Hi all,

Just wanted to introduce myself.  I got my motorcycle endorsement this summer, after taking the MSF safety course, and I just bought my first bike a week ago.  I got a used 2006 black Suzuki S-40, with 4000 miles on it.  I've been riding it everyday since then .  I'm trying to get more riding experience on it, build up my skills.

I do have a clutching question for everyone here.  In the city, I can only get about 25mpg around the particular route/area I take.  As such, I think I'm going to try to save a bit of gas by cruising down on clutch/neutral going towards stoplights.  Do you know if it's bad to hold down the clutch a lot on a bike?  I know for cars, it's not recommended, as it can wear out the clutch spring (so I hear).

Thanks all.  I'm so glad there's this forum here for Suzuki owners.

S'not good on any manual clutch vehicle.
Why are you getting less than half the MPG that anyone else is?
Do you travel only up steep hills in lower gears and never come down?
Your machine should be getting in excess of 50 MPG.
Mine averaged 45MPG pulling a sidecar.  Some folks on this site regularly get above 60MPG.

Keep the skills the MSF people taught you. You aren't the reason for such poor mileage. The motorcycle you have is at fault. An LS should get better then 40 under the worst conditions and realistically around + or - 50 though 60 would be reachable. As the others have said, check and tune. If it's running good, don't take this wrong but is your math calculation correct. Miles divided by gallons. I only say it because I've caught myself going ..duh.

Heck, I get worse mileage than Justin does, maybe new rider's just enjoying himself with his new bike and running the silly snot out of it

  ...... ?

Clutch push rod may get shortened a bit by holding the clutch in all the time.  Kind of a silly thing to do, really.



Your bike is in rough shape if it is stockish ..... start with a tune up, then monitor gas mileage.

You bought it used -- did the PO change out the stock jets by any chance?

There are all kinds of stupid things people can do to a bike to kill the gas mileage.

My favorite was to adjust the rear brake petal so it didn't take much motion to have it start to engage ..... (that's orginally what I thought you were supposed to do ....    I wuz stupid at one time too )

It took a couple of trips to the gas pump for me to realise the rear brake was dragging all the time (slightly, but always on)



Our new boy's got to start looking for things that are wrong -- he can start with "dragging brakes".

Thanks for all the replies guys.  I'll check again for the gas mileage on the second fill-up.  I just fill-up until the gas pump stops, and see how many miles I put on since last time.  I'll also see if I can change the air filter/oil filter.  The oil looks a bit dirty...but there's only 4000 miles on this bike.  The previous owner didn't do much but ride it 1-2 miles to work and back every day.  I'm doing pretty much the same.

One thing to note.  I use the choke to start the engine, and pretty much leave it on for a mile or two.  That will basically take me all the way to school.  It's pretty cold in the morning (40-50's), and the engine seems to struggle a bit if I leave it off.  This ups the fuel consumption, so maybe that's part of why my mileage is so low?

@Boofer: Will check the air filter.

@Verslagen1: The PO said he brought it in for an oil change this spring.  He said he didn't do anything to the bike other than that, in the two years he owned it.

@Lupo:  I hope my math is wrong.  I'll check again at the next fillup.  Then I'll be having one of those ...duh moments.

To get an accurate reading on your mileage, you need to visually fill the tank to the (exact) same level each time, or check the mpg over a few thousand miles keeping a log of how many gallons are used. If you are not keeping track of mileage over the long term, make sure that you fill up at the same location (so the lean angle is the same) and visually fill the tank to the same level - be careful not to overfill, the bottom of the fill neck is where you want the level to end up, not above.

With the small tank on MCs (and the Savage has one of the smallest, a small difference between one fill up and the next can make a significant difference, I don't think you said how many miles you were basing your calculation on, but if you are going about 100 miles between fillups, which is pretty typical, you wouldn't be able to fit enough gas in the tank.

If I happened to leave the choke on my way to work when I rode the Savage, the engine would be completely warmed up and not running right once I pulled up to a stop sign (reminding me that I should push that thing off). I never noticed much of a difference in mileage, but I'm sure there was some.

Even with only 4000 miles, your Savage is close to 7 years old, with one oil change - I'd get it changed now

mornhm - FSO wrote on 10/14/10 at 12:29:57:

How do you come up with close to 7 years old its a 2006.