Royal Enfield gas mileage: Still a selling point?

Royal Enfield motorcycles are easy on gas. But does anyone care?

"Too bad gas prices have dropped 'cause one of my main selling points was going to be the 70 mpg gas mileage," writes the CraigsList seller of a 2011 Royal Enfield B5 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

"But you'll be thankful for it if gas goes back up."

Commuting to work on a Royal Enfield — before I lost the job I was commuting to — was always a joy. I never thought about the gas I was saving.

I vividly remember filling up at more than $4 a gallon in 2008. Sure, we knew that Europeans and others paid more. U.S. drivers pay an average of just 48.5 cents a gallon in taxes.

But the price per gallon seemed like an awful lot to me.

Peoples' memories are funny.

Tim McMahon, who writes about monetary inflation at InflationData.com points at that even though U.S. gasoline prices adjusted for inflation were low in 1998, most people didn't realize it since the pump price then seemed high.

"But they knew it intuitively since a smaller portion of their budget was going toward gasoline. In fact, gas had gotten really cheap by historical standards allowing people to buy gas guzzlers like SUVs and Hummers."

Americans who bought Hummers as fashion statements were in for a shock in 2008 when gas prices rose. General Motors, maker of the Hummer, filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and the last Hummer, by then a symbol of wretched excess, was produced in 2010.

Today gas prices at the pump seem low but, in fact, according to McMahon, they are no where near as low as they were (adjusted for inflation) in 1998. In fact, he noted in 2013 that the average price of gasoline in the United States (adjusted for inflation) has been $2.60 per gallon since 1918!

In other words, the price we pay today at the pump in the U.S. is below average, but not by much. Prices may go lower and they certainly will go higher.

Hang onto that Royal Enfield.

Saving gasoline was goal of Royal Enfield Dreamliner

Royal Enfield Dreamliner brought streamlining to motorcycles.

It's no surprise that Royal Enfield motorcycles capture the attention of people who want to conserve gasoline. Yet I hardly ever write about fuel economy.

Any Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle is capable of 70 miles per gallon without even trying. Why bother improving it? I'm almost convinced that more fuel evaporates from the tank in my hot Florida garage than I burn on the road.

With gas at $4 a gallon, perhaps it is fortunate that some people are more concerned about the mileage possibilities of Royal Enfield motorcycles. For instance, Peter S. on the Ecomodder website:

The Dreamliner was perfectly capable of going around corners.
But bodywork left little clearance for kick starting.

"Using the calculator this forum kindly provides and working through various fairing shapes and real world testing is interesting. For instance this Royal Enfield Dreamliner from 1953 that I've posted before works out at a CD (coefficient of drag) of .66 from the published speed and fuel consumption figures."

Ecomodder's motto is "wrench smart, drive smarter, save fuel." It describes itself as "an automotive community where performance is judged by fuel economy rather than power and speed." Members have built their own electric motorcycles and used pizza tins as aerodynamic wheel covers on pickup trucks.

The Dreamliner was far sleeker than the naked motorcycle.

Peter S. lives on the east coast of Australia. The magazine caption of the Dreamliner photo he posted notes that The Motor Cycle found the Dreamliner fairing added 45 pounds to the motorcycle, but saved 35 per cent of fuel consumption at 60 mph.

The Dreamliner was actually a 1956 experiment in cooperation with The Motor Cycle. The futuristic fairing was mounted to an old 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet.

Tests showed leaning down didn't improve performance.

The Dreamliner was not a production machine, but a less radical fairing, called the Airflow, was offered as an option on the full range Royal Enfield motorcycles starting in 1959. Airflow fairings did not enclose the front wheels. They seemed directed more at protecting riders from the weather than improving streamlining, although improved fuel economy was claimed.

Dreamliner had cooling ducts, but motor was boxed in by bodywork.

The Ecomodder website offers pictures of the Royal Enfield Dreamliner I'd never seen before, with full captions. One of them notes that the motor would ping (from overheating) on acceleration despite cooling ducts.

Elaborate bodywork was designed to be removed easily without tools.

