the title to this post is a variation of a very memorable quote from an, in my opinion, underrated movie, Last Action Hero.

If you compare the advertised gas mileage ratings of the Yamaha FZ1 and any of the Harley-Davidsons the Yamaha comes off as being a gas hog and an ozone killer.

At first I thought this was purely due to the engineering of the engine. And my first few gas tanks veryfied that my average gas mileage was roughly what was advertised. I was averaging a little over 36 mpg (advertised is 35 mpg).

My ’06 Sportster averaged just under 50 mpg which gave me a great extra argument for owning and using a motorcycle instead of driving my very fuel efficient ’06 Honda Civic, which averages around 33 mpg.

As a side note, I once tested the fuel economy of my Civic by driving very conservatively and it was mostly on the highway. After one week, I averaged over 42 mpg. That’s as good as a hybrid does on the highway. As a bit of advice, if you are going to be driving primarily on the highway don’t bother paying extra for a hybrid vehicle.

The point of this post is that I went for a long (106 mile) ride with my father-in-law on Halloween. He rides a Low-Rider and likes to “meander” through back roads. It was a pleasant ride. Our average speed was around 35 mph and my average gear was 6. At that speed in that gear the revs are humming around 4K. I do not know what my exact mileage was for those 100+ miles however, I can estimate that I got around 43+ mpg. Wouldn’t you know that it is what my father-in-law got on his Dyna.

It became apparent to me that mpg depends largely on your riding style. If you ride a Yamaha FZ1 like a Harley, you get Harley mpg. If you ride it like it wants to be ridden, you get 35 mpg. And while riding an FZ1 like a Harley is pleasant it can only be done for a while before it yearns to be opened up.

The moral of the story is: MPG is what you make of it.