I keep track of the fuel consumption of most my vehicles. It’s a habit that I inherited from my dad, and it’s a habit that’s reinforced by a life in IT. Fuel consumption stats give you some insight in how your motor is running, how much a vehicle costs per kilometer, what the impact of fuel types and prices is on range, etc. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I also track my Honda VTR 1000 SP2 fuel consumption. Initially I jotted everything down in an Excel sheet (together with maintenance costs). That’s a bit 90’s style though; and I’ve recently exported everything into Spritmonitor.de. It’s a German website that I stumbled onto recently while researching real-world fuel consumption for a future new car. Compared to the manufacturer fuel specs, SpritMonitor offers much more realistic fuel consumption statistics.
Ever looked for a recipe for a dish online? It’s usually 4 pages of useless blabber and then, after much scrolling, 4 lines of recipe. Lets not do that with this post! Here’s my Honda VTR 1000 SP2 fuel consumption stats on SpritMonitor.
Honda VTR 1000 SP2 fuel consumption summary
So what can I tell you from 11 years of experience on that bike?
- It’s a 1 liter, twin cylinder sport bike. If you’re looking for fuel efficiency, look elsewhere. However, it’s an absolute winner in “smiles per liter of fuel”! I average about 1:16-1:17 with normal driving on a varied type of roads (mostly country roads).
- You CAN drive economically with a Honda VTR 1000 SP2. I have been able to squeeze roughly 210km out of 10 liters of fuel, for a 1:21 or 61/62 MPG fuel average. That was on a Swiss highway though; tired after 3000km of roads in the Alps, wary of speed cameras, with sore knees. 6th gear, 120kmph on the speedo, waiting until we reached the Autobahn…
- If you start using the bike for what it’s made for (track days), it can get thirsty. Expect an 1:11 or 34MPG average. And I’m a novice track day rider, so I don’t spend so much time on the gas as the pros!
- It now has a set of titanium Arrow exhausts, which does absolutely nothing in terms of fuel consumption (up nor down).
I’ve mostly run the bike on EURO95 / 95 Octane petrol. I haven’t seen a remarkably improved fuel consumption with 98+ Octane fuel: the differences are small (less than half a km extra per liter) and most likely influenced by my driving style. The newly introduced E5 and E10 fuels have bioethanol in the mixture, which isn’t as stable when stored for extended periods of time. So I now make sure that I fuel up with EURO98 before winter sets in, and add a little bit of fuel stabilizer. So far, the bike hasn’t failed me yet when starting up again in spring.
