Motorcycle Mileage Math and Science - 2014 Softail Deluxe CVO Spedometer/Odomoeter vs. Garmin Zumo GPS
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My motorcycle is the 2014 Softail Deluxe Screaming Eagle edition in the two-tone red color scheme. One of the features this bike has is a windshield mounted Garmin Zumo 660. I don’t usually play with the device but I’ve been trying to get used to some features.
A few features I played with helped me figure out some things that made sense to me, specifically the management of the trip logs, and figuring out what the difference was between the GPS measured mile vs. the actual speedometer on my bike. |
The bike has a 5 gallon tank, which advertises a 42 MPG distance rating with a laden weight of 185 pounds. I have gone between 38-48 MPGs, and I’m heavier than 185. Distance is really a balance between how you throttle, your overall weight, and the amount of stop-and-go you do.
Now, I made a few command decisions. First, I wanted tom make sure that my trip log was cleared out from the GPS, and I started with a fresh set of logs. I used the device’s My Data settings to clear out those logs, so I can track where I’ve been from the start of the trip. After all, this is the best and cleanest way to track where you’ve been, but the data stays on the device. You’re only indication of being on a road before is a cyan-blue line on the map being presented while it is on.
Second, I wanted to use the fuel feature. Since this was the start of the season, I just figured to set up an alert for fuel on the GPS based on a 40 MPG rating. What I decided to do was to use a 4 gallon cut-off, and setup my GPS to show the maximum fuel range as 160 miles (4 Gallons X 40 MPG), and to send a warning when I only had 1 gallon away from hitting the 160 mile mark (40 miles) That meant my alert would come on the GPS when I hit 120 miles.
Now, I never used this feature, and I wanted to see how it would behave. After every fill up, I reset trip odometer “B” to 0 miles, and used the GPS setting to reset the fuel level, all before starting the bike up. Now, I did not follow those rules all the time, and yet I noticed a pattern that was awesome. Before I realized that pattern, I remembered looking down at the GPS, noticing a red circle with a fuel indicator. Clicking it searched for nearby gas stations on the route I was taking. Neat feature!
I remember then looking at my trip odometer, and the setting showed 125.2 miles. I thought that was interesting, but I wasn’t sure about the timing of it all. The under-pinning comment I need to make is that a few years back, I was given a bit of a lecture from someone about how the speedometers were calibrated. My low fuel light comes on, and after I think I’ve run the tank bone-dry, I can only get 4.3 gallons of gas in it. This is to make sure you REALLY DON’T RUN OUT OF GAS. That in turn causes the speedometer to report a little bit more mileage than what you ACTUALLY RODE.
I get it. It’s not an error, it’s in the design of the bike. Needless to say, 1000 miles isn’t really 1000 actual miles, it is a bit less. That said, this was something I always wanted to know. My efforts in this systematic approach to track my fuel, mileage, and route, was the key to getting the MPG figures dead-on, and determine the margin of error on the odometer reading on the bike.
I can’t remember when the first time this happened, but I noticed the GPS did not have the fuel alert, and my trip odometer was at 124.7 miles. I though “Ok, I should make a point to keep the GPS in my straight line of sight.” Overall, I warned to glance at my bike’s mileage reading immediately when the GPS had the alert come on screen. As it turned out, the GPS flashed a large gray box when the alert was tripped. I glanced at the bike, and the trip odometer read 125.0 miles – dead on. I noticed this happened about 5 more times throughout the trip, and the result was the same… The GPS has the initial alert, and the bike’s trip odometer was at 125 miles even.
So given that, the difference between the GPS and the odometer was 5 miles every 125 miles recorded. In percentages, the difference was 4.1667% between the GPS unit’s measurement and the trip odometer of my bike.
Ultimately, I made decisions to stop in different cities, and on the last day, after getting hit with poor weather conditions into the late part of my 4 day journey, I wanted to get home. That said, the numbers looked so close, I just wanted to cross that 2000 mile threshold. So, to make sure I did that, I had to ensure that my trip odometer “A” (which I hit before moving on day 1), knowing about this error in the bike, was considered.
