Understanding your bike's fuel efficiency is essential. Ideally, your bike should cover a significant distance per liter of fuel consumed. To calculate your bike's mileage, divide the total distance travelled by the amount of fuel used. For instance, if your fuel-efficient TVS Radeon covers 100 kilometres on 5 liters of petrol, the mileage of this Radeon bike would be 20 kilometres per liter (kmpl).
Several factors contribute to your bike's fuel efficiency, including riding habits, traffic conditions, and fuel quality. By implementing the following tips, you can significantly improve your bike's mileage and reduce fuel consumption.
Be Consistent in Maintenance
Scheduling a regular service is vital for maintaining the bike’s mileage. Getting your bike serviced will help maintain the engine’s health and also keep future repairs as low as possible while improving the bike’s life expectancy. Debris, carbon deposits, clogged air filters and injectors can easily lower efficiency, impacting the combustion and forcing the engine to work harder and consume more fuel. A well-maintained engine burns fuel more conservatively, providing optimal performance and future savings. Under the professional eye, it’s easy to detect leaks, brake and clutch settings and other issues that can impact the bike’s performance.
Good Fuel Quality
Poor fuel burns a lot faster and also takes longer to power the engine. Besides impacting the engine’s health, unclean and adulterated fuel can clog valves and injector nozzles, increasing the chances of engine malfunction. The right fuel keeps the engine system running smoothly and prevents premature damage. It’s important to choose a reliable fuel and stick to the recommended suggestions when refuelling your bike.
Improving Riding Habits
Besides traffic conditions and fuel quality, several other factors can reduce fuel efficiency and impact mileage delivery. These can be anything from changing gears frequently to quick acceleration, unnecessary revving, poor tyre air pressure and poor riding style. Racing through the streets can seem exhilarating. However, sudden acceleration and braking can put more stress on the engine and other components, leading to faster wear and tear and lower mileage. Safe and steady wins in the race are usually true in such cases.
Minimise Idling
Longer halts in traffic can be physically exhausting for the riders but also put a strain on the bike’s engine. Extended idling often drains the bike’s performance even if it’s stationary as the engine still burns fuel without covering any distance. Frequent idling causes unnecessary wear to the engine components and reduces overall efficiency. Newer bikes such as TVS Radeon come equipped with advanced technologies like TVS Intelligo, which shuts off the engine in stop-go traffic, improving the TVS Radeon BS6 mileage per liter fuel.
Rising fuel costs are causing concern for many vehicle owners. While the fuel costs are not in our hands, maintaining the bike’s mileage sure is.