According to Michael Moore of San Francisco, who posted the pictures, they are from Vic Willoughby's 1982 book "Exotic Motorcycles — A Tester's Privilege." Willoughby's book is said to be a compilation of unusual motorcycles he rides and tests. If you find an inexpensive copy, buy it. It's going for $100 on Amazon.

Saving gas is good but the Dreamliner's looks didn't please everyone. Blogger Jorge Pullin at My Royal Enfields has done repeated items comparing the Dreamliner to the Messerschmitt bubble car, "a sad frog" and an alien from outer space.

To me, Dreamliner looks best from above.

Great gas mileage isn't why we buy Royal Enfields

Is this the reason you should buy a Royal Enfield?

Rick Fairless' Strokers Dallas is certainly one of America's most colorful Royal Enfield dealerships. How many other Royal Enfield dealerships have had their own reality TV show?

Want further proof: check out the multiple links to biker babes and bikini contests on Strokers' website.

You might ask what a nice Victorian girl like Royal Enfield is doing here in Texas amid the chicks, choppers and tattoos. But Strokers has a practical side, too, and their latest posting is devoted to — what??? — gasoline mileage!

"Gas prices got you down?" Strokers asks. "Some of our new and used motorcycles average 40 mpg, and the Royal Enfields average up to 70 mpg! I bet you can see those dollar signs adding up in your head as you compare these numbers to the average on your car or truck!"

No. I can not.

Readers in India may not understand it, but gasoline mileage is not the reason Americans buy motorcycles. Scooters, maybe. But Americans buy motorcycles:

1. To go fast.
2. To look hot.
3. To make noise.
4. Because they like motorcycles, and,
5. To get someplace.

Reasons No. 1 and 2 don't apply so much to Royal Enfield, but the rest do. Only reason No. 5 invites gasoline mileage into the equation, and then only for commuters.

Non-commuters in America would typically boast to fellow riders that "(I'm so bad) I burned two tanks of gas just getting here!"

As a former commuter, I appreciated the distance my Bullet carried me between gas stations. But out of all the times people leaned out of their cars to ask me about my Royal Enfield, not one yelled "Hey! Want kinda mileage you get on that thing?"

Sorry, Strokers. Gasoline mileage is just not a turn-on for American motorcyclists. Let's get back to those babes.

Royal Enfield poll results: Let's go riding!

Ninety percent of Royal Enfield owners who read this blog have 1,000 miles or more on their motorcycles. That's the conclusion of the poll you readers responded to over the last 30 days.

Yes, I am surprised. So many of the "Royal Enfield For Sale" ads you read on this blog are placed for motorcycles that aren't even broken in yet — although some may be 10 years old.

"Didn't have time to ride it," is the excuse most commonly heard.

I understand. Weather here in Florida allows comfortable riding all year 'round. Yet in the year since I lost my job and stopped commuting, I've put on barely 1,000 miles myself. I mean to ride more. Truthfully, I now DO have time to ride it.

I find excuses not to ride. They're pretty lame. The lawn needs mowing, for instance. Yet the lawn somehow used to get itself mowed when I had a full-time job and a two-hour daily commute. Explain that!

I can't. It's time to get back to the recreation I used to enjoy so much when it was work.

So many of you will soon be cooped up by winter weather. I haven't got the excuse of bad weather. It would be a sin to waste this beautiful Florida winter sitting at the computer, blogging. I'm going riding!

Hopefully, you'll read about it right here at www.RoyalEnfields.com

How many miles on your Royal Enfield?

How many miles have you ridden your Royal Enfield motorcycle?

My comment that my 1999 Bullet has more than 40,000 miles on it caused reader Pantano to suggest that I ask all of you how far you've gone, and what experiences you've had along the way.

It's a good suggestion. Your stories and pictures are always welcome. Are there others out there who have put on a lot of miles? I'd love to hear from you. It would be just as interesting to hear from those who maybe have only 3,000 miles, but all of it was across the Rocky Mountains!

I'm sure someone out there has a delightful tale about riding 25 miles after the gearshift lever fell off. Adventure is where you find it, and the Royal Enfield Bullet always seems to locate it.

Bring it on. You can email photos and pictures to me at david@royalenfields.com

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Meanwhile, answer the poll question in the right rail, "How Many Miles on Your Royal Enfield?" We'll let the poll run for a month and see what the average mileage is.