Male Speaker: Ok, Episode 3. Today I want to talk about the Seat Height and the Gas Mileage. One of the things I was trying -- concern about when I bought the motorcycle was whether or not l can get my feet firmly on the ground because of the seat height. I am 5 foot 7, my Inseam shoes are always about 28 1/2 inches, and I know the seat height is listed as about 32 inches. So, it's sounds like I am in big trouble when it comes to getting my feet on the ground.
I was so concerned about it and I was shopping for boots with thick heels, but it turns out that I didn't need to be that concerned about it. At 5 foot 7 with 28 1/2 inch in seat I can get my feet comfortably on the ground, that I don't need any special heel. I cannot put both feet flat on the ground, and I will demonstrate that in just a moment.
Ok, what's the seat height in the real world, now I am going to measure it. I already did this once and I was told that the actual seat height is around 31 1/4 inches, again you will be able to see that for yourself. It's leveled right now, and you can read the seat height of the boot should be 31 1/4 there about.
And here's the width of the seat which is about 12 1/2 inches. Now I will show myself on it and you will see how I can get my feet on the ground or how closely I can get them to be in flat on the ground. Ok, now I am going to get on and show you how I size up, with a 28 1/2 inch Inseam on the 2002 Kawasaki Concours.
Right foot all the way flat and it's like I can't touch the ground with my other foot. Left foot all the way flat, and I can just touch my tip toe to the ground, my left foot flat. Both feet on the ground, both feet are about equally on the ground right now. You should be able to see how high my feet is always up and off of the ground, that's the best I can do with 28 1/2 inch in heels.
Ok, now for a better view, I hope, right now I have both feet equally planted, so that says with both feet equally planted, my heel is that far off the ground. My other foot flat on the ground, I can just touch my toe tip, that's the best I can do with my 28 1/2 inch heels, but I found that, that is enough. Because even when I am like this I have enough traction from the balls of my feet and this good motorcycle -- it works fine for me. I am not disconcerted by the lack of traction, it works fine for me. But imagine you wouldn't want to have a much shorter Inseam for this motorcycle.
Ok, for the final topic today I wanted to talk about the gas tank and gas mileage. The first generation Concours has a 7 1/2 gallon tank, that's pretty big, I don't think there is a bigger tank on another production motor-cycle, might be wrong. But it also has a fuel gauge, right there to the left of the Speedometer. But the important thing to note is that, that gauge reads empty, not when the tank is empty, but when it hits Reserve. And by my estimation, the Reserve is around 3 1/2 gallons, I am not sure exactly what it is but it seems like that's about what it is, which means that your tank -- when my fuel gauge reads empty, I still have over 3 gallons of gas in my tank. And I took a long trip on this motor-cycle, 600 miles round trip and I was very careful to measure the gas mileage. When I filled it up before leaving, I put it on a center stand and filled the tank to within a 1/4 inch of the rim and I did that each time I filled up. So, I am quite certain I got a very good measure of the gas mileage and it turned out to be right on 50 miles per gallon, which is much better than I expected. And I am certain that it's a good measurement also because the total trip distance as measured by Google maps is right on target with the actual mileage on my Odometer, so I think I am good.
Now I was aiming for maximum gas mileage when I took the trip which means that I was not gunning the motor, I was very gentle on the throttle for the whole trip but I got 50 miles per gallon, that makes me very happy and on the trip home, I ran on the reserve for well over a 100 miles, so I think it's good, those are good numbers.
However it is a little weird to have your gauge reading empty and you still have 150 miles of travel left on the motor-cycle. One other note too is that there are dual Trip Odometers, the one on the Speedometer measures in miles and tenths of the mile, and the one on the tack reads in miles only.
Wellm I got it backwards when I originally recorded the video. I always have difficulty to remember in which way to turn the petcock. It seems like you should turn the petcock forward to put it on reserve, as if the handle was indicating that you can continue going forward, but that's not the way it works. You flip the handle so that it points towards the front tire to set it to the prime position, and you leave it there for a few seconds, then you flip it 180 degrees to the reserve position to set it to the reserve tank, you can then continue on.
I need to know that according to the Kawasaki manual, in the reserve tank there is only 1.72 US gallons which equals 6.5L. I can tell you from experience though that when that gas gauge needle reads dead empty, you have over 100 miles of travel left, at least on my bike that's the way it works. I think the manual is indicating how much gas is left in the Reserve tank, when the motor-cycle begins to buck because it's running on vapors. Alright, I don't feel comfortable waiting that long to switch to the reserve tank especially when I am looking at a gas gauge needle that says I am on empty, and in my experience when I switch to the reserve tank, I still have over 100 miles left to go.
1
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services