I start the bike and let it run as I put my gloves on, then ride even though it says low. No use idling for 15 minutes. If I don't have to stop along the road so far on cool mornings I'll see like 150 when I get the 3.5 miles to work. If I get in traffic on warmer days I may see 200 by the time I get to work. As far as I can tell the bike runs same at 150 or 200 and gets the same mileage.

I should actually check my MPG one these days I need to give the bike a fair shake though. I went out today and did a 50 - 100 KPH acceleration test in 2nd gear to check some ridiculous looking results from a magazine that had the S10 doing this in 9+ seconds... I reached 100kph wayyyy faster than that in sport mode. Didn't try touring mode, but now I'm pretty sure that's the mode they ran the test in (mistakenly our not). Guess I'll have to wait for the next tank to get a more representative fuel economy result.

 

[Checkswrecks]

I record pretty much every tank, which is a throw back to carbureted bikes. I could always tell when something was changing if the mpg changed. So far my S10 gas mileage is in there with others who have long easy commutes to get better results. As others have mentioned, the mpg goes down every winter, but it has with every bike I can think of. As for other cold vs hot aspects of the bike, It again seems like other contemporary injected big bores, taking maybe an additional part of a secong to crank and another mile to warm into just feeling right. I think that's largely just the tires. The Super Tenere and every other newer bike sure as heck is better to start and ride than any of my carb'd bikes were!

No big deal and so to me the title of the thread and subject of the first post seem either mis-leading or unaware.

 

[KSH]

Wow, for all the keyboard Ténéré experts I will type this real slow so you can comprehend.
At no point and time have I ever said the performance of the bike has been less than stellar.

I now have 5500 miles and my only complaint has been the steep decline in fuel mileage in the colder weather.
I have installed a new stock thermostat and it is 5 degrees warmer than the old one, but the biggest difference is that this one will hold a steady temperature at the colder outside temps. The old thermostat could not close down quick enough and it would allow the temp to fall way below the closed temp.
I have special ordered a thermostat that will open at 170 degrees instead of the stock 159 degrees.
I think this will be a good cold weather and short commute thermostat, but may be lacking at the higher outside temps. So it would have to be changed in the spring.

 

[TierHawg]

Wow, for all the keyboard Ténéré experts I will type this real slow so you can comprehend.
At no point and time have I ever said the performance of the bike has been less than stellar.

)

I'm glad this post is here. I didn't really read thru it until I did some cold weather riding myself. I was wondering if I was having thermostat issues, and it after reading thru the thread, see that everything is normal compared to other XTZ's.

Seems 42.5mpg is about normal for these bikes. ::021::

 

[switchback]

While I still am not monitoring my engine temps and do not plan to, I have to change my story and agree with KSH on fuel economy. In both touring and sport mode I am averaging 38 MPG on my commute to work which consists of half city and half freeway riding. Economy is significantly worse than any of my past bikes (Tiger 885 44, Multistrada 1100 47, DR650 48). Tried using the instant fuel gauge for a tank to improve things and only managed 40 MPG on a tank. I suspect that the city traffic is hurting economy more on this bike vs the others. Not sure if the cold weather is the problem or not. Perhaps things will improve in a couple of thousand miles. Till then looking forward to some December rides, temps in the 20s this morning.

 

[toompine]

Re: I Guess the Super Ténéré is just a Warm Weather Bike - cold OAT mileage

I am resurrecting this thread from 2011 because now after 36,000 miles on my bike I know it pretty well. The bike gets lower MPG when it is cold than warm. Not a winter/summer thing, not a fuel formulation thing, just cold morning hot afternoon difference of up to 10 mpg. I can leave the house early at 45 to 50 degrees, get on the freeway with a fresh tank, and reset average MPG and watch it read out after a few miles at 34 - 36 mpg. Hundreds of miles down the road and several tanks and hours later at 80 degrees OAT it is getting 45 MPG.

I instinctively believe this is a fuel mapping change based on OAT.

Two questions:
1) Does anybody else see this same response under similar conditions
2) Is there a way to fool the fuel maps at colder temperatures

I realize on a long trip speed and wind makes a big difference but I see this high/low mileage condition all the time

Why is it an issue..... well because it makes a difference of 50 miles in range and I hate stopping for gas