With the final trip odometer "A" mileage reading at 2098.6, and with my understanding of the margin of error with the speedometer/odometer, I know I traveled a hair over 2014.65 miles... finally documenting a 2000+ mile trip in 5 days. So I consider myself a true motorcycling road warrior. Although, it does help to have enough hotel points to stay in various hotel properties instead of considering laying my head down in a tent.
Now, I made a few command decisions. First, I wanted tom make sure that my trip log was cleared out from the GPS, and I started with a fresh set of logs. I used the device’s My Data settings to clear out those logs, so I can track where I’ve been from the start of the trip. After all, this is the best and cleanest way to track where you’ve been, but the data stays on the device. You’re only indication of being on a road before is a cyan-blue line on the map being presented while it is on.
Second, I wanted to use the fuel feature. Since this was the start of the season, I just figured to set up an alert for fuel on the GPS based on a 40 MPG rating. What I decided to do was to use a 4 gallon cut-off, and setup my GPS to show the maximum fuel range as 160 miles (4 Gallons X 40 MPG), and to send a warning when I only had 1 gallon away from hitting the 160 mile mark (40 miles) That meant my alert would come on the GPS when I hit 120 miles.
Now, I never used this feature, and I wanted to see how it would behave. After every fill up, I reset trip odometer “B” to 0 miles, and used the GPS setting to reset the fuel level, all before starting the bike up. Now, I did not follow those rules all the time, and yet I noticed a pattern that was awesome. Before I realized that pattern, I remembered looking down at the GPS, noticing a red circle with a fuel indicator. Clicking it searched for nearby gas stations on the route I was taking. Neat feature!
I remember then looking at my trip odometer, and the setting showed 125.2 miles. I thought that was interesting, but I wasn’t sure about the timing of it all. The under-pinning comment I need to make is that a few years back, I was given a bit of a lecture from someone about how the speedometers were calibrated. My low fuel light comes on, and after I think I’ve run the tank bone-dry, I can only get 4.3 gallons of gas in it. This is to make sure you REALLY DON’T RUN OUT OF GAS. That in turn causes the speedometer to report a little bit more mileage than what you ACTUALLY RODE.
I get it. It’s not an error, it’s in the design of the bike. Needless to say, 1000 miles isn’t really 1000 actual miles, it is a bit less. That said, this was something I always wanted to know. My efforts in this systematic approach to track my fuel, mileage, and route, was the key to getting the MPG figures dead-on, and determine the margin of error on the odometer reading on the bike.
I can’t remember when the first time this happened, but I noticed the GPS did not have the fuel alert, and my trip odometer was at 124.7 miles. I though “Ok, I should make a point to keep the GPS in my straight line of sight.” Overall, I warned to glance at my bike’s mileage reading immediately when the GPS had the alert come on screen. As it turned out, the GPS flashed a large gray box when the alert was tripped. I glanced at the bike, and the trip odometer read 125.0 miles – dead on. I noticed this happened about 5 more times throughout the trip, and the result was the same… The GPS has the initial alert, and the bike’s trip odometer was at 125 miles even.
So given that, the difference between the GPS and the odometer was 5 miles every 125 miles recorded. In percentages, the difference was 4.1667% between the GPS unit’s measurement and the trip odometer of my bike.
Ultimately, I made decisions to stop in different cities, and on the last day, after getting hit with poor weather conditions into the late part of my 4 day journey, I wanted to get home. That said, the numbers looked so close, I just wanted to cross that 2000 mile threshold. So, to make sure I did that, I had to ensure that my trip odometer “A” (which I hit before moving on day 1), knowing about this error in the bike, was considered.
With the final trip odometer "A" mileage reading at 2098.6, and with my understanding of the margin of error with the speedometer/odometer, I know I traveled a hair over 2014.65 miles... finally documenting a 2000+ mile trip in 5 days. So I consider myself a true motorcycling road warrior. Although, it does help to have enough hotel points to stay in various hotel properties instead of considering laying my head down in a tent.
