Hypermiling and fuel efficiency records

[skyl4rk]

Hypermiling is sort of a sport where people try to get the most miles per gallon out of their vehicles that they can. It is all about learning how to drive in a fuel efficient manner, for example as posted here:

Scroll down to Section III Advanced Hypermiling Techniques

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1510

The site above is focused mainly on cars. With motorized bicycles, you could probably get over 200 mpg with the right driving techniques. Of course if you pedal, thats sort of cheating!

Is anyone using their motorized bikes to log their miles per gallon and trying to get maximum fuel efficiency?

Anybody using techniques like pulse and glide (stopping the motor and coasting as far as possible before restarting)?

Which motors do you think would be the best for an extremely high mpg machine?

I am thinking a tadpole trike with a fairing and the smallest possible 4 cycle motor would be the way to go. High pressure tires. Probably chain drive would be most efficient. It would need a freewheel drive gear on the wheel hub, you have to be able to turn the motor off and coast with as little resistance as possible.

Actually most types of bikes could be used to build a hypermileage bike, even your average bike with balloon tires could be used if it was set up to pulse and glide. Hypermiling is more about driving technique and measuring mileage results than it is about the vehicle.

I know I personally have had a lot of fun using the motor at full power and trying to get a top speed, but it would also be fun to learn to get incredible miles per gallon fuel efficiency to brag about to the average car driver ****ed off about the price of fuel. You could measure fuel for your commute with an eyedropper or with lab glassware!

How would you build the ultimate fuel efficient hypermiling motored bike?

Where could I get a 26" mountain bike wheel hub with a freewheel gear on the left side (power side)? I am thinking the Dax Titan might be a good candidate for this. Are there any other ways to coast with minimum friction and allow starting the motor while coasting?

 

[Large Filipino]

I guess you can say I'm hypermiling. The other day I went about 45 miles and I still had gas in my tank!
I never go faster than 15 mph on the trails. The trails rule anyway for no traffic and no lights so I can do a continuous cruise. Then I shut her down when going down even a little hill and when going up a hill I try to keep my throttle where it's at and take over pedaling. When you get the right momentum,pedaling is easy. Even at 15 mph on engine due to my 44/16 gearing I can catch up to the engine pedaling.
At cruising speed my throttle is only down about a 1/2 an inch if even that. It's barely just cracked open actually.

 

[eljefino]

As gas motors are most efficient at ~80% throttle you would have to find about a 1/4 hp motor that would go fast enough to balance the bike. IDK if they make anything that small that's as efficient per cc as its larger brethren. Once you get into fairings etc you'll be going fast enough with common motors that you're running into wind drag again-- as there still wouldn't be any other real source of resistance.

OTOH pulling off 150 MPG at 40 mph while the rest of us are doing 15 would be worthwhile.