91 gsf400 mpg

[QTL1978]

Hi all,
    I'm the proud owner of a 91 gsf400. I've been riding it for just about a year now and I really love her. Have had to do quite a bit of work on her over the past year, but she's been riding pretty smoothly lately.

     My question is as to what is the typical mpg for a 91 gsf400? The previous owner put on a Yosh exhaust on it and I have no idea if he tuned the carbs (I have a feeling he didn't).

     Doesn't seem to matter if I'm screaming along at 13krpm or just putting around town, I generally always get about 34mpg.

I'll be doing a lot of commuting this summer (90miles each day, m-f) and was debating whether I should get a stock exhaust or tune the carbs... or if the price of any of that would be worth the few mpgs I might gain.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks ahead of time!   

[Squishy]

34mpg is pretty bad.
Mine gets about 44mpg (US), for me it also doesn't matter how I ride it it's always around 44.

[AlanDog]

I have been getting 55-60 mpg both commuting and in the twisties with a Factory Pro kit and stock intake/exhaust,
but I am pretty sedate about revving the engine. I think with more WOT time it will go down dramatically. 

Before I rebuilt the carbs it was leaking fuel and getting about 40 mpg. You could be leaking fuel--does your
exhaust smell like gas even when the bike is warm? Or your idle mixture screws may be adjusted way out and
you're running super rich. This is pretty easy to adjust without taking the carbs off the bike. But be sure to
record what the current settings are before fiddling with them (by screwing them in all the way and recording
how many turns out they were). Worst case is you will have to pull the carbs and adjust it off the bike.

[QTL1978]

  Thanks for the replies! It's good to know where my Bandit stands as compared with others.

I did some general mechanical investigation  and it looks like I'm gunna need to tune the carbs and/or do some engine work on the bike. However, given my current economic situation and that the bike isn't leaking gas everywhere, I think I'll just continue to ride at 34mpg for a while longer. If I figure something out I'll post an update.

[AlanDog]

haha, riding pretty hard in the twisties, I still went 85 miles on 1.8 gallons, so 47 miles per gallon. Not alot different than my old ninja 250! 

I took it to the track yesterday. By lunch I went about 54 miles and filled it with about 1.5 gallons. But I was the slowest person in the slow group... not really trying to keep it in the upper revs and not maxing it out in the straights. Just trying to get used to the track and the bike.

[Nickelodeon]

I strangle my bike(taking it to 13,500rpm) all the time.

I get around 30 to 33 mpg.

I tried keeping myself under control for a tank and got over 40 once.

I did go to gsxr400 gearing when I went to a 520 chain/sprockets and that made a big difference on freeway riding(which I do @ 80mph) even though I lost a little acceleration(not much). I thought the taller gearing might improve mpg, I was wrong...lol

I've got a Factory Pro 1.0 and Yosh header/Tyga silencer w/ 3 turns out. Plug check looks good. So the mileage seems to be the best I can get with my riding habits/setup.